DR HAROLD VARMUS
Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, USA

Awarded, along with Dr. Michael Bishop, the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the identification of a large family of genes that control the normal growth and division of cells. Disturbances in one or some of these so-called oncogenes can lead to transformation of a normal cell into a tumour cell and result in cancer. Former Head of the US National Institutes of Health - responsible for managing the largest medical research entity in the world, with an annual budget of $11 billion. Harold Varmus is now President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

To find out more information on Dr. Varmus and his work, visit his Web site.