NBTS invited three leading brain tumor researchers to act as our Strategic Scientific Advisors in evaluating the structure and size(s) of our grant awards. This group is distinct from the future NBTS Scientific Advisory Council, which will be responsible for peer-review of research grant applications and other proposals.

Oliver Bögler, PhD
Dr. Bögler is Director of Basic Research at the Brain Tumor Center & Departments of Neurosurgery and Neuro-Oncology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is the chair of the 2009 NBTS Scientific Advisory Council.

Webster Cavenee, PhD
Dr. Cavenee is Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego.

David N. Louis, MD
Dr. Louis is Chief of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a past chair of the Brain Tumor Society’s Scientific Advisory Council.

 
Full bios of the NBTS Scientific Advisory Council:

 
Oliver Bögler, PhD
Dr. Oliver Bögler is the Director of Basic Research at the Brain Tumor Center & Departments of Neurosurgery and Neuro-Oncology at the U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Prior to this appointment, he worked at a number of illustrious institutions around the country, including the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center in the Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit and the Departments of Anatomy and Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. He also spent several years following his graduation from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Middlesex Hospital/University College Branch in London, where he studied under Dr. Mark Noble, at the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory of the Salk Institute and then back at Ludwig Institute, this time studying with Dr. Webster Cavenee, Director of the San Diego Branch.

Today, Dr. Bögler’s research focuses on EGFR signal transduction in glioma with an emphasis on signaling of EGFR mutants, cellular response to novel chemotherapeutics and cancer genetics. He reviews extensively at NIH, where he currently serves on the Cancer Molecular Pathobiology Study Section and works in conjunction with multiple foundations and journals. He has served as Chair of Communications, webmaster and news editor for the Society for Neuro-Oncology since 1997. He joined the editorial board of Neuro-Oncology in 2006, and Brain Tumor Society’s Scientific Advisory Council in 2007.

Webster Cavenee
Dr. Webster Cavenee, is the Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego, as well as the past president of the American Association for Cancer Research. Dr. Cavenee's research is directed at defining the genetic lesions in human cancer, determining their physiological significance, and using such information for therapeutic approaches. His current interests include the malignant progression of astrocytic (brain) tumors, the role of DNA methylation in tumor initiation, the differentiation pathways of astrocytes, and the role of fusion transcription factors in pediatric neoplasms. 

Dr. Cavenee received his Ph.D. with honors in 1977 from the University of Kansas Medical School and then did postdoctoral work at the Jackson Laboratory, MIT and the University of Utah. He held faculty positions at the University of Cincinnati and McGill University. Dr. Cavenee is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the Institute of Medicine NAS, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a Fellow of the International Union Against Cancer, and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, as well as the scientific advisory boards of several companies and private foundations, and has also served on the Boards of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He has published nearly 300 scientific papers and received more than 80 honors, most notably the Rhoads Award of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Charles S. Mott Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation and the Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Award from the National Foundation for Cancer Research. 

David N. Louis, MD
Dr. David N. Louis is the Benjamin Castleman Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Pathologist-in-Chief at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also directs the Molecular Neuro-Oncology Laboratory. His clinical neuropathology practice and research focuses on brain tumors, with an emphasis on the molecular genetic basis of malignant gliomas and the application of molecular diagnostics to malignant glioma classification. He has contributed over 200 original articles as well as numerous reviews and chapters to the medical literature, nearly all of them in the area of brain tumor biology and classification. His laboratory was the first to demonstrate that molecular approaches could be used to subdivide malignant gliomas in a biologically relevant manner, and that molecular approaches could be used to predict the response of particular malignant gliomas to specific therapies. This work has resulted in worldwide adoption of molecular testing for the management of patients with these tumors.

Dr. Louis has received a number of prestigious awards for his work, including the 2008 Zülch Prize of the Max Planck Society, the highest honor bestowed in Germany for neurological research. Dr. Louis served on the 2000 WHO Committee for the Classification of Tumors of Central Nervous System, as well as co-chaired and was the primary editor for the same committee in 2007. He has also served as chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Brain Tumor Society, the Board of Directors of the Society for Neuro-Oncology, and on the editorial boards of more than 10 national and international journals. Dr. Louis is currently one of three editors for the 8th edition of Greenfield's Neuropathology, which is the standard international reference in the field of neuropathology, and is first author of an upcoming AFIP Fascicle on non-neoplastic disease of the central nervous system. He was also co-chair of the Brain Tumor Progress Review Group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and was the founding chair of the Cancer Biomarkers Study Section at NIH.