Douglas Lowy, M.D., Deputy Director of the NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI), presented the 2018 Michael J. Brody Lecture in October. Dr. Lowry joined the impressive list of world-renowned scientists invited by Pharmacology graduate students to present the annual Brody Lecture, which has been a signature event in Pharmacology since its establishment in 1993. Now part of the Distinguished Biomedical Scholar Lecture Series of the Carver College of Medicine, the lecture was established in honor of Dr. Michael J. Brody, a long-time Professor of Pharmacology who was an esteemed cardiovascular researcher, an outstanding educator and mentor, and a leading voice in University governance. A cancer researcher for more than 40 years, Dr. Lowy received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2014 for his research leading to the development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. HPV vaccination is now credited with lowering the incidence of cervical cancer in women and oral and other cancers in men and women. The title of Dr. Lowy’s outstanding lecture was “Global Control of HPV-associated Cancers by Vaccination and Screening.

As chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology in the Center for Cancer Research at NCI, Lowy’s research includes the biology of papillomaviruses and the regulation of normal and neoplastic growth. His laboratory, in close collaboration with John T. Schiller, Ph.D., was involved in the initial development, characterization, and clinical testing of the preventive virus-like particle-based HPV vaccines that are now used in the three FDA-approved HPV vaccines. Dr. Lowy is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as its Institute of Medicine. For their pioneering work, Lowy and Schiller have received numerous honors in addition to the National Medal, including the Federal Employee of the Year Award in 2007 from the Partnership for Public Service, the 2011 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award, and the 2017 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. 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.

To read more about the Michael J. Brody Lecture see https://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/pharmacology/news-events/michael-j-brody-memorial-lecture.