Is Varmus Headed to the National Cancer Institute?
Ever since Harold Varmuss January public letter stating he asked Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centers board to start looking for his successor as president, people have been wondering what the Nobel laureate is going to do next.
Now there may be an answer: Varmus is expected to be nominated by the White House very soon to head the National Cancer Institute, according to The Cancer Letter, a publication read by many in the cancer field.
There hasn’t been any official confirmation of the news. Rumors about his imminent appointment have circulated before but they were shot down earlier this month by Varmus in an email to Science.
The Health Blog tried to reach Varmus today without success. A spokeswoman at the NCI said today after the latest report: “We know nothing. The White House makes these announcements.
If the report is correct, Varmus, who won the Nobel in 1989 for cancer work, would succeed John Niederhuber, who has been in the job for three years. Varmus knows his way around the place. He already served as director of the National Institutes of Health, of which NCI is part, during an era when he oversaw a huge increase in the budget. And he has […]
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