Dr. Michelle Berny-Lang serves as a Program Director in the Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives (CSSI) at the NCI. In this capacity, she participates in the organization, development, and evaluation of CSSI initiatives, managing a portfolio of grants and contracts, and working to facilitate multidisciplinary collaborations among researchers, NCI and NIH colleagues, and external partners.
Dr. Berny-Lang collaborated with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to launch the Big Data Scientist Training Enhancement Program (BD-STEP), designed to bring new expertise in engineering, computer science, and physical science into Veterans Affairs (VA) clinical research teams. The goals are to develop healthcare-savvy data scientists and expand use of VA informatics systems to positively impact patient-centered care. She is the NCI lead for BD-STEP, a member of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) Cardiac Biomarkers Working Group, and a founding member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and NCI Cancer and Thrombosis Working Group.
Before joining the NCI, Dr. Berny-Lang was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, where she investigated novel cellular pathways and the utility of cellular biomarkers in clinical disorders such as acute coronary syndrome and sickle cell disease. She received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Oregon Health & Science University, applying engineering approaches to understand the interactions between blood cells, cancer cells, and coagulation proteins in thrombotic disorders. Supported by a Whitaker International Fellowship from the Institute of International Education, she conducted a year of doctoral research abroad at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She holds a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from Oregon State University.
Dr. Berny-Lang has co-authored more than 25 publications on the mechanisms of thrombosis and the connections between thrombosis and cancer. She also reviews for the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis, Platelets, and the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology. Building upon her research background at the interfaces of bioengineering, cancer, and thrombosis, she aims to encourage alliances across scientific disciplines to stimulate innovative, impactful research.