Anna Barker is the Senior Advisor, Strategic Initiatives at the Ellison Medical Institute.

In her advisory role, Dr. Barker engages with EMI leadership and staff in the discovery and development of targeted interventions for complex diseases, particularly in precision oncology and personalized medicine, across the Institute’s research and development portfolio. The portfolio includes strategic initiatives in molecularly based, biomarker driven drug discovery programs, specifically small molecules, peptides and drug delivery. As part of EMI’s Insights Forum, she also assembles expert groups of scientists to explore specific areas of cancer research with EMI leadership that complement EMI’s drug discovery and development and patient care portfolio.

Dr. Barker is a Professor, Co-Director of the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative and Director of the National Biomarker Development Alliance (NBDA) at Arizona State University. Through the NBDA, she focuses on developing solutions to major problems in biomarker science through networks of experts; and employs biomarkers to drive innovative patient-centric trials designs. Her particular interest is in complexity disease biology as reflected in complex biomarkers, an area of convergence science that is becoming increasingly relevant as artificial intelligence enables the identification of potential new generations of biomarkers across multiple biological scales.

Dr. Barker has a long history of international multi-sector research and development leadership, with significant experience and expertise in precision medicine, particularly precision oncology. She previously served as the principal deputy director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and deputy director for strategic scientific initiatives. In these roles she led the development of foundational platforms and national programs to support the emerging concept of precision medicine. During her tenure at the NCI, she collaboratively planned and implemented several strategic convergence programs that emphasized innovation, networks of global institutions, team science and publicly available data. Initiatives and programs under Dr. Barker’s leadership include: The Cancer Genome Atlas co-developed with the National Human Genome Research Institute; Biospecimens Research Network; NCI Clinical Proteomics Technology in Cancer Initiative; NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer; and the Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers Program (engaged physicists, mathematicians, engineers and cancer scientists focused on defining cancer at a more fundamental level), among several others. Additionally, Dr. Barker collaborated with the leadership of the FDA as the founding co-chair of the NCI-FDA Interagency Oncology Task Force, the Cancer Steering Committee of the Foundation for the NIH Biomarker Consortium and she led the NCI’s international programs.

Dr. Barker spent several years at Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit transdisciplinary research and development organization where she started as a research scientist and subsequently progressed to several senior executive roles. During her tenure at Battelle Memorial Institute, she worked closely with the NCI through several programs in cancer drug discovery and development, including target identification through in-vitro and in-vivo screening research, and special studies of new molecular entities such as Adriamycin. She also founded a drug discovery focused biotechnology company which became public in 1994. Over the course of her career, she has received many awards for her contributions to cancer research, and for her work with cancer patients, professional and advocacy organizations and the ongoing national effort to prevent and cure cancer. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy and served as a member of the presidentially appointed National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB). Dr. Barker received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Ohio State University where she studied chemistry, immunology and microbiology.

Chemistry, Immunology, Microbiology- Ohio State University

Chemistry, Immunology, Microbiology- Ohio State University