Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon), was Director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, a multidisciplinary research and clinical care organization that is one of the largest cancer centers in the Western U.S, and he was also Associate Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. A native of Cambridge, England, Dr. McCormick received his BSc in biochemistry from the University of Birmingham (1972) and his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge (1975). Postdoctoral fellowships were held in the U.S at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and in London, UK, at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He has been a fellow of the Royal Society since 1996. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. McCormick pursued cancer-related work with several Bay Area biotechnology firms, including positions with Cetus Corporation (Director of Molecular Biology, 1981-90; Vice-President of Research, 1990-91) and Chiron Corporation, where he was a vice-president of research from 1991-92. In 1992, he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals and served as its chief scientific officer until 1996. Dr. McCormick’s current research interests center on the fundamental differences between normal cells and cancer cells that can allow the development of novel therapeutic strategies. In addition to the positions he has held at UCSF, he holds the E. Dixon Heise Distinguished Professorship in Oncology and the David A. Wood Distinguished Professorship of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research in UCSF’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. McCormick is the author of more than 270 scientific publications.
