Monica Bertagnolli

Monica Bertagnolli (born 1959) is an American surgical oncologist and the 17th director of the National Institutes of Health. She previously served as the 16th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Prior to her governmental positions, she worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and was the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

She has advocated for inclusion of rural communities in clinical studies and served as Chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology until her appointment to lead the NCI. Bertagnolli specializes in the treatment of tumors from gastrointestinal diseases and soft tissue sarcomas. She is the former President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.

Early life and education

Bertagnolli grew up on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Her parents were first generation French Basque and Italian immigrants. She earned a BSE in biochemical engineering from Princeton University. She studied medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine and did her surgical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She became board certified in 1993.

Cancer research

In 1994, Bertagnolli began as an associate surgeon at the Strang Cancer Prevention Center and attending surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital–Cornell. She joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1999 and was appointed at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in 2000. Bertagnolli specializes in the treatment of tumors from gastrointestinal diseases and is an expert in treating soft-tissue sarcoma. She became the Chief of Surgical Oncology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in 2007, and was the first woman to hold such a position. Bertagnolli's laboratory at the Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center studies the role of Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) mutations in colorectal carcinogenesis through animal studies and human clinical trials.

Her publications include:

• Molecular origins of cancer: Molecular basis of colorectal cancer
• Cardiovascular risk associated with celecoxib in a clinical trial for colorectal adenoma prevention
• Dissecting the multicellular ecosystem of metastatic melanoma by single-cell RNA-seq

NIH director

In May 2023, President Biden nominated Bertagnolli to serve as the director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bertagnolli was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 7, 2023. She is the second woman director of the NIH.

Awards and honors

Bertagnolli's awards and honors include:

• 2011 Partners Healthcare Partners in Excellence Award
• 2015 Cancer Charles H. Sanders Life Sciences Award
• 2018 Appointed President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
• 2021 Elected to the National Academy of Medicine
• 2021 Appointed to the Board of Directors of American Cancer Society
• 2023 Recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily

Personal life

Bertagnolli is married and has two sons. After a routine mammogram, Bertagnolli received an early-stage breast cancer diagnosis in November 2022.