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

Sri Lankan born scientist Ashani Weeraratna, a leading cancer researcher has been appointed by US President Joe Biden to the National Cancer Advisory Board, which plays an important role in guiding the Director of the National Cancer Institute in setting the course for the national cancer research program.

In addition to Weeraratna, President Biden has appointed six other distinguished clinicians and researchers to the US National Cancer Advisory Board, according to a press statement issued by the ‘White House’.

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.

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.