Biden to nominate National Cancer Institute director for top NIH post
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President Joe Biden plans to nominate NCI Director Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO, to serve as director of the NIH, according to published reports.
Bertagnolli — a surgical oncologist who took the helm of NCI in October — would fill the role vacated in December 2021 by longtime NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD.
“In her 7-month tenure as National Cancer Institute director, Dr. Bertagnolli quickly demonstrated her strategic and comprehensive approach to accelerating progress in cancer prevention, detection and treatment,” Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD, CEO of American Cancer Society and its Cancer Action Network, said in a press release applauding the nomination. “Among her accomplishments in the last half year, Dr. Bertagnolli released a robust National Cancer Plan, laying out an inspired roadmap to advance the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, to end cancer as we know it.”
Before her role at NCI, Bertagnolli served as Richard E. Wilson professor of surgery in the field of surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School. She also served as a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and as a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer and Sarcoma Disease Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“I never set out to become NCI director — that was the last thing on my mind,” Bertagnolli told Healio last year. “What always has been on my mind is that we have to do better for our patients with this disease, and any role I can take that will help me do that, I’m going to take.”
If the Senate confirms her nomination, Bertagnolli would bring “a strong track record of transforming organizations and firsthand knowledge of the patient perspective” to the role of NIH chief, Knudsen said.
“Dr. Bertagnolli understands not only the importance of advancing discovery but the criticality of ensuring that innovation is accessible to all,” Knudsen said in the press release. “A fierce advocate for addressing health care disparities, particularly in underserved and rural communities, she played a key role in helping to advance the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s work on Medicaid expansion.”
The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and several other media outlets late Wednesday reported Bertagnolli’s likely nomination as NIH director.
Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD, has been performing the duties of NIH director since Collins’ departure.
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