Ned Sharpless has led the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2014. Now, President Donald Trump has announced his intention to appoint the Greensboro native as director of the National Cancer Institute.

The NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health and Douglas Lowry has been working as acting director since 2015.

Sharpless was a Morehead-Cain Scholar on his way to earning his medical degree in Chapel Hill. After his residency and working in Boston during his early career, Sharpless returned to Chapel Hill in 2002 to accept a faculty appointment at UNC.

Sharpless is “internationally recognized for his research into how normal cells age and undergo malignant conversion,” according to the university.

“Dr. Sharpless is a visionary leader and a truly gifted scientist and clinician, and we strongly agree he would be an excellent choice to lead the National Cancer Institute into the future,” UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt said in a release.

Officials said the university has known Sharpless was in contention to lead the national institute.

UNC School of Medicine dean William Roper – who also serves as CEO of the UNC Health Care System – plans to appoint Shelley Earp to serve as interim director of UNC Lineberger, according to a release, should Sharpless be officially named as the new NCI director.

Earp served as the director of the cancer center from 1997-2014 and is currently serving as director of UNC Cancer Care.

“Dr. Earp is a most capable leader who has played a foundational role in the cancer center’s development and we are quite fortunate that he agreed to serve as interim director in the likely event Dr. Sharpless is named director of the National Cancer Institute,” Roper said in a release.

Sharpless will be working under Francis Collins, who is the director for the National Institutes of Health. Collins also earned his medical degree from UNC and then worked at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill.

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