Primary brain tumors, delta 24 and tumor metabolism. Interview by Rona Williamson

Interview by Rona Williamson, Commissioning Editor Mark R Gilbert studied medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore (MD, USA). He completed residency training in internal medicine and neurology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, then was named the first Keck Foundation Fellow in Neuro-Oncology at Johns Hopkins. After 2 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins, he moved to the University of Pittsburgh to head the Brain Tumor Program. During his tenure at Pittsburgh (PA, USA), he was named Chair of the Brain Tumor Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. In 1996, Dr Gilbert moved to the Emory University in Atlanta (GA, USA) to lead the Medical Neuro-Oncology Program and successfully competed for the program's membership in the New Approaches to Brain Tumor Treatment consortium. Dr Gilbert moved to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (TX, USA) in 2000 as Deputy Chair of the Department of Neuro-Oncology. During his tenure at MD Anderson, he has created two brain tumor consortia. The Collaborative Ependymoma Research Network is an international effort that is focusing research efforts on patients, both adult and pediatric, with this uncommon central nervous system tumor. The Brain Tumor Trials Collaborative is a 23-institution consortium that focuses on innovative clinical trials for primary glial malignancies. In addition, Dr Gilbert holds a leadership position in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and has served as the principal investigator on several large randomized brain tumor clinical trials. His research focus has been in the area of clinical and translational research for primary brain tumors. This includes novel clinical trial designs and the integration of correlative tumor biology with these clinical studies.