Dr. Roger J. Packer, MD is Senior Vice-President, Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine, and Chairman of Neurology at the Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC).
He is Director of both the Brain Tumor Institute and the Daniel and Jennifer Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Institute. Dr. Packer’s present academic titles include Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at The George Washington University and Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Prior to coming to CNMC, Dr. Packer was Director of the Brain Tumor Program and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania.
He is an active participant at the National Institutes of Health and has a contract with the combined NCI/NINDS Neuro-Oncology Program to provide neuro-oncological clinical expertise.
Throughout his career, Dr. Packer has been heavily involved in clinical and applied basic science research. His clinical research has touched on various aspects of adult and child neurology and neuro-oncology, including adult and pediatric brain tumors, neurofibromatosis type 1, the neurologic aspects of childhood neurogenetic diseases, and multiple other topics in general child neurology. Much of his research has focused on the development and performance of clinical trials for adults and children with neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders, and he has received personal loan support for this research. Many of the clinical trials in Neurofibromatosis and brain tumors are translational, bringing advances from the bench to the bedside expeditiously.
Presently, Dr. Packer is principal investigator at Children’s National for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC), formed under the auspices of the National Cancer Institute; Chairman of the PBTC Low-Grade Glioma Committee; Group Chair of the newly-formed Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium; and he is Chair of the Medulloblastoma Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group. He has worked closely with the NCI and NINDS, and has served on multiple committees setting the directions for neurologic clinical and basic science research for the future. He headed the efforts in pediatrics for the program review, held by the NCI and NINDS, for brain tumors. Much of Dr. Packer’s clinical research has been translational in nature. He has been part of studies evaluating the molecular genetics of childhood and adult neurologic diseases and has also coordinated the first gene therapy study for children with malignant brain tumors in the United States. The majority of the studies now being coordinated by Dr. Packer are studies evaluating innovative agents aimed at the molecular underpinnings of neurologic disease. He has published over 275 original articles and 250 reviews and chapters.