In the past, there was a separation of the kind of research NSF would fund from the biomedical research that NIH funds. NSF was emphatic that it would not fund any research related to disease processes. However, as fields such as biomedical engineering and biophysics have crossed disciplinary lines between physical science and biomedical research, NSF's position has shifted. There are now several NSF programs that, at least in part, fund health or biomedically related research. Examples include:

• The Service Enterprise Systems (SES) program in the Engineering Directorate now has a particular focus on healthcare and similar public service institutions and emphasizes research topics for more effective systems modeling and analysis. For more info, visit here.
• The Nano and Bio Mechanics (NBM) program supports research on the mechanical properties and behavior of biological materials and structures, including cells, tissue, muscles, bones, and prosthetic implants. For more info, visit here,
• The Biotechnology, Biochemical, and Biomass Engineering (BBBE) program deals with fundamental problems involved in the processing and manufacturing of products of economic importance by effectively utilizing renewable resources of biological origin and bioinformatics originating from genomic and proteomic information, and includes subjects such as cell culture technology, metabolic engieering and tissue engineering. For more info, visit here.
• The Biomedical Engineering and Engineering Healthcare cluster funds projects that "integrate engineering and life science principles in solving biomedical problems that serve humanity," including the design of structures and materials for eventual medical use. For more info, visit here.
• Not biomedical, but illustrative of the collaboration of disciplinary lines between biology and the physical sciences, the relatively new Physics of Living Systems program in the Physics Division funds research exploring fundamental biological processes at the molecular level. For more info, visit here.