Friend of Bush, Andrew von Eschenbach

The new year sees Andrew C. von Eschenbach begin his job as director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the largest institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The head of the $3.8 billion NCI is the only NIH director who is chosen by the president, and George W. Bush has selected von Eschenbach from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in his home state of Texas.

Von Eschenbach was largely unknown to the biomedical research community until his appointment. He is a cancer survivor himself and was the director of the Genitourinary Cancer Center and of a prostate cancer research program at M.D. Anderson and president-elect of the American Cancer Society.

He replaces Richard Klausner who was widely regarded as a visionary leader credited with starting several programs to apply new molecular technologies to the understanding and treatment of cancer. Whereas Klausner's career has included basic research, Von Eschenbach has no background in bench research.

The NCI appointment comes at a time that several important positions at NIH are vacant. NIH has been without a director since December 1999, when Harold Varmus left to head the Sloan–Kettering Cancer Institute in New York City. At one stage, it was rumored that John Mendelson, president of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, was a candidate for the position.

Two neuroscience institutes are also without directors. Last month, Glen Hanson took a post as acting director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse following the resignation of Alan Leshner who left to become the Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Audry S. Penn has been acting director of the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke since the resignation of Gerald Fischbach who has taken a position as vice president of Health Sciences at Columbia University in New York.