David Agus
David B. Agus () is an American physician and author who serves as a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering and the Founding Director and CEO of USC’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. He is also the cofounder of several personalized medicine companies and a contributor to CBS News 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 in 1987 and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in 1991. He completed his residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed his oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He spent two years at the National Institutes of Health as a Howard  Hughes Medical Institute-NIH Research Scholar. Career. Agus has had a long and varied career. At the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC, 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 Department of Medical Oncology and head of the Laboratory of Tumor Biology. He was also Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cornell University Medical Center. As director of the  Spielberg Family Center for Applied Proteomics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center 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 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is 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 of USC. Agus chairs the Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Genetics for the World Economic Forum, and speaks regularly at TEDMED, the Aspen Ideas Festival and the World Economic Forum. Agus  has received many honors and awards, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2017), American Cancer Society Physician Research Award, a Clinical Scholar Award from the Sloan-Kettering Institute, a CaP CURE Young Investigator Award and the American Society of Clinical Oncology 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. 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. He is a member of several scientific and medical societies, including the Council on Foreign Relations, American Association for Cancer Research, American College of Physicians, American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Agus became a contributor for CBS News in 2013 and appears regularly on "CBS This Morning" 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). Personal life. Agus is married to Amy Joyce Povich, actress and daughter of syndicated television talk show host Maury Povich. Her stepmother, Connie Chung, is a  former CBS News 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 during his battle with prostate cancer. He was on the board of directors of the Biden Cancer Initiative, Thrive Global, Olive AI, the National Library of Israel and the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.