Broder's legacy at NCI includes central work on the development of AZT, one of only a few drugs approved to directly treat HIV infection. He is also credited with broadly and effectively promoting the full range of basic and clinical research activities at NCI, the largest of the National Institutes of Health, with a budget of more than $2 billion.
"I view him as having been more balanced than previous directors, who have been focused almost exclusively on either clinical work or on basic science," says G. Marie Swanson, a professor of medicine and director of the cancer center at Michigan State University. "Broder's tried to have a more balanced perspective, realizing we need advances in all the areas."
Swanson, also a member of the board of scientific counselors for NCI's division of cancer prevention and control, praises Broder for securing increased funding for research in those areas.
At the ...