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Dr. Toby T. Hecht has led the Translational Research Program (TRP), the home of the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence, or SPOREs, since 2008. She has worked in three NIH Institutes–NIDCR, NIAID, and the NCI–for over 45 years. Thirty-seven of those years were spent in NCI Extramural Program activities including biological agent development for the benefit of cancer patients. She has guided several projects from conception to testing in the clinic to approval and licensing. She was the Project Manager for the early stages of cetuximab (2004 approval) and dinutuximab (2015 approval) development, therapies that are widely used for certain EGFR mutant tumors and GD2-bearing tumors, respectively. During her tenure as the SPORE Director, the program grew in budget and scope beyond traditional organ site projects and has been accepting and awarding grant applications in thematic areas, such as cancer health disparities, epigenetics, radiation sensitization, and cancers that rely on similar signaling pathway alterations. She has been overseeing the development and approval of a new RFA for SPOREs in cancer health disparities. In addition, in 2015 she became the Deputy Director of DCTD.

During the ten years of working across DCTD programs, Dr. Hecht instituted a network of canine cancer clinical trials as a model for human immunotherapy and established an Integrated Canine Data Commons (ICDC) as a functional node in the NCI Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC) so that investigators can use comparative oncology data and analytical tools to gain better insight into the biology and treatment of human disease. She initiated a collaboration across DCTD Programs to establish the Glioblastoma Therapeutics Network (GTN), which develops novel therapeutics and combinations of drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier and tests them in early-phase clinical trials. Most recently, she led the trans-NCI initiative of grant supplements to encourage research in uterine serous cancer, a disease that is increasing in incidence and mortality in U.S. women. She is a member of the NCI Senior Leadership.

Education:

  • Cornell University, B.S. Ithaca, NY
  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Ph.D. New York, NY
  • Yale University, Post-doctoral fellowship, New Haven, CT

Publications:

  • Reviewed:
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