Physician-scientist named to National Cancer Advisory Board

Northwestern Medicine professor Dr. Amy Heimberger was named by President Biden to the National Cancer Advisory Board, which plays an important role in guiding the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in setting the course for the national cancer research program. She is one of seven clinicians and researchers named to the prestigious board.

“It is an honor to be able to serve in this fashion,” Heimberger said.

“Amy Heimberger is an outstanding physician-scientist and one of the key leaders within the Lurie Cancer Center,” said Dr. Leon Platanias, director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. “Her selection to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board that advises the NCI director is a major and well-deserved honor. She will be a great advocate for translational cancer research in this important role.” 

Heimberger is the Jean Malnati Miller Professor of Neurological Surgery and vice-chair for research in neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She also is scientific director of The Malnati Brain Tumor Institute at the Lurie Cancer Center. 

Heimberger’s research focuses on immune therapeutic strategies for patients with central nervous system malignancies and studies tumor-mediated mechanisms of immune suppression. She has been involved in a wide variety of bench-to-bedside immune therapeutics, including those developed in her laboratory and arising from her own patents. She has expertise in the investigational new drug application process and has been the principal investigator of multiple clinical trials.