Researchers are relieved at Trump’s likely pick for National Cancer Institute
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Researchers are relieved at Trump’s likely pick for National Cancer Institute
President Donald Trump is expected to tap Anthony Letai, a highly regarded Harvard Medical School oncologist and basic scientist, to lead the $7.2 billion National Cancer Institute (NCI), the largest cancer research funding agency in the world.
CNN and STAT reported yesterday that Letai, who is also at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is likely to be named director of NCI, the largest component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Earlier this week, a source close to the situation told Science the White House planned to make the announcement on 29 September. Cancer research leaders are welcoming the news of Letai’s expected appointment after worrying that Trump might go with a less conventional choice.
Letai has not held a major leadership position, but the leukemia researcher runs a large lab, funded by several NCI research grants, that studies a family of proteins called BCL-2, which help control apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Cancer cells often evade apoptosis to keep dividing, and some cancer treatments aim to switch it back on. Letai’s own work led to one such drug for leukemia, called venetoclax.
He is also interested in developing “functional assays,” or lab tests that examine how a sample of a person’s tumor cells responds to drugs to determine the best treatment for their cancer. He founded a nonprofit called the Society for Functional Precision Medicine to promote these tests.
Letai has no obvious affiliation with Trump or Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again movement. He “brings a strong basic science background, which is very important for NCI,” says Monica Bertagnolli, who led NCI for just over 1 year and NIH for 14 months until stepping down in January. “He also brings a valuable willingness to collaborate broadly,” which she sees as crucial to understanding how environmental and genetic factors drive cancer’s development long before tumors appear.
“He’s a good guy and highly respected,” says Norman “Ned” Sharpless, who was NCI director during the first Trump administration. “I’m really happy that a scientist of this quality is willing to take this on.”
Rockefeller University stem cell scientist Elaine Fuchs, who has known Letai since he was her first MD/Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, says he “brings to the job a brilliant mind, a passion for cancer research, terrific leadership skills, and a wonderful sense of humor.”
NCI has been without a director since January, when Kimryn Rathmell, who had held the position for just 13 months, stepped down on the day of Trump’s inauguration. NCI Principal Deputy Director Douglas Lowy has been serving as acting NCI director.
Like the rest of NIH, the cancer institute has been battered by staff cuts, funding delays, and grant and contract cancellations since Trump took office. In July, NCI announced that the portion of standard research grants funded was dropping from one in 10 to one in 25, the result of a Trump mandate to bundle payouts for many multiyear grants into a single lump sum this year and a proposed 2026 budget cut of 37% to NCI. Lawmakers in Congress, however, have passed bills that are likely to avert that cut.
NCI is the only one of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers whose director is appointed by the president, although the position does not require congressional approval. It is just one of 14 directorships currently or soon to be vacant, mostly because the Trump administration has removed several directors and others are retiring.
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