NCI Acting Director Dr. Douglas R. Lowy
Douglas R. Lowy, M.D.
Acting Director, National Cancer Institute
Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., was officially named the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Acting Director in April 2015. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Lowy served as NCI’s deputy director from July 2010 helping lead NCI’s key scientific initiatives.
Dr. Lowy received his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at Stanford University and dermatology at Yale University.
His research interests include the biology of papillomaviruses and the regulation of normal and neoplastic cell growth. The papillomavirus research is carried out in close collaboration with Dr. John Schiller, with whom he has co-authored more than 125 papers over the past 30 years.
In the 1980s, Drs. Lowy and Schiller studied the genetic organization of papillomaviruses and identified the oncogenes encoded by the virus. More recently, they have worked on papillomavirus vaccines and the papillomavirus life cycle. Their laboratory was involved in the initial development, characterization, and clinical testing of the preventive virus-like particle-based HPV vaccines that are now used in three FDA-approved HPV vaccines.
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Dr. Lowy, along with Dr. Schiller, was honored by President Obama with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Dr. Lowy’s growth regulation research includes prior studies that established the importance of the RAS gene family in cancer and the main mechanisms by which the NF1 tumor suppressor gene regulates normal cell growth. His growth regulation research is now focused primarily on the DLC family of tumor suppressor genes and their mechanism of action.
Dr. Lowy served as NCI Deputy Director from 2010 to 2015. In addition to serving as Acting NCI Director, Dr. Lowy is chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the NAS. Dr. Lowy, along with Dr. Schiller, received the Federal Employee of the Year Service to America Medal from the Partnership for Public Service in 2007, and the Sabin Gold Medal Award from the Sabin Vaccine Institute in 2011. In November 2014, they were honored by President Obama with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.