He was talking about his research to immunologist Harold Varmus, who later headed the National Institutes of Health.

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Harold Varmus, the director of the National Cancer Institute, knows David Koch from Memorial Sloan-Kettering, which he used to run.

NEWYORKER: Covert Operations

If rejected by the school you love, Dr. Varmus advises in an email, immerse yourself in life at a college that welcomes you.

WSJ: When Success Follows the College Rejection Letter

Dr. Varmus, the Nobel laureate and president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, was daunted by the first of his two turndowns by Harvard's med school.

WSJ: When Success Follows the College Rejection Letter

Obama's order directs the NIH to develop revised guidelines on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research within 120 days, according to Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council.

CNN: Obama overturns Bush policy on stem cells

Among Clinton's VIP box guests will be Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Florida Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, whose state education and child-care programs are sources of some of the national proposals advocated by the president.

CNN: AllPolitics

"That's great, " Varmus told him.

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