Lankan-born Dr. Ashani Weeraratna appointed to US National Cancer Advisory Board

Sri Lankan born scientist Dr Ashani Weeraratna, a leading cancer researcher has been appointed by US President Joe Biden to the National Cancer Advisory Board, which will complement the Administration’s efforts to build on the spirit and learnings of the Cancer Moonshot, which President Biden led in the Obama-Biden Administration, the White House said in a statement. 

Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Lesotho in Africa, Dr. Weeraratna first came to the United States in 1988 to study biology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She earned a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the Department of Pharmacology of George Washington University Medical Center, according to a brief biography of new members published by the White House. 

Dr Weeraratna has also undertaken a global analysis of how the aged microenvironment promotes metastasis, using a unique resource of normal skin fibroblasts from healthy donors of differing ages, proteomics analysis, and animal models, and the clinical implications of these data may also result in a change in clinical practice, as they are finding age-related differences in responses to both targeted and immunotherapy. 

She is President of the Society for Melanoma Research, and a fierce champion of and a mentor for junior faculty, people of color and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

In addition to Dr Weeraratna, another six other distinguished clinicians and researchers have been appointed to the US National Cancer Advisory Board.