About the Office of the Director (OD)

DCTD OD Objectives

The OD centrally coordinates DCTD program activities including:

• Supporting drug discovery and development services, preclinical tumor model repositories, and translational research and clinical trials
• Implementing novel initiatives
• Communicating high-level messaging to the public
• Developing budgets for each DCTD programs
• Managing funding portfolios
• Ensuring the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) meets the terms of their DCTD contracts
• Providing research and non-research personnel to various programs
• Developing legal documentation for industry, interagency, and institutional collaboration 

Leadership 

DCTD Leadership provides executive oversight of DCTD’s programs, research, and funding.

Dr. James H. Doroshow, Division Director 
Dr. Toby T. Hecht, Deputy Division Director

Functional Operations

Administrative Support 
Dedicated staff provide administrative and coordination support for staff within the DCTD OD, including direct support to the Division Director and Deputy Division Director.

Contract and Scientific Management
Staff are responsible for the coordinated oversight and management of contracts and scientific activities across the division on behalf of DCTD leadership. 

DCTD Administrative Resource Center (ARC)
Staff from the NCI Office of Management are dedicated to supporting DCTD by guiding and implementing administrative services, including for budgets, procurement, personnel management, property accountability, facilities, travel, and other business management policies.

FNLCR Contract Management
Staff are responsible for the scientific and financial management of work conducted at the FNLCR in support of research initiatives throughout the Division. 

Legal Support 
Legal experts are responsible for development, management of intellectual property and cooperative agreements for research collaborations.

Research Operations

Medical Writing Support 
Research experts support the Developmental Therapeutics Clinic (DTC) via writing informed consent forms and protocols for clinical studies, monitoring studies from implementation to completion, and summarizing study results in journal publications.

Drug Discovery and Development Services Support 

• Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC) and the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program Staff ensure that successful NExT applicants progress along the drug discovery and development pipeline and meet project milestones
• Patient-Derived Models Repository Staff develop and test preclinical patient-derived tumor models to identify novel drug targets to support future clinical trials in human patients. 

Pharmacodynamic Assay 
Research experts at FNLCR are responsible for developing and validating pharmacodynamic biomarker assays for measuring drug-induced effects in pre-clinical models and clinical research to make the results accessible to the scientific community. 

Target Validation 
Research experts at FNLCR validate pharmacodynamic assays for integrated use in phase 0, I, and II clinical trials, including those conducted in the DTC, the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network, and the NCI National Clinical Trials Network.