A cancer surgeon and patient is Biden’s choice to lead NIH
WASHINGTON — President Biden will announce Monday that he will nominate Dr. Monica M. Bertagnollia cancer surgeon who became director of the National Cancer Institute in October, to become the next director of the National Institutes of Health, filling a position that has been vacant for more than a year.
Dr. Bertagnolli is also a cancer patient. She announced late last year that she had hair received a diagnosis of early breast cancer.
In a statement shared by the White House, Mr. Biden called her a “world-class physician-scientist” who had “spent her career to pioneering scientific discoveries and pushing the boundaries of what is possible to prevent and treat improve cancer for patients, and ensure patients in every community have access to quality care.”
Dr. Bertagnolli must be confirmed by the Senate. She is the first female director of the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. She would be only the second woman to lead the NIH on a permanent basis.
For Mr. Biden, cancer research is deeply personal. His oldest son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. Last year, the president set a goal of reducing cancer deaths by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years — part of an effort, he said. then to give the “supercharge”. cancer “moonshot” program he initiated and presided when he was vice president.
On Monday, Mr. Biden praised Dr. Bertagnolli for advancing that initiative and for her efforts to promote childhood cancer research and programs to expand access to cancer clinical trials.
The announcement of her nomination came as no surprise; a number of news organizations, including The New York Times, reported last month that the president intended to nominate Dr. Bertagnolli. It is not clear why there was a delay.
Fighting cancer is also personal to Dr. Bertagnolli. In mid-December, she announced her diagnosis and said she was “grateful to receive excellent care” at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she had worked as a surgical oncologist before taking over at the National Cancer Institute. Institute. .
She then said her prognosis was good and she had enrolled in a clinical trial. In a interview with NPR in February she said she was still undergoing treatment.
“I went in for my regular mammogram expecting it to come back negative like all the others and got a nasty surprise,” she said. “And now I know how it feels.” She added: “The first thing I asked my doctors was, is there anything available for me? And there was a study available to me, and I applied.”
Only one woman, Dr. Bernadine P. Healy, an appointee of President George HW Bush, has led the National Institutes of Health on a permanent basis. Dr. Ruth Kirschsteina longtime federal scientist and NIH administrator, served two stints as the agency’s acting director.
If confirmed, Dr. Bertagnolli Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, who has led the agency in an acting capacity since its last permanent director, Dr. Francis S. Collins, left office in December 2021. Dr. Collins, an appointee of President Barack Obama, held that position for more than 12 years.
As director of the NIH, Dr. Bertagnolli would lead one of the world’s premier research agencies, a collection of 27 institutes and centers focusing on cancer, infectious disease, heart and lung disease, mental health and substance abuse, among others. With an annual budget of more than $47 billion, the NIH funds research around the world.
Dr. A daughter of Italian and French Basque immigrants, Bertagnolli grew up on a farm in southwestern Wyoming, studied engineering as an undergraduate at Princeton University and received medical training at the University of Utah. Prior to joining the federal government, she was a professor of surgery specializing in surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School.