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	Nobel Laureate to Give Marker Lectures in  Genetic Engineering on April 3 and 4
Harold E. Varmus

Harold E. Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health, a co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, and the recently appointed president and chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, will give the 2000 Russell Marker Lectures in Genetic Engineering on 3 and 4 April 2000 on the Penn State University Park Campus.

The two-lecture series, titled "New Theories in Cancer Research," is sponsored by the Eberly College of Science.  The free public lectures include: "Genes and Cancer" at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, 3 April, in the HUB Auditorium; and "Mouse Model of Human Cancer" at 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, 4 April, in the HUB Auditorium.  (PLEASE NOTE:  times and locations have changed since initial announcement.)

Much of Varmus's scientific work was conducted during a 23-year period at the University of California at San Francisco, where he, J. Michael Bishop, and their co-workers demonstrated the cellular origins of the oncogene of a chicken retrovirus.  This discovery led to the isolation of many cellular genes that normally control growth and development and are frequently mutated in human cancer.  For their research on the genetic basis of cancer, Bishop and Varmus received many awards, including the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.  Varmus also is recognized widely for his studies of the replication cycles of retroviruses and hepatitis B viruses, the functions of genes implicated in cancer, and the development of mouse models for human cancer, which is the focus of much of the current work in his laboratory.

In addition to authoring over 300 scientific papers and four books, including an introduction to the genetic basis of cancer for a general audience, Varmus has been an advisor to the Federal government, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and many academic institutions.  Currently, he serves on the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health advisory committees on electronic publishing, and a National Research Council panel on genetically modified organisms.  He has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1984 and of the Institute of Medicine since 1991.

In 1993, Varmus was named by President Clinton to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a position he held until the end of 1999.  During his tenure there, he initiated many changes in the conduct of intramural and extramural research programs, recruited new leaders for most of the organization's important positions, planned three major buildings on the NIH campus, and helped to increase the NIH budget from under $11 billion to nearly $18 billion.

A native of Freeport, Long Island, Varmus earned a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in English literature at Amherst College in 1961 and a master's degree in English at Harvard University in 1962.  He graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1966 and was an assistant resident in medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital from 1967 to 1968.  His scientific training occurred first as a Public Health Service officer at the NIH, where he studied bacterial gene expression with Ira Pastan from 1968 to 1970, and then as a postdoctoral fellow with J. Michael Bishop at the University of California at San Francisco from 1970 to 1972.

The Marker Lectures were established in 1984 through a gift from Russell Earl Marker, professor emeritus of Chemistry, whose pioneering synthetic methods revolutionized the steroid-hormone industry and opened the door on the current era of hormone therapies, including the birth-control pill.

The Marker endowment allows the Eberly College of Science to present annual Marker Lectures in astronomy and astrophysics, the chemical sciences, evolutionary biology, genetic engineering, the mathematical sciences, and the physical sciences.
 
 

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This page is maintained by Barbara K. Kennedy: science@psu.edu, (814) 863-4682 and Leta A. Krumrine; LAK15@psu.edu, (814) 863-8453

Last update:   29 March 2000