NIH Biosketch Example: A Complete Annotated Sample

A biosketch is the one document in an NIH application where strong scientists routinely underperform, because it looks like a CV and is not one. This page gives a complete NIH biosketch example with annotations explaining what each section is being read for.

The example is a fictional early-stage investigator applying as PI on an R01.

The worked example

NAME: Okonkwo, Adaeze N. eRA COMMONS USER NAME: aokonkwo POSITION TITLE: Assistant Professor of Pharmacology

A. Personal Statement

I am applying as Principal Investigator on this project, which tests whether peripheral blood transporter expression predicts early metformin non-response. My laboratory works at the intersection of drug transporter biology and clinical pharmacogenomics, and I have spent nine years characterizing organic cation transporter variation in hepatic tissue. This application requires three capabilities: mechanistic transporter work in primary hepatocytes, prospective clinical cohort design, and translation of a laboratory assay to a deployable format. I have led published work in the first two and have assembled collaborators with established records in the third.

My contribution to the preliminary data was direct: I designed the retrospective cohort analysis, supervised the expression profiling, and led the modeling that produced the three-gene signature this application proposes to validate. I have maintained the clinical partnership with Meridian Health since 2022, which is the source of the prospective cohort described in Aim 1.

Between 2020 and 2021 my research output was reduced while I served as primary caregiver during a family illness. Publications resumed in 2022 and my laboratory has produced eleven peer-reviewed papers since.

1. Okonkwo AN, Bailey RT, Fenwick S. Hepatic OCT1 expression predicts metformin pharmacokinetics in a stratified cohort. J Clin Pharmacol. 2024;64(3):301-312.
2. Okonkwo AN, Vargas D. A three-gene peripheral signature for early metformin response. Pharmacogenomics J. 2025;25(1):44-56.
3. Vargas D, Okonkwo AN, Lin H. Primary hepatocyte models of transporter-mediated uptake. Drug Metab Dispos. 2023;51(8):1102-1114.

B. Positions, Scientific Appointments, and Honors

Positions and Employment 2022 to present, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Westbrook University School of Medicine 2019 to 2022 Instructor, Department of Pharmacology, Westbrook University 2016 to 2019 Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of C. Reyes, Nordham Institute

Other Experience and Professional Memberships 2023 to present, Member, ASCPT Pharmacogenomics Network 2024 to present, Ad hoc reviewer, Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Honors 2025 Early Career Investigator Award, American Society for Clinical Pharmacology 2018 NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Individual Fellowship (F32)

C. Contributions to Science

1. Establishing hepatic transporter variation as a determinant of metformin response. When I began this work, variation in metformin response was attributed largely to renal clearance and adherence. My group showed in a stratified cohort that hepatic OCT1 expression accounts for a substantial share of the variance in metformin pharmacokinetics independent of renal function. This reframed non-response as partly a hepatic uptake problem and has since been incorporated into two clinical pharmacogenomics guidelines. I designed the study and led the analysis. Citations: 1, 3, and Okonkwo AN et al., Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2023;113(4):788-799.

2. Translating transporter biology into a measurable peripheral signature. The clinical obstacle to using transporter status is that hepatic tissue is not obtainable in routine care. My laboratory identified a peripheral blood expression signature that tracks hepatic transporter status closely enough to be predictive, which converts an inaccessible measurement into a blood draw. This work is the direct basis for the present application. Citations: 2, and Vargas D, Okonkwo AN. Pharmacogenomics J. 2024;24(2):133-141.

3. Methods for primary hepatocyte uptake assays at scale. Existing uptake protocols were low-throughput and poorly reproducible across donors. We developed and validated a protocol that reduces inter-donor variability and is now used by four other laboratories. My role was protocol design and validation. Citations: 3, and two protocol papers.

D. Scholastic Performance

Not applicable for this application.

What the personal statement is doing

It names the role in the first sentence. "I am applying as Principal Investigator on this project, which tests whether…" A reviewer reading twelve biosketches needs to know who this person is on this application before anything else.

It maps the application's requirements to the applicant's record. The statement identifies three capabilities the project needs, then states which the applicant has personally led and which are covered by collaborators. That structure is more persuasive than a summary of accomplishments, because it answers the question the reviewer is actually asking: is this team able to do this specific work?

It establishes personal contribution to the preliminary data. Reviewers want to know whether the applicant generated the foundation or inherited it. One specific sentence settles it.

It handles the gap directly. Two sentences, factual, no apology, followed by evidence of recovery. NIH explicitly permits this, and an unexplained two-year gap is worse than an explained one because the reviewer supplies their own reason.

It is tailored and could not be reused. This is the test. If your personal statement would work unchanged on a different application, it is not doing its job, and experienced reviewers spot recycled statements immediately.

What contributions to science are, and are not

Section C is where most biosketches quietly fail. The failure looks like this:

1. Metformin pharmacogenomics. We published several papers on OCT1 and metformin response, including a 2024 paper in J Clin Pharmacol showing OCT1 expression correlates with pharmacokinetics.

That is a publication list with a heading. Compare the annotated version above, which follows a four-move structure:

1. What was believed before. "Variation was attributed largely to renal clearance and adherence."
2. What you found. "Hepatic OCT1 expression accounts for a substantial share of the variance."
3. Why it mattered. "This reframed non-response as partly a hepatic uptake problem."
4. What changed. "Incorporated into two clinical pharmacogenomics guidelines."

Plus one sentence on your own role, which matters increasingly as authorship lists grow.

Four contributions is the maximum, and fewer is usually better. Three strong narratives outperform four where the last is padding. Cite up to four publications per contribution, and make sure each citation actually supports the claim rather than being your most prestigious paper.

Formatting rules worth checking

• Five pages maximum for the whole biosketch.
• Use the current NIH-approved format page. The format is revised periodically and an outdated template can trigger a compliance error. Take it from the current NIH forms package rather than from a colleague's old application.
• Do not include a full bibliography. Cite selectively; a link to My Bibliography is permitted where the format page provides for it.
• Every senior/key person needs one, and each should be tailored to their role. A co-investigator's personal statement should say what they are contributing, not repeat the PI's.

How the biosketch relates to the rest of the application

The biosketch and the specific aims page are read together, and they should tell one story. If the aims page proposes a mechanistic hepatocyte study, the biosketch should make it obvious that someone on the team does that work well. Where a capability is missing from your own record, name the collaborator who supplies it; reviewers are far more forgiving of a gap that is acknowledged and covered than one they discover themselves.

To draft against a scaffold, use our NIH biosketch template. For the wider application, see NIH grants and how to write specific aims.