Douglas R. Lowy (born 1940s) is the Acting Director and Principal Deputy Director of the U.S.

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

(NCI) and Chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology within the Center for Cancer Research at NCI. Lowy served as Acting Director of NCI between April 2015 and October 2017 following the resignation of

Harold E. Varmus Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center. He was a ...

, M.D., and again between April and November 2019, while Director

Norman Sharpless Norman Edward "Ned" Sharpless (born September 20, 1966) is the previous Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Before that, Sharpless was Professor of Medicine and Genetics Chair, Director of University of North Carolina UNC Lineberger ...

served as the Acting Commissioner of the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

. He resumed the role of Acting Director on May 1, 2022, when Sharpless stepped down. Lowy has served as Deputy Director of the NCI since 2010, alongside former directors Varmus and Sharpless. Lowy was co-recipient (along with Dr. John T. Schiller) of the

National Medal of Technology and Innovation The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

in 2014 and the

Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is one of four annual awards presented by the Lasker Foundation. The Lasker-DeBakey award is given to honor outstanding work for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of diseas ...

in 2017.

Biography

Lowy received his medical degree from the

New York University School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

, and trained in internal medicine at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and dermatology at Yale. He has directed a research laboratory at NCI since 1975, after receiving training as a Research Associate in the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...

. Lowy is a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(NAS) and of its

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...

. For his joint research with John T. Schiller on technology that enabled the development of preventive

human papillomavirus Human papillomavirus infection (HPV infection) is caused by a DNA virus from the ''Papillomaviridae'' family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and res ...

(HPV) vaccines, he and Schiller received the 2007 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, the 2011

Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Since 1994, the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal has been awarded annually by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in recognition of work in the field of vaccinology or a complementary field. It is in commemoration of the pioneering work of Albert B. Sabin. Reci ...

, the 2012

(awarded in 2014), and the

in 2017. He has also received the National Medal of Honor for Basic Research from the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

Research activities

Lowy's HPV research, conducted in collaboration with John T. Schiller, has characterized the HPV

oncoprotein An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

s E6 and E7.

Awards

* Nathan Davis Award, American Medical Association (2007) * Service to America Medal, Partnership for Public Service (2007) * Humanitarian Award, American Skin Association (2007) * Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research (2007) * Novartis Prize for Clinical Immunology, Rio de Janeiro (2007) * Research and Hope Award for Academic or Public Research, National Cancer Institute (2013) * Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine (2015) *

(2017) *

Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research The Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, established by National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) and named in honor of Albert Szent-Györgyi, Nobel Laureate and co-founder of NFCR, has been awarded annually since 2006 to out ...

(2018)

References

External links

NCI Principal Deputy Director, Dr. Douglas R. Lowy

Profile of Dr. Lowy
NCI Center for Cancer Research {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowy, Douglas R. 1940s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American oncologists New York University Grossman School of Medicine alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences National Institutes of Health people Amherst College alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Members of the National Academy of Medicine