Minkyung (Min) Song, PhD

Program Director

Dr. Minkyung Song is a Program Director who joined CGCB in 1997. Dr. Song fosters, manages, oversees and analyzes the NCI portfolio on multidisciplinary, translational, clinical and reverse-translational research grants and cooperative agreements for: Clinical trials of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, cellular therapy, gene therapy, viral therapy, vaccines, surgery, cord blood transplant, or their combinations, and associated correlative studies; and Development and validation of clinical assays for monitoring responses to therapies, acquired resistance, adaptive immunity and recurrence of cancer. Dr. Song serves for the Cancer MoonshotSM (CM) Implementation Team for Blue Ribbon Panel Recommendation on the "Cancer Immunotherapy Translational Science Network". She currently serves as the NCI Program Contact for several funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), including three CM FOAs, and FOAs for: extramural-intramural collaborative research at the NIH Clinical Center; Cancer Immune Monitoring and Analysis Centers; and Administrative Supplements to support cancer disparity collaborative research. Dr. Song has been serving for: the NIH Office of the Director Scientific Workforce Diversity Advisory Committee since 2021 by overseeing "The 21st Century Scholars Program" which trains and mentors the NIH extramural program and review staff; and the trans-NIH Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Engagement Committee since 2020. In the past, she represented the NCI for several trans-NIH activities, including: Program Checklist Working Group (WG); Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization Immunotherapy Category FingerPrint WG; Adverse Drug Reactions WG; Rigor and Reproducibility Focus Group; Pharmacogenomics Research Network; Translational Research Interest Group; and Roadmap/Common Fund Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network. Dr. Song has received various Awards and Certificates, including the NCI Director's Awards of Merit, the NIH Director's Award, and a Certificate for completing the NIH Senior Leadership Program.

Dr. Song received her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1983. She was a Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow and a Senior Staff Fellow in the NIH Intramural Research Program for more than 5 years. Then, Dr. Song was an Interdisciplinary Regulatory Review Scientist in the Food and Drug Administration for 9 years prior to joining the NCI.