Victor A. Levin, MD, is currently Emeritus Professor of
Neuro-Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Clinical
Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of California San
Francisco Medical School, and a Neuro-Oncology pool Physician at the Kaiser
Permanente Redwood City Hospital. In
addition, he is Senior Medical Advisor to Orbus Therapeutics, Inc. and the
STELLAR Study for the treatment of recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma; DMC Chair
for Bristol Myers Squibb CNS immunotherapy trials; and scientific advisor to
more than 25 large and small pharmaceutical and device companies and
philanthropic groups over the decades.
In addition, over his academic career he has held academic
positions as Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Department
of Pharmacology, University of California - San Francisco School of Medicine
(UCSF) in 1981−1987; Professor, Department Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University
of California - San Francisco, School of Pharmacy in 1981−1988; and Professor,
Department of Neuro-Oncology and held the Bernard W. Biedenharn Chair for
Cancer Research Medicine, The University of Texas
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (UT MDACC) in 1988−2009. He
has also held the following positions as Chief, Neuro-Oncology Service, Brain
Tumor Research Center, Department of Neurological Surgery, UCSF in 1977−1988;
Chairman, Experimental Cancer Treatment Group, Northern California Cancer
Center (NCCP) in 1980−1987; Associate Director, Brain Tumor Research Center,
UCSF in 1980−1988; Associate Director for Laboratory Research, NCCP in
1983−1988; and Co-Director, Brain Tumor Center, UT MDACC in 1993−1999. He was
also the Founder, with Charles B. Wilson, MD, of the International Conference on Brain Tumor Research & Therapy and
organizer of the conferences in 1975, 1979, and 1981
Over his nearly 50 year career, he has received many awards
including a 5-year American Cancer Society Faculty Award; Medal of the Medical
Faculty of Tokyo University, Farber Foundation Award in Neuro-Oncology, David
A. Frommer Memorial Lecture in Neuro-Oncology, Fred Plum Lecturer, Heath
Memorial Award for Cancer Care; The First Annual Takao Hoshino Lecturer at both
UCSF and at the Japan Neurological Society Annual Meeting; and the Society for
Neuro-Oncology Gold Medal Award for Extraordinary Achievement. He has held many NIH, philanthropic,
institutional, and pharmaceutical company grants including principal
investigator on the first National Cancer Cooperative Drug Discovery Group
(NCDDG) in 1983 that he renewed 3 times over 17 years as well as the first PO1
for glioma research funded at the UT MDACC in 1996. He was the primary founder
of the Society for Neuro-Oncology and its first president in 1995 and a founder
of one early stage (Signase) and two late stage pharmaceutical companies (VBL
Pharmaceuticals and Orbus Therapeutics).
He has written 395 peer-reviewed papers, invited articles, book
chapters, and books as well as 2 op-ed newspaper articles and is cited on 9
patents.