David B. Agus () is an American physician and author who serves as a professor of medicine and engineering at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

Keck School of Medicine The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California teaches and trains physicians, biomedical scientists and other healthcare professionals, conducts medical research, and treats patients. Founded in 1885, it is the second oldest ...

and

Viterbi School of Engineering The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm ...

and the Founding Director and CEO of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. He is also the cofounder of several personalized medicine companies and a contributor to

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...

on health topics. Agus’s field of expertise is advanced cancer. He has developed new cancer treatments with the aid of private foundations, as well as national agencies including the National Cancer Institute. Agus has also served as chair of the Global Agenda Council on Genetics for the World Economic Forum. He is also the author of three New York Times best selling books.

Early life and education

Agus graduated cum laude in molecular biology from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1987 and received his medical degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

Perelman School of Medicine The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

in 1991. He completed his residency training at

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 ...

and completed his oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.USC
"David B. Agus, M.D."
Retrieved 2009-05-07. He spent two years at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...

as a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...

-NIH Research Scholar.

Career

Agus has had a long and varied career. At the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, he leads a team researching prevention and treatments for cancer. He also maintains an oncology practice to apply his team’s research discoveries to the patients under his care. At the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he was an

attending physician In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as a staff physician or supervising physician) is a physician (usually an M.D. or D.O.) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic or hospital, in the spec ...

in the Department of Medical Oncology and head of the Laboratory of Tumor Biology. He was also Assistant Professor of Medicine at

Cornell University Medical Center The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with NewY ...

. As director of the Spielberg Family Center for Applied Proteomics at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over ...

in Los Angeles, he led a multidisciplinary team of researchers dedicated to the development and use of proteomic technologies to guide doctors in making health-care decisions tailored to individual needs. The center grew out of earlier clinical projects at Cedars-Sinai, where Agus served as an attending physician in oncology, which observed striking differences between the aggressiveness of prostate cancer in certain patients and their ability to respond to treatment. Agus also formerly served as Director of the Louis Warschaw Prostate Cancer Center, and as an attending physician in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at

. He was also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

(UCLA). He is presently a Professor of Medicine and Engineering at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and is the CEO and Founding Director of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine."USC Westside Norris Cancer Center"
Retrieved November 22, 2011 Agus chairs the Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Genetics for the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

, and speaks regularly at TEDMED, the

Aspen Ideas Festival Founded in 2005, the Aspen Ideas Festival (AIF) is a week-long event held in Aspen, Colorado in the United States. The Aspen Ideas Festival program of events includes discussions, seminars, panels, and tutorials from journalists, designers, innova ...

and the

. Agus's research has focused on the use of technology to model cancer and on new treatments for cancer. He has published many scientific articles.

Additional work and affiliations

He is a member of several scientific and medical societies, including the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

American Association for Cancer Research The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research. Based in Philadelphia, the AACR focuses on all aspects of cancer research, including basic, clinical, and tr ...

American College of Physicians The American College of Physicians (ACP) is a national organization of internists, who specialize in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of adults.Sokanu "What is an Internist?" Retrieved October 20, 2014 With 161,000 members, ACP is the largest ...

American Society of Clinical Oncology The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is a professional organization representing physicians of all oncology sub-specialties who care for people with cancer. Founded in 1964 by Fred Ansfield, Harry Bisel, Herman Freckman, Arnoldus Go ...

. Dr. Agus became a contributor for

in 2013 and appears regularly on ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

'' and other CBS News platforms. Agus' first book, ''The End of Illness'', was published in 2012 is a ''New York Times'' best seller and international best seller and was the subject of a PBS series. His most recent books A Short Guide to a Long Life and The Lucky Years: How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Health are also New York Times and international bestsellers. He has founded and co-founded several companies including Oncology.com, Navigenics (a personalized medicine company), Applied Proteomics (together with Danny Hillis), Sensei (wellness and lifestyle company, together with Larry Ellison), Sensei Agriculture (an agriculture data and technology company together with Larry Ellison), and Project Ronin (a clinical intelligence company together with Larry Ellison). In 2021, Agus and the Ellison Institute launched Global Health Security Consortium, a joint global effort with the

Tony Blair Institute for Global Change The Tony Blair Institute (TBI), commonly known by its trade name the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, is a non-profit organisation set up by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to provide advice to governments and "to help political leader ...

and Sir John Bell and a team of scientists at the University of Oxford, focused on finding ways to track and treat COVID-19 and prevent future pandemics.

Awards

Agus has received many honors and awards, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2017),

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 ...

Physician Research Award, a Clinical Scholar Award from the Sloan-Kettering Institute, a CaP CURE Young Investigator Award and the

Fellowship Award, the HealthNetwork Foundation's Excellence Award, and the 2009 Geoffrey Beene Foundation's Rock Stars of Science, as seen in GQ. In 2009, he was selected to serve as a judge for the first Biotech Humanitarian Award.

Television show

Agus hosted a

Paramount+ Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Media Networks (formerly Viacom Media ...

television show titled ''The Check Up with Dr. David Agus'', which was broadcast starting in December 2022. In the show, Agus discussed different medical issues with celebrity guests who have experience with those health concerns.

Personal life

Agus is married to Amy Joyce Povich, actress and daughter of syndicated television talk show host Maury Povich. Her stepmother,

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von B� ...

, is a former

anchor. His grandfather, Rabbi Jacob B. Agus, was a theologian and the author of several books on Jewish history and philosophy. Agus has two children.

Miscellaneous

Agus appears in the 2006 documentary ''Who Needs Sleep?'' Agus was also the physician to

Johnny Ramone John William Cummings (October 8, 1948 – September 15, 2004), better known by his stage name Johnny Ramone, was an American musician who was the guitarist and a founding member of the Ramones, a band that helped pioneer the punk movement. ...

during his battle with prostate cancer. He was on the board of directors of the Biden Cancer Initiative, Thrive Global, the National Library of Israel and the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.

Bibliography

* 2012, The End of Illness. Free Press; Illustrated edition * 2014, A Short Guide to a Long Life, Simon & Schuster * 2017, The Lucky Years: How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Health, Simon & Schuster * To be released March, 2023, The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature's Lessons for a Long and Happy Life, Simon & Schuster ISBN 1982103027

References

External links

Official David Agus site

CBS News website

Interviews, articles and podcasts

''TED'', Filmed October 2009.
"The Daily Show with John Stewart, David Agus interview"
''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form fr ...

'', interview, 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Agus, David Living people American oncologists American people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish American writers Princeton University alumni Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Johns Hopkins University people University of Southern California faculty Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy alumni 1965 births 21st-century American Jews