I have a great story about Jim and the discovery of DNA structure. When I applied to the Max-Planck Institute for virology as a graduate student I had to have an interview. So I walk into the office of the professor and he has this little tube, sort of a plastic tube, on his desk, and there was a strange model in there. And he shoved it over to me and said, “Do you know what that is?” I had no idea. That was 1955. It was a double helix. I remember the text books we had in botany would discuss the contents of the cell nucleus and sort of mention briefly DNA. And say,--- of functional DNA unknown, probably some inert structural material. That was in 1955 still in textbooks.

Peter K. Vogt works at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California. His fundamental studies on oncogenic avian retroviruses led to the identification of oncogenes in human cells. His work also includes the discovery of MYC, the most important driver in human cancer, and he made pioneering contributions to the understanding of PI3Ks, a family of critical cancer targets.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Vogt remains actively engaged in research on the biology and genetics of cancer.