Harold Eliot Varmus was born on December 18,1939 and is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist.
19 Facts About Harold Varmus
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Harold Varmus is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center.
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Harold Varmus was a co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes.
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Harold Varmus was the director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999 and the 14th Director of the National Cancer Institute from 2010 to 2015, a post to which he was appointed by President Barack Obama.
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Harold Varmus went on to earn a graduate degree in English at Harvard University in 1962 before changing his mind and applying to medical schools.
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Notably, Harold Varmus continued to conduct or direct laboratory work throughout his service in leadership positions at the NIH, MSKCC, and NCI.
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Harold Varmus co-chaired Scientists and Engineers for Clinton-Gore during the 1992 Presidential Campaign.
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Harold Varmus supported the presidential candidacies of Al Gore and John Kerry.
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Harold Varmus declared his support for Barack Obama's quest for the presidency early in 2008 and chaired the campaign's Science and Technology Committee.
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Harold Varmus resigned from that post to assume the directorship of the National Cancer Institute on July 12,2010, after being named to the post by President Obama.
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On May 17,2010, the White House announced that Harold Varmus would become the 14th Director of the NCI, making him the first person to have served as director of an individual NIH Institute after being director of the entire NIH.
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On March 4,2015, Harold Varmus submitted his resignation to the president, effective March 31,2015, announcing his intention to return to New York City as the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and as a senior associate at the New York Genome Center.
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Harold Varmus continued to run an active laboratory and to teach as a Member of the Sloan-Kettering Institute.
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Harold Varmus has been a frequent advisor to the US government, foundations, academic institutions and industry.
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Harold Varmus has criticized the high cost of many modern cancer drugs, which create barriers to treatment.
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Harold Varmus argues that widespread use of panel tests and exome analyses to identify cancer-causing mutations would be simpler and cheaper than full genome analysis.
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Harold Varmus has argued for the coverage of such services under Medicare and Medicaid on the grounds of Coverage with Evidence Development, since the data could be used to better evaluate test and treatments.
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Harold Varmus is hopeful that researchers will soon use new technologies to move beyond the study of primary tumors, where they have had considerable success, and explore how cancer initiates and the development of metastasic cancers.
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Harold Varmus has been married since 1969 to Constance Louise Casey, a journalist and science writer.