I Biographies
 Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
 Director, National Human Genome Research Institute
Senior Investigator, Genome Technology Branch
John E. Niederhuber, M.D.
Director
National Cancer Institute
Anna D. Barker, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships
National Cancer Institute
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Human Genome Research Institute
Senior Investigator, Genome Technology Branch
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his visionary leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP), is director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
As head of NHGRI, Dr. Collins has overseen the HGP, the multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, international effort to map and sequence all of the human DNA and then determine aspects of its function. Many consider this project to be the most significant scientific undertaking of our time. The ultimate goal is to improve human health.
Dr. Collins earned a B.S. in chemistry at the University of Virginia in 1970 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Yale University in 1974. Collins recognized that a revolution was on the horizon in molecular biology and genetics. He changed fields and enrolled in medical school at the University of North Carolina, where he earned an M.D. in 1977.
From 1978 to 1981, Dr. Collins served a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. He then returned to Yale, where he was named a Fellow in Human Genetics at the medical school from 1981 to1984. During that time, he developed innovative methods of crossing large stretches of DNA to identify disease genes.
After joining the University of Michigan in 1984 in a position that would eventually lead to a Professorship of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, Dr. Collins heightened his reputation as a relentless gene hunter. That gene-hunting approach, which he named "positional cloning," has developed into a powerful component of modern molecular genetics.
Tapped to take on the leadership of the HGP, Dr. Collins accepted an invitation in 1993 to become director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, which became NHGRI in 1997. As director, he oversees the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium and many other aspects of what he has called "an adventure that beats going to the moon or splitting the atom."
In 1994, Dr. Collins founded NHGRI's Division of Intramural Research (DIR), an intramural program of genome research that has developed into one of the nation's premier research centers in human genetics.
He has been a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance discrimination. Building on his own experiences as a physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in Nigeria, Dr. Collins is also very interested in opening avenues for genome research to benefit the health of people living in developing nations.
Dr. Collins' accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.
John E. Niederhuber, M.D.
Director
National Cancer Institute
John E. Niederhuber, M.D. became Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in September 2006. Prior to that, he had been the Institute’s Acting Director since June 2006, and he was also the Deputy Director for Translational and Clinical Sciences, National Cancer Institute. Before joining NCI, Dr. Niederhuber was the Wattawa Professor-Bascom in Cancer Research, Professor of Surgery and Oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. Dr. Niederhuber served the University of Wisconsin as the Director of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center from July 1997 until October 2002. He came to the University of Wisconsin in 1997 from Stanford University where he had served as Chair of the Department of Surgery. In June 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Dr. Niederhuber Chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board, a position he held until resigning to become the Deputy Director at NCI in 2005.
Dr. Niederhuber’s research at the NCI focuses on the study of tissue stem cells as the cell-of-origin for cancer. His lab is working to identify, characterize fully, and isolate this population of cells with the hypothesis that such cells might be the required therapeutic target. Under investigation are the conditions that would make it possible to grow cancer stem cells in culture, such as hypoxia. Post transcriptional profiles of stem cells compared to other tumor cells and cells of the tumor microenvironment are being used to determine differences and potential drugable targets in cancer stem cells. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) technology is being used to reduce or block candidate gene expression. Tyrosine kinases and other cellular pathways, such as Hedgehog, in subpopulations of cancer stem cells compared to non-stem cells, are used to further define unique targets. His lab is also studying the viral cancer vector HPV, to identify the binding site theorized to be a stem cell epithelial receptor.
The complex relationship between tumor cells and the microenvironment is another component of Dr. Niederhuber’s research program. Studies will focus on how normal stroma is changed during tumor progression with the goal of developing strategies to prevent the development of tumors based upon an understanding of the alterations in the microenvironment. He holds a clinical appointment on the NIH Clinical Center Medical Staff.
Dr. Niederhuber is a nationally recognized cancer surgeon with a special clinical emphasis in gastrointestinal cancer, hepatobiliary cancer, and breast cancer. He is recognized for his pioneering work in hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy and was the first to demonstrate the feasibility of totally implantable vascular access devices. The Blk-proto-oncogene was a novel discovery in Dr. Niederhuber’s laboratory while he was a member of the faculty at The Johns Hopkins Medical School and is of interest because of its unique expression in B-cells and its participation in both proliferative and apoptotic pathways during B-cell differentiation.
Dr. Niederhuber has been a member of the Society of Surgical Oncology since 1978 and served as SSO President (2001-02). He also served as President of the American Association of Cancer Institutes (AACI) (2001-03). Dr. Niederhuber was one of the founding members and served on the executive committee of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Cooperative Group.
He served as a member of the NCI Cancer Center’s Review Committee (1984-86) and the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment Board of Scientific Counselors (1986-1991). He was Chairman of the Board from 1987-1991. He was a member of the NCAB Subcommittee to Evaluate the National Cancer Program (Committee to Assess Measures of Progress Against Cancer), chairing the Molecular Medicine Panel (1993-95). Dr. Niederhuber has served on the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Kettering Prize Selection Committee (1988-89) and twice served on the GMCRF Awards Assembly (1988-92), (1998-02). He chaired the ASCO Surgical Oncology Task Force for the 2001-02 strategic planning process and the ASCO Public Policy and Practice Committee (2002-2003). He is a member of the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation Translational Research Advisory Committee (1999-06).
Dr. Niederhuber is a graduate of Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia and the Ohio State University School of Medicine. He was an NIH Academic Trainee in Surgery at the University of Michigan (1969-70) and a Visiting Fellow, Division of Immunology at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (1970-71). He completed his training in surgery at the University of Michigan in 1973. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Michigan from 1973 to 1987, being promoted to Professor of Microbiology/Immunology and Professor of Surgery in 1980. During 1986-87, he was Visiting Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Niederhuber joined the faculty at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1987 as Professor of Surgery, Oncology, and Molecular Biology and Genetics. In 1991, He was appointed Emile Holman Professor of Surgery, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Chair of the Department of Surgery, Stanford University. He left Stanford in 1997 to become the Director of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he has guided the consolidation of the University’s two distinguished NCI supported cancer centers.
Dr. Niederhuber was recipient of a U.S. Public Health Service Career Development Award from NIAID (1974-79). In 1978 he received the Distinguished Faculty Service Award from the University of Michigan. He has also been recognized with the Alumni Achievement Award from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1989 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in Medicine from Bethany College (1995). He was elected to Who’s Who in America in 1998 and Who’s Who in Medicine and Health Care (1997). In addition, he has received numerous honorary professorships and is currently serving on the editorial board of ten scientific journals. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (1993-95). He has authored and coauthored more than 180 publications and edited four books, including, with distinguished colleagues, the highly regarded reference text Clinical Oncology, which is currently in its third edition.
Anna D. Barker, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships
National Cancer Institute
Dr. Barker serves as the Deputy Director for Advanced Technologies and Strategic Partnerships of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this role she plans and coordinates the implementation of integrative, multi-disciplinary and multi-sector programs to accelerate the development and translation of new knowledge and advanced technologies into effective interventions to prevent, detect and treat cancer. Under her leadership, the NCI has recently launched programs in bioinformatics and nanotechnology and is currently developing initiatives in proteomics and biospecimens to enable cancer research. Dr. Barker completed her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, where she trained in immunology and microbiology. Her research interests include experimental therapeutics, tumor immunology, and free-radical biochemistry in cancer etiology, prevention and treatment.
Dr. Barker has a long history in research and the leadership and management of research and development, technology transfer and product commercialization in the non-profit and private sectors. Prior to entering the biotechnology sector, she was a senior executive at Battelle Memorial Institute for 18 years where she developed and led a large group of scientists and technical staff working in areas such as drug discovery and development, pharmacology and biotechnology, including several NCI sponsored research programs. In the private sector she co-founded and served as the CEO of a public biotechnology company, focused in therapeutics discovery and development; and subsequently founded and served as the CEO of a private company dedicated to the transfer and deployment of technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.
She is a member of the Steering Committee of C-Change and Chairperson of the C-Change Cancer Research Team. She is a member of the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program Integration Panel, and a past chairperson of the BCRP Integration Panel. Dr. Barker has served in several capacities for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), including the Board of Directors and chairperson of the Public Science Policy and Legislative Affairs Committee; and the NCI, including membership on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Division of Cancer Etiology and chairperson of the Cancer Center Support Review Study Section. Dr. Barker has received a number of awards for her contributions to research, cancer patients, professional and advocacy organizations and the ongoing national effort to prevent and cure cancer, including a named fellowship from the AACR.
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