Division of Basic Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
 

Harold E. Varmus, M.D.       NCI, Special Volunteer     Bldg. 49 Room 4A56 Phone:301-496-7940 Fax:301-496-0332 email:varmus@nih.gov

Biography: Before being sworn in as the Director of the NIH, Dr. Varmus was a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Biochemistry & Biophysics, and the American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF), where he studied retroviruses and the genetic basis of cancer for over 20 years. In 1989, Dr. Varmus and his UCSF colleague J. Michael Bishop, M.D., shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating that cancer genes (oncogenes) can arise from normal cellular genes, called proto-oncogenes. Dr. Varmus is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association of Physicians. He is a graduate of Amherst College (B.A., 1961), where he majored in English literature; Harvard University (M.A. in English literature, 1962); and Columbia University (M.D., 1966). After completing his residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in 1968, Dr. Varmus served as a Clinical Associate from 1968 to 1970 at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Disease.

Dr. Varmus left NIH at the beginning of this year to accept a job as the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. As of January 1st, 2000, Dr. Varmus is a Special Volunteer at NCI, NIH.
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