 |
 |
 |
|
 |
FDA Home Page | Search FDA Site | FDA A-Z Index | Contact FDA
Dr. Torti received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (cum laude), and his M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he trained in cancer epidemiology and nutrition. He was an intern and resident at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, a Harvard teaching hospital, and a fellow in medical oncology at Stanford University. While on the Stanford faculty, he served as Executive Officer of the Northern California Oncology Group and Associate Director of the Northern California Cancer Program, and was instrumental in the development and oversight of the data management functions and overall administration of that clinical cooperative group and its regional network in northern California. While at Stanford, he led one of the most active genitourinary programs in the country. He was tenured at Stanford University and has published in Science, J. Biol. Chem., Mol. Cell. Biol., Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sci., J. Immunol., J. Clin. Oncol., Cancer Res., New Eng. Jour. Med., Ann. Int. Med., Cell, and other highly respected journals. He has served on or chaired a number of national study sections, including those of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the American Institute for Cancer Research. He also served on the NIH Council for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
He joined Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1993 as the Charles L. Spurr Professor of Medicine, Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology. He developed and is principal investigator on a training program in cancer biology for Ph.D. students and M.D. and Ph.D. postdoctoral fellows that is funded by an NIH T32 grant. He is founder and immediate past president of the Cancer Biology Training Consortium, a national society of cancer biology chairs and program directors.
Dr. Torti is an active and well known clinical investigator in urologic oncology. He is widely published in this area and has designed and executed clinical trials that have become standards of care in genitourinary oncology (GU). His recent interests include photoactivation of nanoparticles for cancer therapy and the development of novel antiangiogenic compounds. He has organized international GU oncology meetings, served on ASCO expert panels, written extensively on prostate and bladder cancer, and is GU oncology section editor of Current Opinion in Oncology. He has organized an active multidisciplinary clinic in GU oncology at Wake Forest. He has routinely been chosen by his peers for lists in national magazines of “top cancer doctors” and “America’s top doctors.”
Dr. Torti has made fundamental observations on the molecular action of oxidants and cytokines and their relationship to cancer and iron homeostasis. He has been continually funded by an NIH RO1 grant for his basic science research since his lab was established in 1988. He recently received a MERIT award from the NIH, an honor bestowed on only 2 percent of all NIH grantees.
In 2008, Dr. Torti joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as Principal Deputy Commissioner and Chief Scientist. He has served as the Acting Commissioner since January 20, 2009.