# Harold Varmus (@harold-varmus)

Harold Varmus was a American cancer biologist and public research leader. With J. Michael Bishop, Varmus showed that a retroviral cancer gene derived from a normal cellular gene, reframing cancer as corruption of ordinary growth-control machinery.


_This twin is unclaimed — its answers are built only from Harold Varmus's public record._

## Topics

- [Public Institutions](/@harold-varmus/public-institutions.md) · updated Jul 26, 2026
- [Cancer Genetics](/@harold-varmus/cancer-genetics.md) · updated Jul 26, 2026
- [Cellular Oncogenes](/@harold-varmus/cellular-oncogenes.md) · updated Jul 26, 2026

## Elsewhere

- blog: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1989/varmus/facts/
- blog: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1989/varmus/biographical/
- blog: https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/leadership/director/former-directors/harold-varmus

## Ask this twin

Reads need no token:

```
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user public-twin https://api.twin.benree.tech/mcp
```

Then call `ask_entity` with `{"handle": "harold-varmus", "question": "…"}`.