Varmus, Harold

J. Michael Bishop, Harold E. Varmus, and Joseph E. Murray Physiology/Medicine Origin of retroviral oncogenes... 

Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus discovered the c-src gene in uninfected cells, which is homologous to the v-src gene in the Rous sarcoma virus. 

Quoted in J. Fallows, The political scientist Harold Varmus has ambitious plans for the future of medicine, New Yorker, June 7, 1999, pp. 66—75, p. 68. 

Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus demonstrated in the mid-1970s that animal retroviruses can cause tumors by the altered expression of host genes known as oncogenes. This discovery led to our current understanding of the genetic basis of cancer (this principle is described in Chapter 31). 

F. Peyton Rous, who studied chicken tumors now known to be caused by this virus. Since the initial discovery of oncogenes by Harold Varmus and Michael Bishop, many dozens of such genes have been found in retroviruses. 

Dulbecco (1914- ), who shared the 1975 Nohel Prize in physiology or medicine. The cellular origin of the modified genes was discovered by J. Michael Bishop (1936- ) and Harold Varmus (1939- ), who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. 

I think this is really serious. It is a lot more serious than people know. I think there are ways of addressing it. One way is, of course, it is beginning to happen. Harold Varmus, when he was head of NIH, went out of his way to emphasize the importance of having developments in the physical sciences to support the biomedical community. I think that was a very fine statement and I think it had an effect. 

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