Previously, Dr. Berg served as the first and only full-time medical director of the Suburban Hospital Cancer Program in Bethesda Md., where she coordinated the opening of a dedicated outpatient facility and developed the clinical research program. Before joining Suburban Hospital she served as chief of the Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Cancer Research Group, also in DCP. Dr. Berg also has served in leadership positions at the Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center.

von Eschenbach Updates NCAB
On Feb. 18, NCI Director Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach presented his director's update at the National Cancer Advisory Board meeting. Dr. von Eschenbach began his talk by describing four new deputy director positions established in the Office of the Director. These four deputies will have duties and responsibilities for overseeing NCI's initiatives that collectively span the discovery, development, and delivery continuum of the cancer research program. The new deputy directors will share executive responsibilities with Dr. von Eschenbach and interact with the NCI division directors on various strategic initiatives and other programmatic activities.

Dr. von Eschenbach also spoke about the launch of the NCI Cancer Bulletin and the redesign of cancer.gov, both important communication vehicles for the institute. He addressed issues regarding NCI's budget and funding of new strategic initiatives such as the cancer biomedical informatics grid (caBIG), and also gave updates on several meetings including the NCI intramural principal investigators retreat, the joint board retreat, and the upcoming cancer center directors' retreat. Dr. von Eschenbach also recognized the exemplary contributions to NCI and the National Cancer Program of several outgoing NCAB members: Mr. Stephen Duffy, Dr. Elmer Huerta, Dr. Susan Love, Dr. Larry Norton, and Dr. Amelie Ramirez.

NCI Launches caBIG
On Feb. 19, NCI launched the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG), an informatics infrastructure that will link the teams of cancer researchers and enable them to better share data and tools, according to agreed upon standards. Several hundred informatics experts and cancer researchers representing cancer centers, academia, government, and private industry met for the first time to discuss the design and implementation of this large-scale bioinformatics engineering project that has become a top NCI priority. Supervised and managed by NCI, caBIG is a voluntary and open source program that will eventually link individual researchers and institutions, effectively creating the World Wide Web of cancer research. caBIG has been designed and built in partnership with NCI-designated cancer centers to address common needs ranging from clinical trials management to tissue banks and pathology tools. caBIG promises to accelerate progress in all aspects of cancer research - from etiologic research to prevention, early detection, and treatment. For more information on caBIG, please visit http://caBIG.nci.nih.gov.

Aziz Honored for Advancing Survivorship Research
Dr. Noreen M. Aziz, program director, Office of Cancer Survivorship, NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, has received the Professor of Survivorship Award from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. This annual award is granted to leading researchers and educators whose work furthers the understanding of the complex issues related to surviving breast cancer. Awardees are appointed for a one-year period and receive a grant to advance their research work.

Dr. Aziz was recognized for initiating and promoting NCI's research priorities and efforts related to cancer survivorship and follow-up care. Recently, she coordinated a request for proposals for an initiative on the concerns of long-term survivors, many of whom are breast cancer survivors. Dr. Aziz has authored several peer-reviewed papers outlining cancer survivorship as a challenge and opportunity and has organized two international conferences on post-treatment follow-up care of cancer survivors. She currently oversees more than 60 ongoing research studies and also pursues her personal research on cancer survivorship issues and the prognostic role of weight gain on breast and other hormonally dependent cancers.