According to the article below, Pres. Biden is ready to name a new director of the National Cancer Institute. Very impressive resume - may not help our prospects, but certainly shouldn't hurt them.
Monica Bertagnolli, an eminent surgical oncologist and physician-scientist, is set to succeed Ned Sharpless as director of the National Cancer Institute.
Although the White House has yet to confirm the appointment, multiple cancer research organizations and patient advocacy groups applauded the choice, including ASCO, where Bertagnolli previously served as president. Currently a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and the chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Bertagnolli would be the first woman to lead the NCI.
As the Biden administration’s scientific leadership remains in flux, Bertagnolli would fill a key void left behind after Sharpless stepped down in April, capping a five-year tenure.
Douglas Lowy, principal deputy director, has been heading the agency on an acting basis.
Out of 27 institutes that form the NIH, NCI is the oldest and largest, commanding a budget of $7 billion to fund cancer research.
As a surgeon, Bertagnolli specializes in gastrointestinal tumors. In her lab, she studies a gene named APC (adenomatous polyposis coli), how its mutation or loss initiates tumor transformation and whether drugs that work on this pathway can treat colorectal cancer.
“An accomplished cancer surgeon and researcher with deep expertise in community-based cancer research, Dr. Bertagnolli has the knowledge, passion, and skillset to successfully lead the nation’s top federal cancer research agency and the wider U.S. cancer research enterprise,” reads a statement from ASCO CEO Clifford Hudis.
Among Bertagnolli’s numerous other roles are VP of Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups, a nonprofit aimed at raising awareness about clinical trials; chair of Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology; CEO of Alliance Foundation Trials; and member of the National Academy of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum.
Commending Bertagnolli’s reported appointment, the Association of American Cancer Institutes highlighted that she’s a “longtime advocate of increasing diversity in cancer research as it applies to physicians, researchers, and patients enrolled in clinical trials.”
During her ASCO tenure, she made “(c)aring for every patient, learning from every patient” her presidential theme and traveled with fellow leaders to underserved communities, hosting town halls to hear from patients, survivors and caregivers.
“Considerable work remains to give every patient the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, cancer clinical trials, but it is a task that all oncologists must embrace,” she wrote in a 2019 editorial in the Cancer Letter. “We owe it to our patients and our field to give everyone a chance to contribute to research that increases our understanding of and leads to better treatments for cancer.”
Sharpless similarly told STAT that Bertagnolli is a “terrific choice”:
"She’s a marvelous surgeon and national leader in cancer clinical trials. She’s just the right person to lead President Biden’s ‘Cancer Moonshot."
Having spelled out some ambitious scientific and biomedical projects, Biden is still scrambling to recruit experts who can manage them. There’s still no permanent director of ARPA-H, the new agency set up to fund high-risk, high-reward research. More than four months after Eric Lander resigned from the top science spot at the White House amid a harassment scandal, Biden recently nominated Arati Prabhakar, a renowned applied physicist, to head up the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has yet to name a successor to Francis Collins, the former NIH director called out of retirement to be acting OSTP director.
https://endpts.com/biden-to-tap-harvard-surge...or-report/
This link gives ASCO's endorsement:
https://www.asco.org/news-initiatives/policy-...esident-dr
Monica Bertagnolli, an eminent surgical oncologist and physician-scientist, is set to succeed Ned Sharpless as director of the National Cancer Institute.
Although the White House has yet to confirm the appointment, multiple cancer research organizations and patient advocacy groups applauded the choice, including ASCO, where Bertagnolli previously served as president. Currently a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and the chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Bertagnolli would be the first woman to lead the NCI.
As the Biden administration’s scientific leadership remains in flux, Bertagnolli would fill a key void left behind after Sharpless stepped down in April, capping a five-year tenure.
Douglas Lowy, principal deputy director, has been heading the agency on an acting basis.
Out of 27 institutes that form the NIH, NCI is the oldest and largest, commanding a budget of $7 billion to fund cancer research.
As a surgeon, Bertagnolli specializes in gastrointestinal tumors. In her lab, she studies a gene named APC (adenomatous polyposis coli), how its mutation or loss initiates tumor transformation and whether drugs that work on this pathway can treat colorectal cancer.
“An accomplished cancer surgeon and researcher with deep expertise in community-based cancer research, Dr. Bertagnolli has the knowledge, passion, and skillset to successfully lead the nation’s top federal cancer research agency and the wider U.S. cancer research enterprise,” reads a statement from ASCO CEO Clifford Hudis.
Among Bertagnolli’s numerous other roles are VP of Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups, a nonprofit aimed at raising awareness about clinical trials; chair of Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology; CEO of Alliance Foundation Trials; and member of the National Academy of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum.
Commending Bertagnolli’s reported appointment, the Association of American Cancer Institutes highlighted that she’s a “longtime advocate of increasing diversity in cancer research as it applies to physicians, researchers, and patients enrolled in clinical trials.”
During her ASCO tenure, she made “(c)aring for every patient, learning from every patient” her presidential theme and traveled with fellow leaders to underserved communities, hosting town halls to hear from patients, survivors and caregivers.
“Considerable work remains to give every patient the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, cancer clinical trials, but it is a task that all oncologists must embrace,” she wrote in a 2019 editorial in the Cancer Letter. “We owe it to our patients and our field to give everyone a chance to contribute to research that increases our understanding of and leads to better treatments for cancer.”
Sharpless similarly told STAT that Bertagnolli is a “terrific choice”:
"She’s a marvelous surgeon and national leader in cancer clinical trials. She’s just the right person to lead President Biden’s ‘Cancer Moonshot."
Having spelled out some ambitious scientific and biomedical projects, Biden is still scrambling to recruit experts who can manage them. There’s still no permanent director of ARPA-H, the new agency set up to fund high-risk, high-reward research. More than four months after Eric Lander resigned from the top science spot at the White House amid a harassment scandal, Biden recently nominated Arati Prabhakar, a renowned applied physicist, to head up the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has yet to name a successor to Francis Collins, the former NIH director called out of retirement to be acting OSTP director.
https://endpts.com/biden-to-tap-harvard-surge...or-report/
This link gives ASCO's endorsement:
https://www.asco.org/news-initiatives/policy-...esident-dr
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