{"entity":{"id":"anthony-letai","kind":"person","name":"Anthony Letai","aka":[],"tldr":"Invented BH3 profiling, the functional test behind venetoclax's success, before becoming NCI director.","summary":"Anthony Letai is Director of the National Cancer Institute, having previously worked as a haematologist-scientist at Dana-Farber. He is known for inventing BH3 profiling, a functional test that measures mitochondrial apoptotic priming and predicts response to BCL-2 inhibitors such as venetoclax in acute myeloid leukaemia and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. His selected paper shows that pretreatment mitochondrial priming correlates with clinical response to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Appointed NCI director in 2025, he brought to the role a career in functional precision medicine and ex vivo drug testing.","asOf":"2026-09-08","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Letai","links":[{"label":"NCI leadership","url":"https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/leadership"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Letai%20A%5BAuthor%5D"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["aml","cll"],"sections":[],"technologies":["bh3-profiling","functional-drug-testing"],"targets":["bcl2"],"drugs":["venetoclax"],"companies":[],"institutions":["nci"],"pathways":["apoptosis-bcl2"],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Director, National Cancer Institute","institutionId":"nci","specialisms":["Apoptosis","BH3 profiling","Functional precision medicine","Leukaemia"],"profiles":[{"label":"NCI leadership","url":"https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/leadership"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Letai%20A%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[{"title":"Pretreatment mitochondrial priming correlates with clinical response to cytotoxic chemotherapy","journal":"Science","year":2011,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1206727","doi":"10.1126/science.1206727"}]},"route":"/people/anthony-letai/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"aml","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute myeloid leukaemia","route":"/cancers/aml/"},{"id":"cll","kind":"cancer","name":"Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/cll/"}],"technology":[{"id":"bh3-profiling","kind":"technology","name":"BH3 profiling (functional apoptosis testing)","route":"/technologies/bh3-profiling/"},{"id":"functional-drug-testing","kind":"technology","name":"Functional (ex vivo) drug testing","route":"/technologies/functional-drug-testing/"}],"target":[{"id":"bcl2","kind":"target","name":"BCL-2","route":"/targets/bcl2/"}],"drug":[{"id":"venetoclax","kind":"drug","name":"Venetoclax","route":"/drugs/venetoclax/"}],"institution":[{"id":"nci","kind":"institution","name":"National Cancer Institute (NIH)","route":"/institutions/nci/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"apoptosis-bcl2","kind":"pathway","name":"Intrinsic apoptosis (BCL-2 family)","route":"/pathways/apoptosis-bcl2/"}]}}