Robin Scheffler is an associate professor in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He is also the author of A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine, and a historian of the modern biological and biomedical sciences and their intersections with developments in American history.
In this episode, Scheffler overviews the history of viral oncology, beginning with the idea of cancer as a contagion.
Scheffler then delves into historical controversies surrounding the study of cancer vaccines, as well as the beginning of NCI’s viral oncology program—which received millions in funding after the signing of the National Cancer Act.
A transcript of this episode is available here.
