Monday, September 29, 2025<\/p>\n
Anthony Letai, MD, Ph.D., was sworn in today as director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.<\/p>\n
Dr. Letai takes the helm of the world\u2019s most prestigious cancer research agency after serving as professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He possesses decades of experience studying cell death in cancer, developing treatments, and identifying predictive biomarkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cCancer, like other chronic diseases, was long neglected in federal research attention,\u201d said Secretary Kennedy. \u201cPresident Trump reversed that neglect, and Dr. Letai\u2019s leadership of NCI will drive American innovation by focusing squarely on the best science to find causes and cures.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Letai has been immersed in the relevant science for decades and has been on the cutting edge of how we think about cancer treatment,\u201d said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. \u201cHis drive, integrity, and expertise make him the right leader to harness the resources and talent at NCI to reverse America\u2019s cancer crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a great honor to join Secretary Kennedy and Director Bhattacharya at this watershed moment for our nation\u2019s public health,\u201d said Dr. Letai. \u201cWe will work around the clock to identify cancer\u2019s root causes, predictive biomarkers, and most effective treatments. Advances in understanding cell death and replication are essential to realizing President Trump\u2019s vision for a healthy America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Letai\u2019s research has been central to bringing venetoclax, a BCL-2 inhibitor, from the laboratory to the clinic. His laboratory work has led to advancements in knowledge of both liquid and solid tumors, as well as a wide range of treatments, including cellular immunotherapies. Dr. Letai is a recipient of the European Cell Death Organization Career Award, the Smith Family Prize for Outstanding Scientific Contributions, and the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in physics, Dr. Letai received his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He completed his Ph.D. on the molecular basis of heritable blistering diseases before residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and a clinical fellowship in hematology and oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Letai began his studies of programmed cell death in cancer in a post-doctoral fellowship before establishing his laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to study how apoptosis can be evaded by cancer cells.<\/p>\n
Dr. Letai and his wife, Jean, have three children. Their daughter Julie represented Team USA in speedskating at the 2022 Winter Olympics and is a member of U.S. Speedskating\u2019s Short Track World Tour Team as it prepares for the 2026 Games in Milan.<\/p>\n
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n NIH\u2026Turning Discovery Into Health\u00ae<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday, September 29, 2025 Anthony Letai, MD, Ph.D., was sworn in today as director of the National Cancer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,16457,111847,111846,37177],"class_list":["post-192115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-director","tag-dr-anthony-letai","tag-nci","tag-nih"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}