Biden to tap Har­vard sur­geon, clin­i­cal tri­als ex­pert as NCI di­rec­tor

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.

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