Harold Varmus
Harold Varmus · Science & Medicine
Oncogenes and Cancer Biology
1939, Oceanside, New York, United States
United States · University of California, San Francisco · National Institutes of Health
Harold Varmus is recognized among Jewish contributors to Science & Medicine — Oncogenes and Cancer Biology
Varmus, born to a Jewish family on Long Island, came to biology from an early love of literature before turning to cancer research at UCSF. With J. Michael Bishop he showed that the cancer-causing genes carried by certain viruses actually originate from normal genes present in healthy cells — proto-oncogenes that can turn dangerous when damaged. This discovery of the cellular origin of oncogenes, honored with the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, transformed the understanding of how cancer begins.
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Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 1989
Oncogenes and Cancer Biology
Source: Nobel Prize Medicine 1989
