Frank M. Torti, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.

Frank M. Torti, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.

Dr. Torti was named Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs on January 20, 2009.

Dr. Torti received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (cum laude), and his M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he trained in cancer epidemiology and nutrition. He was an intern and resident at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, a Harvard teaching hospital, and a fellow in medical oncology at Stanford University. While on the Stanford faculty, he served as Executive Officer of the Northern California Oncology Group and Associate Director of the Northern California Cancer Program, and was instrumental in the development and oversight of the data management functions and overall administration of that clinical cooperative group and its regional network in northern California . While at Stanford, he led one of the most active genitourinary programs in the country. He was tenured at Stanford University and has published in Science, J. Biol. Chem., Mol. Cell. Biol., Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sci., J. Immunol., J. Clin. Oncol., Cancer Res., New Eng. Jour. Med., Ann. Int. Med., Cell, and other highly respected journals. He has served on or chaired a number of national study sections, including those of the NIH, VA, DOD, and AICR. He was recently appointed to NIH Council for the National Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the HHS Secretary.

He joined Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1993 as the Charles L. Spurr Professor of Medicine, Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology. He developed and is principal investigator on a training program in cancer biology for PhD students and MD and PhD postdoctoral fellows that is funded by an NIH T32 grant.

Dr. Torti is an active and well known clinical investigator in urologic oncology. He is widely published in this area and has designed and executed clinical trials that have become standards of care in genitourinary oncology. He has organized international GU oncology meetings, served on ASCO expert panels, written extensively on prostate and bladder cancer, and is GU oncology section editor of Current Opinion in Oncology. He has organized an active multidisciplinary clinic in GU oncology at Wake Forest. He has routinely been chosen by his peers for lists in national magazines of "top cancer doctors" and "top GU cancer doctors."

Dr. Torti has made fundamental observations on the molecular action of oxidants and cytokines and their relationship to cancer and iron homeostasis. He has been continually funded by an NIH RO1 grant for his basic science research since his lab was established in 1988. He recently received a MERIT award from the NIH, an honor bestowed on only 2% of all NIH grantees.

Dr. Torti was Principal Deputy Commissioner and Chief Scientist at the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Maryland from May 2008 through January 2009.