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The press release below was prepared by University of Utah Health. View the original.
Monica Bertagnolli, MD, former chair of Huntsman Cancer Institute’s external advisory board and a 1985 graduate of the University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, was nominated May 15th as the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.
If confirmed as NIH director by the U.S. Senate, she would oversee the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, which has a budget of more than $47 billion and is composed of 27 separate institutes and centers.
A cancer surgeon, Bertagnolli became the first female director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in October 2022. She was also the first woman to lead the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s surgical-oncology division in Boston. She would be the second female director of the NIH.
Prior to becoming director of the NCI, Bertagnolli served as chair of the Huntsman Cancer Institute’s external advisory board. In that position, she played a key role on advising Huntsman Cancer Institute on strategy for its cancer research efforts and particularly the institute’s enhanced commitment to the Mountain West.
“Dr. Bertagnolli has been closely connected to Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah for many years,” says Cornelia Ulrich, PhD, chief scientific officer and executive director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute. “As a member of our external advisory board she has provided invaluable insight on the needs of the rural and frontier populations in the Mountain West – the area that Huntsman Cancer Institute is dedicated to serve.”
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About Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) is the official cancer center of Utah and the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Mountain West. The institute is leading the world in scientific discovery, and turning it into unsurpassed cancer care, transforming hope into a reality. Huntsman Cancer Institute focuses on delivering a cancer-free frontier to Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming (The Area We Serve). Huntsman Cancer Institute is home to over 300 clinical trials, with over 237 research teams studying cancer at any given time and more genes for inherited cancers have been discovered at Huntsman Cancer Institute than at any other cancer center. Huntsman Cancer Institute’s scientists are world renown for understanding how cancer begins and using that knowledge to develop innovative approaches to treat each patient’s unique tumor. Huntsman Cancer Institute was founded by Jon M. and Karen Huntsman.