The biomedical sciences encompass study areas relevant to the understanding of health and treatment of disease. Biomedical research receives, both nationally and internationally, around half the total research dollars available to all of science. This high representation underscores the relevance of basic biomedical research to health care and the natural curiosity shared by all humans about understanding the mechanisms of our own bodies. Breakthroughs in understanding human disease or its control (vaccines for polio, measles, influenza, antibiotics, cancer genetics) have been, and continue to be, dependent on fundamental research into biological mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level.