National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins delivered an upbeat assessment of what lies in store for the world’s largest supporter of biomedical research, projecting advances in battling genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease and the development of an atlas of human cells to expand knowledge about human tissues.

Dementia usually is considered a disease of the elderly, but Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia are detected in many who are younger than 65, and early diagnosis of the disorders can be elusive, a leading specialist on dementias told a recent Capitol Hill briefing hosted by AAAS.