Shooting for the moon: an exit interview with NCI’s Ned Sharpless

Ned Sharpless may not have made it to the moon, but as Director of NIH’s National Cancer Institute for five years, he has steered one of the world’s preeminent medical research funding agencies through turbulent times, navigating a pandemic, society’s response to racial injustice and a chaotic presidency. When he steps down on April 29, he’ll leave NCI and the cancer patients it serves better than when he joined.

Sharpless was named NCI director in February 2017. That was two months after Congress lit the fuse on the first Cancer Moonshot, providing the institute an additional $1.8 billion over seven years. Congress also charged NCI with the goal of compressing about a decade of progress into five years. ...