HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology hosted a talk with Nobel Laureate Dr. Harold Varmus on the evening of November 19 at the Jackson Center.

Dr. Varmus, working alongside his University of California San Francisco colleague Dr. Michael Bishop, discovered oncogenes. This discovery earned the two men the Nobel Prize in the category “Physiology or Medicine” in 1989.

The work of Varmus and Bishop has made meaningful strides in our collective understanding of the relationship between genetics and cancer.

Varmus has held numerous distinguished positions throughout his career. He served as the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1993 to 1999. He then spent a decade serving as the President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Varmus to the position of Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Today, Varmus is the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center.

Varmus spoke for roughly 20 minutes about his upbringing and career. Centered in his remarks were meaningful axioms that he has learned over his decades as a scientist.

“When I talk to students and young faculty, I like to talk about the principles by which I have tried to live my life in science and by which I hope others will live their lives in science,” said Varmus.

The child of a physician and psychiatric social worker, Varmus grew up on Long Island. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English literature before turning his attention to medicine.

The Vietnam War was raging when Varmus completed his medical training. The Berry Plan required that male M.D.s serve either in the armed forces or by conducting research with the Public Health Service — which included the CDC, IHS, and NIH.

Strongly opposed to the Vietnam War, Varmus opted to work with the NIH.

At NIH, Varmus and his mentor studied the following question: “How does cyclic AMP (adenosine monophosphate) regulate gene expression in bacteria?”

Varmus credits the two years he spent at NIH as an early career researcher and doctor with inspiring the framework by which he would evaluate future research questions.

“The things that I learned were important conditions for satisfaction of a life in science is that questions should be inherently interesting, that they have long-range potential, that they be feasible with technical tools that were already available, and that they might have real societal benefit in the long run,” said Varmus.

Using that framework, Varmus identified two questions to apply himself to:

How do RNA tumor viruses (retroviruses) grow?
How do these viruses turn a normal cell into a cancer cell?

Varmus did not know it at the time, but these questions would be central to learning how to treat HIV/AIDS with drugs and how to develop targeted therapies to treat patients with cancer.

“It’s good to remind ourselves — frequently — that science is a way for us to inspire ourselves and others, and to unite us and teach us what it is all about to be human beings,” said Varmus.

The 1953 discovery of the double helix, which is the basis for all work conducted at HudsonAlpha, was one watershed moment that taught us what it means to be human — in the most fundamental sense.

Dr. Sarah Sharman, HudsonAlpha’s Research Communications Manager, moderated a discussion between Varmus and Dr. Rick Meyers, HudsonAlpha’s chief scientific officer and M. A. Loya Chair in Genomics.

Varmus and Meyers have known each other for almost 40 years, since meeting at UC San Francisco.

When asked what it was like to win the Nobel prize, Vamus said the biggest surprise was the influence that it bestowed.

“That medal is a very good shield against the anger of members of Congress or others,” Varmus laughed. “To me, the surprise was not the call in the middle of the night, but the surprise was learning that that kind of distinction catapults you into a realm where — you may not deserve to be — but if you have the right intentions you may be able to make good use of it.”

Looking ahead, Varmus is hopeful about several emerging treatments.

“The development of tools that allow us to arm the immune system to react more violently against cancers” is one development that is particularly exciting to Varmus.

Combining various forms of treatment — from targeted therapy and immunotherapy with, possibly, traditional chemotherapy — is also anticipated to increase effectiveness in cancer treatments.

Meyers pointed out that combined therapies have been used to treat HIV/AIDS.

Combined therapies have the potential to decrease the need for traditional chemotherapy, which could make cancer treatment more bearable for patients.

One of Sharman’s final prompts circled back to Varmus’s earlier comment about engaging in science for the benefit of society — which is one of HudsonAlpha’s primary aims.

Meyers said that one of the things the research institute learned from The Human Genome Project was the importance of rapid, free data release.

“Harold has helped to lead this rapid release and free availability of data from journals,” said Meyers.

While these goals have not been fully realized, great headway has been made, said Meyers.

Audience members raised questions regarding the need for greater research on neurodegenerative diseases, ways to ensure genome research represents people with African and Asian ancestry, and the future of pancreatic cancer treatment.

The evening was open to the public and free of charge. It was the last session in HudsonAlpha’s community events series for 2024. Over the past year, HudsonAlpha has hosted over 4,300 attendees across nine community events.

The institute brings exceptional educational opportunities to the lifelong learners of Huntsville.