Mugdha Samant, Ph.D.

Public Health Analyst

Mugdha Samant, Ph.D. serves as a Public Health Analyst at the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Diagnosis Program, Office of the Associate Director. In this role she advises the Associate Director on the impact of changing regulatory environment on the program and analyzes ethical, legal, and social implications of technological advances in cancer research. She is developing workshops for patient engagement initiatives and serves as an analyst and advisor to the Cancer Moonshot Biobank team and precision oncology clinical trials such as ComboMATCH.

Prior to joining the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, Cancer Diagnosis Program in 2023, Dr. Samant served as a Special Assistant to the CEO of the All of Us Research Program. In this role she provided strategic advice to the CEO on special projects, organized a design thinking workshop to develop and implement a collaborative program structure, provided leadership to develop Human Virome Program, a Common Fund initiative. She coordinated biweekly meetings with the NIH Director and served as a secretary for the Brain Trust of NIH IC Directors, a channel to communicate progress of the program and brainstorm ideas for collaboration. She convened the Advisory Panel of the program and coordinated the meetings.

Dr. Samant has training in Microbiology, Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology and Stem Cell Biology, with experience in regulatory policy analysis with a focus on cancer diagnostics. She has worked in a consulting firm and a clinical research organization and developed an understanding of regulatory operations in clinical research. Dr. Samant was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Eye Institute, where her work focused on developing organoid models for studying Leber Congenital Amaurosis, a rare eye disease using iPSCs. She received her Ph.D. in Cancer Pharmacology from University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute where her research focused on the role of drug transporters in stem cell differentiation and prostate cancer.