John E. Niederhuber, M.D.
Executive Vice President and CEO, Inova
Translational Medicine Institute, (Retired)
Adjunct Professor of Oncology and Surgery
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Deputy Director, Johns Hopkins Clinical
Research Network
John E. Niederhuber, M.D., became a member of the Board of Directors of the International Biomedical Research Alliance in 2013. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Surgery and Oncology the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network. In 2019, Dr. Niederhiber retired from his position at the Inova Health System where he was Executive Vice President and CEO of the Inova Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI) (2010-2019). As founder and leader of the ITMI, he directed a program that integrated technical innovation, informatics and sophisticated genomic analyses with the goal of managing disease risk and delivering excellence in individualized (personalized) healthcare, research and education.
Dr. Niederhuber is the former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health having been named to that position in 2006 by President George W. Bush. Before assuming the NCI directorship, he chaired the National Cancer Advisory Board and was Chief Operating Officer of the Institute. During his tenure as NCI director, Dr. Niederhuber implemented many changes and despite successive years of less than inflation appropriations managed to initiate important new programs that helped shape the Nation’s investment in cancer research. While at NCI, Dr. Niederhuber ran his own research program in the Laboratory of Tumor and Stem Cell Biology in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. His research focused on factors in the tumor microenvironment, in particular those involving cancer activated fibroblasts (CAFs) that lead to increased malignancy. As a surgeon, Dr. Niederhuber’s clinical focus has been on gastrointestinal cancer, hepatobiliary (liver, bile duct, pancreatic and gallbladder) cancer, and breast cancer. Recognized for his pioneering work in hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy, he was the first to demonstrate the feasibility of totally implantable vascular access devices which dramatically changed the administration of systemic chemotherapy.
Dr. Niederhuber is recognized by his peers as a visionary leader in oncology. Throughout his academic career, he held full professorial appointments in a basic science department where he maintained NIH funded research and a clinical department where he practiced surgical oncology. In addition, he served in a number of academic leadership positions. Dr. Niederhuber is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, recognizing his outstanding scientific accomplishments and commitment to service in health sciences.
He has given over 350 professional presentations and published over 250 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters as well as editing or co-editing 9 books. He serves as a Director on the Boards of publicly traded biotechnology companies. Prior to joining the NCI, Dr. Niederhuber was Director of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and a professor of surgery and oncology (member of the McArdle Laboratory) at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. Earlier in his career, he chaired the Department of Surgery at Stanford University and held professorships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and at the University of Michigan.
A native of Steubenville, Ohio, Dr. Niederhuber is a graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia (receiving an honorary doctorate in 2007) and The Ohio State University School of Medicine. He trained in surgery at the University of Michigan and in Immunology at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
