Harold Varmus, American Cell Biologist

For nearly four decades, Harold Eliot Varmus (b. 1939) has advanced fundamental scientific knowledge at the intersection of virology, oncology, and genetics, both as a researcher and as Director of NIH and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. With his long-time collaborator J. Michael Bishop, Varmus developed a new theory of the origin of cancer, which holds that the disease arises from mutations in certain of our own normal genes. These mutations are triggered by environmental carcinogens or by naturally occurring errors in the course of cell division and DNA replication. As an expert on retroviruses he chaired the scientific advisory committee that in 1986 proposed the name human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for the etiologic agent of AIDS. He was a co-recipient (along with J. Michael Bishop) of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. In 1993 he became the first Nobel laureate to head NIH

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

Aids Biologist Biology Cancer Eliot Environmental Geneticist Genetics Immunodeficiency Institutes Laureate Nobelist Oncology Recipient Replication Researcher Virus

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > PHR