Schor Selected to Serve as Acting DDIR

In Lipsett Amphitheater at the first in-person WALS event in 2 years, Dr. Nina Schor introduced the guest speaker. Schor began serving as acting deputy director for intramural research on Aug. 1.

Photo:  Chia-Chi Charlie Chang

Dr. Nina Schor has taken on the role of NIH acting deputy director for intramural research (DDIR) in the Office of the Director. She stepped into the position vacated by Dr. Michael Gottesman, who served as DDIR for 29 years and returned to the NCI Center for Cancer Research, where he is chief of the Laboratory of Cell Biology. 

As acting DDIR, Schor leads the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) and facilitates coordination and collaboration among the 24 institutes and centers that are a part of the agency’s distinct research community. She’s responsible for selection and approval of new NIH principal investigators, human subjects research protection, research integrity, technology transfer and animal care and use for the IRP. 

Additionally, Schor will oversee efforts to train the next generation of biomedical and behavioral researchers at NIH, as well as efforts to foster a diverse and inclusive culture across the IRP. 

With a career that has touched all realms of the biomedical research enterprise, Schor brings substantial experience as an educator, scientist, clinician and administrator. She joined NIH in January 2018 as deputy director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In May 2021, she also assumed the role of acting NINDS scientific director. 

As deputy director, Schor guided the institute’s strategic planning activities, career development programs, maternal and child neurologic health collaborations with other NIH institutes, and the creation and implementation of the Ultra-Rare GENe-based Therapies (URGenT) Network. 

Before joining NIH, Schor worked at the University of Rochester, where for nearly 12 years she held the positions of chair of the department of pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief of the Golisano Children’s Hospital. 

Prior to that, she spent 20 years building her academic and scientific career at the University of Pittsburgh, culminating with roles as associate dean for medical student research and chief of the division of child neurology in the departments of pediatrics and neurology. 

Schor earned her Ph.D. in medical biochemistry from Rockefeller University and her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. Her residency and postdoctoral fellowship training in pediatrics, child neurology and molecular biochemistry and pharmacology took place at Harvard University Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, where she began her three-decades-long NIH-funded research efforts focused on targeted therapy for neuroblastoma, a type of pediatric cancer, and neuronal cell death caused by oxidative stress, which occurs when harmful forms of oxygen molecules damage cells.