Levi A. Garraway (born in 1968) is an American oncologist. His research team was among the first to adapt genomics technologies to enable scalable, high-throughput clinical approaches to cancer gene mutation profiling. As a result, he was inducted into the

American Society for Clinical Investigation The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), established in 1908, is one of the oldest and most respected medical honor societies in the United States. Organization and purpose The ASCI is an honorary society to which more than 2,800 p ...

American Association for Cancer Research The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research. Based in Philadelphia, the AACR focuses on all aspects of cancer research, including Basic research, basic, ...

, and

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

Early life and education

Garraway was born to parents

Annie Marie Watkins Garraway Annie Marie Garraway ( Watkins; born 1940) is an American mathematician who worked in telecommunications and electronic data transmission. She is also a philanthropist. Biography Garraway was born Annie Marie Watkins in Parsons, Kansas, the ol ...

and Michael Garraway in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. His mother earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and became a department chair at AT&T Bell Labs. As well, his uncle

Levi Watkins Levi Watkins Jr. (June 13, 1944 – April 11, 2015) was an American heart surgeon and civil rights activist. On February 4, 1980, he and Vivien Thomas were the first to successfully implant an automatic defibrillator in a human patient at Johns Ho ...

was the first African-American student admitted to and graduate from

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) is the graduate medical school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. The School of Medicine is primarily housed within the Eskind Biomedical Libra ...

. His father, an émigré from the Caribbean, was also a professor of plant biology at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. While Garraway was in high school, he hung around the university lab and helped his father with experiments. Garraway received his A.B. in biochemical sciences from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

and his

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

and Ph.D. from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. He then completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

and his fellowship training in medical oncology at the

Dana–Farber Cancer Institute Dana–Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) is a comprehensive cancer treatment and research center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dana-Farber is the founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Harvard's Comprehensive Cancer Center designated ...

. His choice to pursue a medical degree on top of his PhD was the result of his academic family, specifically his uncle.

Career

Upon completing his fellowship, Garraway became an associate member of the

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

and an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in the Department of Medical Oncology at the

. At Broad Institute, Garraway's research involved the systematic characterization of critical and targetable mechanisms enacted by common genomic alterations in human tumors. His research team was among the first to adapt genomics technologies to enable scalable, high-throughput clinical approaches to cancer gene mutation profiling. In 2007, Garraway and

Matthew Meyerson Matthew Langer Meyerson (born June 4, 1963) is an American pathologist and the Charles A. Dana Chair in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is also director of the Center for Cancer Genomics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Inst ...

published a paper detailing a method for large-panel testing of 238 DNA

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

s. This led to the establishment of

Foundation Medicine Foundation Medicine, Inc. is an American company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which develops, manufactures, and sells genomic profiling assays based on next-generation sequencing technology for solid tumors, hematologic malignancies, and ...

. As a result of his discovery, Garraway was eleceted a member of the

in 2009. During his tenure at the Broad Institute, Garraway also became the co-leader of the Cancer Genetics Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. In 2012, Garraway was a recipient of the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research from the

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a oncology, cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute–NCI-designated Cancer Center, designated Comprehen ...

as a "promising scientist under the age of 45 in recognition of his contributions to cancer research." He also earned the 19th annual Herbert and Maxine Block Memorial Lectureship Award for Achievement in Cancer. On September 14, 2016, Garraway was appointed the Senior Vice President of Global Oncology at

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company, Trade name, doing business as Lilly, is an American multinational Medication, pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 count ...

, succeeding Richard Gaynor. In October 2019, Garraway started his new leadership role as

Roche Holding AG F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Swiss multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on ...

's Chief Medical Officer. He was also elected to the

for "visionary contributions to the establishment of genomics-driven precision cancer medicine by pioneering high-throughput adaptation of genomic technologies to profile human tumors to identify actionable cancer gene mutations, allowing for precise patient population stratification." During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Garraway was elected a member of the

"for the discovery of genetic drivers of melanoma, prostate cancer, and other malignancies, the discovery of mechanisms of response and resistance to anticancer therapies in melanoma and other cancer types, pioneering platforms and approaches to cancer precision medicine, and incorporating precision medicine principles in therapeutic development."

Personal life

Garraway and his wife Gisele have two children together; a son and a daughter. , his younger sister Isla is a urologist and surgeon at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center The Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) is a cancer research center at University of California, Los Angeles. History The center was originated by UCLA scientists and volunteers who began working together in the late 1960s.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garraway, Levi Living people People from Oakland, California Harvard University faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine Members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation American oncologists Fellows of the AACR Academy Harvard College alumni Harvard Medical School alumni 1968 births