David Agus, MD

David B. Agus, MD, is one of the world’s leading cancer doctors and pioneering biomedical researchers. Over the past 20 years he’s received acclaim for his innovations in medicine and contributions to new technologies that will change how all of us maintain our health. He’s also built a reputation for having a unique way of looking at the relationship of the body to health and disease. He explains: “Sometimes you have to go to war to understand peace. My work in the cancer war has taught me a lot about all things health-related, much of which goes against conventional wisdom.”

Agus is professor of medicine and engineering at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. His is the founding director of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine and heads USC’s Westside Cancer Center. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania. He trained at Johns Hopkins and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. A staunch advocate for personalized medicine, he chairs the Global Agenda Council on Genetics for the World Economic Forum and is co-founder of Applied Proteomics and Navigenics, two healthcare technology and wellness companies.

His honors and awards include the American Cancer Society Physician Research Award, a Clinical Scholar Award from the Sloan-Kettering Institute and the 2009 Geoffrey Beene Foundation’s Rock Stars of Science Award.