Helen Moore, Ph.D.

Branch Chief, BBRB

Dr. Helen Moore leads the National Cancer Institute’s Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research Branch (BBRB). As Chief she sets the direction and strategic vision for the Branch and oversees a broad set of projects related to biobanking, including: The NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources, a foundational document for biobanking; a Biospecimen Science research program to develop the evidence for biospecimen best practices; the Biospecimen Research Database, a Web-based Biospecimen Science literature and SOPs database; research in the ethical, legal, and social implications of biobanking; and biobanking operations for major NCI and NIH programs including the Cancer Moonshot and the NIH Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. Dr. Moore previously led BBRB’s Biospecimen Research Network (BRN). Under her leadership, the BRN grew from concept stage to an internationally known, multidimensional program.

Dr. Moore is a molecular biologist with a broad background in research and development. She came to NCI from Celera Genomics, where she contributed to the assembly and annotation of the human genome; led and managed cross-functional teams to develop bioinformatics products focused on Comparative Genomics and data visualization; and developed new drug targets for complex diseases using multiple approaches including genetic analysis of disease association study data, biological pathways analysis, literature mining, and genomic analysis. Dr. Moore earned her doctorate at Cornell University and her B.A. at Wellesley College. Dr. Moore is a member of the Science Policy Committee of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) and is Biospecimen Science section editor for the journal Biopreservation and Biobanking.