Dr. Frank M. Torti, M.D., MPH has just been appointed as the Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA). He has been a prominent clinician, scientist and researcher in molecular oncology. Until his appointment at the FDA as Principal Deputy Commissioner and first Chief Scientist in April 2008, Dr. Torti had served the as Charles L. Spurr Professor of Medicine, Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology, and Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Dr. Torti received his bachelor’s and master’s from Johns Hopkins University, his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and his Master of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. He served as an intern and resident at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and a fellow of medical oncology at Stanford University where he subsequently joined the faculty and was tenured. He has written extensively on prostate and bladder cancer, designed and executed a number of cancer clinical trials, and has substantially contributed to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Throughout his career, Dr. Torti has served on and chaired a number of national health and medical committees. He has also served on the National Institutes of Health’s National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine as well as being the founder and first President of the Cancer Biology Training Consortium, a national society of cancer biology department chairs and program directors. He is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health MERIT Award.
Dr. Torti has released the following press statement inviting public comment about the FDA. I am working with members of Malecare to fashion a re