Marc Straus

Straus was raised in Long Island and in Brooklyn. His father was an orphaned immigrant who came to the United States at age 15 and later owned a textile business on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Growing up, Straus worked in the shop on Sundays.{{Cite web|title=THE STRAUS COLLECTION » FLATT|url=http://flattmag.com/features/strauss-collection-love-story/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=FLATT|language=en-US}}

Straus received a B.A. degree from Franklin & Marshall College in 1964 and an M.D. from State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in 1968. He interned at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn in 1968–69.{{Cite book|last=Oversight|first=United States Congress House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=avIqAAAAMAAJ&q=%22marc+straus%22+and+franklin&pg=PA180|title=Fraud in Biomedical Research: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, First Session, March 31, April 1, 1981|date=1981|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}

From 1969 to 1971, Straus was a staff associate at the National Cancer Institute. He was a resident a Barnes Hospital in St. Louis from 1971–72.

Straus served as SesenioCacancer rcer Research internist at the National Cancer Institute Veteran’s Administration (NCI-VA) Medical Oncology Branch from 1972 to 1974. During this period, he also served as head of the NCI-VA Cell Kinetics Laboratory, as NCI-VA Director of Medical Education, and as Executive Officer of the NCI Work Group for Therapy of Lung Cancer. At the National Cancer Institute he worked on cancer drug studies in mice which established optimal ways of combining different drugs to improve outcomes. During this time he had a number of studies published in cancer research journals.{{cite journal|vauthors=Straus MJ, Mantel N, Goldin A|year=1971|title=Effects of priming dose schedules in methotrexate treatment of mouse leukemia L1210|journal=Cancer Research|volume=31|issue=10|pages=1429–33|pmid=5095131}}{{cite journal|vauthors=Straus MJ, Straus SE, Krezoski S, Battiste L|year=1977|title=The uptake, excretion, and radiation hazards of tritiated thymidine in humans|journal=Cancer Research|volume=37|issue=2|pages=610–8|pmid=832281}}

In 1973 he was recruited as Chief of Oncology and Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University Medical Center where his clinical and research work focused primarily on breast and lung cancers.{{cite journal|vauthors=Straus MJ, Moran RE |title=Cell cycle parameters in human solid tumors |journal=Cancer |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=1453–61 |doi=10.1002/1097-0142(197710)40:4<1453::AID-CNCR2820400416>3.0.CO;2-E |pmid=907963 |year=1977 |s2cid=10466852 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|author=Straus MJ|title=New developments in the treatment of advanced lung cancer|journal=The American Review of Respiratory Disease|volume=120|issue=5|pages=967–71|pmid=228574|year=1979|doi=10.1164/arrd.1979.120.5.967|doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024}}{{cite journal|vauthors=Straus MJ, Moran RE |title=The cell cycle kinetics of human breast cancer|journal=Cancer|volume=46|issue=12|pages=2634–9|pmid=7448702|year=1980|doi=10.1002/1097-0142(19801215)46:12<2634::aid-cncr2820461217>3.0.co;2-k|s2cid=20536307 }} While at BU, Straus was among the recipients of the Ten Outstanding Young Leaders Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.{{Cite web|last=City Awake a program of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce|title=Ten Outstanding Young Leaders|url=https://www.cityawake.org/uploads/toyl/TOYL-honorees-list-LZ.pdf|website=City Awake}}

After leaving BU in 1978, Straus took up posts at the Westchester County Medical Center where he continued his clinical and laboratory research work. From 1978 to 1982 he was Professor of Medicine and Chief of Neoplastic Diseases at the New York Medical College.

Straus is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed and published scientific papers pertaining to the treatment of cancer.{{Cite web|title=Google Scholar|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,33&as_vis=1&q=%22marc+straus%22|access-date=2021-07-28|website=scholar.google.com}}{{cite journal|vauthors=Straus MJ, Choi SC |title=Association of increased height with renovascular hypertension|journal=JAMA|volume=223|issue=4|pages=440–1|pmid=4739127|year=1973|doi=10.1001/jama.1973.03220040054022}}{{cite journal|author=Straus MJ|title=Combination chemotherapy in advanced lung cancer with increased survival |journal=Cancer |volume=38 |issue=6 |pages=2232–41 |pmid=187314 |year=1976 |doi=10.1002/1097-0142(197612)38:6<2232::aid-cncr2820380607>3.0.co;2-k|s2cid=39490372 |doi-access=free }}

He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

From 1982 to 2008, he headed Access Medical Group, a multi-specialty group in the Hudson Valley, New York, which had 36 doctors. In 1997 he founded a medical management company that managed 300 doctors in New York state.

In 1982, Straus started CarePlus, a publicly trade home nutrition company.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} In 1983 he founded Medical Registry Services, a software company that provides cancer registry software support for hospitals. In 2008 he and his son, Ari, founded MDINR, a software company wthatsupported doctors treating patients with the anti-coagulant, Coumadin, also sold under the brand name Warfarin.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Straus was president of The Oxford Medical Group, P.C. and chief executive officer and chair of MDx Med-Care.

In 1991 Straus took a poetry workshop at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. He was later awarded a writing residency at Yaddo, an artists' community located on a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York.{{Cite web|title=Writers – Yaddo|url=https://www.yaddo.org/artists/artist-guests/writers/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=www.yaddo.org}} In 1999 Straus was awarded the Robert Penn Warren Award Lecture in the Humanities from Yale University Medical School.{{Cite web|date=1998-03-20|title=Attorney for Terry Nichols, Greek Orthodox Archbishop, Inventor, Safari Guide and others to Speak at Yale|url=https://news.yale.edu/1998/03/20/attorney-terry-nichols-greek-orthodox-archbishop-inventor-safari-guide-and-others-speak-y|access-date=2021-07-30|website=YaleNews|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Yale Bulletin and Calendar – Visiting on Campus|url=http://archives.news.yale.edu/ybc/v26.n25.visit.html|access-date=2021-07-30|website=archives.news.yale.edu}}

Straus left his full-time medical practice in 2006 and began focusing on his poetry. By 2009 he had published more than 100 poems and three books. His poems have been published in more than 100 journals including Kthe enyon Review, Ploughshares, and TriQuarterly.His work often deals with doctor patient communication. Many poems are in the voices of patients or doctors.

Straus' work was the basis of a 2004 exhibition at Lehigh University called "THE BRIDGE: A Journey Through Illness" with a catalog and essay by poet John Yau.{{Cite book|last=Yau|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=we33GwAACAAJ|title=The Bridge: A Journey Through Illness: Rick Levinson, Visual Artist: Marc J. Straus, Poet: April 7 – June 20, 2004|date=2004|publisher=Lehigh University Art Galleries/Museum Operation|language=en}}

Straus made his first art acquisition of four Milton Resnick paintings while still a teenager.

Straus and his wife, Livia, began collecting contemporary art by 1966. Their collection has been featured in The NY Times,Russell, John: Contemporary Classics at Aldrich. The New York Times, August 4, 1989, C23. Forbes, Harper's Bazaar, Contemporanea,Facts and Fancy: A Review of The Whitney Biennial. Contemporanea. 2: 6-7/89, 87–89. Art & Antiques, and ARTnews.Pollack, Barbara: The Straus Collection. ArtNews, November 1999, p. 144-146. The couples' personal art collection includes four pop art prints and one oil painting by Roy Lichtenstein, two works by Claes Oldenburgs (plaster loaves of bread from 1961 and a molded rubber screw from 1975), and three works by Jasper Johns.{{Cite news|last=Zimmer|first=William|date=1989-08-20|title=ART; A Private and Passionate Taste for the Contemporary|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/nyregion/art-a-private-and-passionate-taste-for-the-contemporary.html|access-date=2021-07-30|issn=0362-4331}} Their collection has been listed in Art & Antiques as one of the Top 100 collections in the US.Pacheco, Patrick: America's Top 100 Collectors. Art & Antiques, March 1995, p. 106.

Straus has written some 35 articles in leading publications on art collecting and art criticismWho's On First. Review of Whitney Biennial. Provincetown Arts. Summer, 1997.[https://books.google.com/books/about/In_the_Lineage_of_Eva_Hesse.html?id=ed3aGAAACAAJ In the Lineage of Eva Hesse]. for catalog – In the Lineage of Eva Hesse: Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. January- May 1994.THE ART MARKET: Flash Art November 2010. and was president of the Aldrich museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield Connecticut.{{Cite web|title=The Authenticity Scout: Dealer Kerry Schuss on Discovering Artistic Geniuses of All Ages (Where You Least Expect It)|url=http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/kerry-schuss-interview|access-date=2021-07-30|website=Artspace|language=english}}

In 2002 the couple founded the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, turning a 12,000 sq ft former paneling factory in Peekskill NY into a space for cutting-edge contemporary art by artists like Folkert de Jong and Thomas Hirschhorn.{{Cite web|date=2021-03-26|title=Your Complete Guide to Westchester's Artistic Venues|url=https://westchestermagazine.com/things-to-do/arts-culture/westchester-venues/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=Westchester Magazine|language=en-US}} The facility was later renamed the Hudson Valley MOCA. Its focus is on emerging artists from around the world and supporting an economically challenged area with education programs.{{Cite web|date=2019-02-27|title=22 Things Every Westchester Resident Needs to Do|url=https://westchestermagazine.com/uncategorized/22-things-every-westchester-resident-needs-to-do/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=Westchester Magazine|language=en-US}}

Straus opened MARC STRAUS, a contemporary art gallery on Grand Street, Manhattan, in 2011. NYC across the street from where his father's store had been. The gallery represents 24 artists from 16 different counties. In 2014 Flash Art listed MARC STRAUS as among the top 100 galleries in the world. {{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

In 2001 Straus and his wife established the Marc and Livia Straus Foundation to support their artistic endeavors.{{Cite web|title=THE MARC & LIVIA STRAUS FOUNDATION, INC. {{!}} New York Company Directory|url=https://www.nycompanyregistry.com/companies/the-marc-livia-straus-foundation-inc/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=www.nycompanyregistry.com}}

Straus was a Trustee of Franklin and Marshall College from 1994 – 2004.{{Cite journal|date=November 2010|title=F&M's Westchester/Southern Connecticut Regional Chapter Presents "After the Fall" – An Exclusive Viewing of Eastern European Art with Marc Straus '65|url=https://www.fandm.edu/uploads/files/284500128155753994-regional-blue-chapter-event-catalog-original-1.pdf|journal=F&M Event Catalog for Blue Chapters|pages=27–28}} He also funded the establishment of the school’s first Jewish Studies program.{{Cite web|title=From Exclusion to Celebration|url=https://www.fandm.edu/magazine/archive/features/2008/10/22/from-exclusion-to-celebration|access-date=2021-07-28|website=www.fandm.edu|language=en}}

In 2017, the Strauses donated the former Devitt’s Medical Arts Building in New Windsor, NY to Abilities First, a regional provider of education, vocational development, and residential for individuals with developmental disabilities.{{Cite web|last=Dunne|first=Allison|title=Donation Enables Abilities First School For Orange County|url=https://www.wamc.org/post/donation-enables-abilities-first-school-orange-county|access-date=2021-07-28|website=www.wamc.org|date=July 2, 2017|language=en}} The gift, valued at $3.2M, was the largest in the organization’s history. The building became the first Orange County location for the Abilities First School and was named in honor of Straus and his family.{{Cite web|last=Axelrod|first=Daniel|title=Abilities First to get permanent OC home|url=https://www.recordonline.com/news/20180628/abilities-first-to-get-permanent-oc-home|access-date=2021-07-28|website=recordonline.com|language=en}}

Straus and his wife met while the two were teenagers. They live in Chappaqua, NY.{{Cite web|date=2016-06-01|title=Museum Quality|url=https://upstatehouse.com/museum-quality/|access-date=2021-07-28|website=Upstate House|language=en}}

In June 1978, two nurses and two trainees who worked with him at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) alleged that Straus had ordered them to falsify patients' records,{{cite book|last=Charrow|first=Robert P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl0amQiCtmwC&q=marc+j.+straus+was+a+clinical+investigator+at+boston+university&pg=PA52|title=Law in the Laboratory: A Guide to the Ethics of Federally Funded Science Research|date=July 15, 2010|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226101651|pages=52–53, 104|author-link=Robert Charrow|access-date=August 20, 2016}} had failed to get proper consent from patients, and had improperly administered drugs.{{cite journal|date=February 18, 1982|title=Cancer Institute 'fines' accused scientist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0ABzs0Yl5oC&q=marc+straus+boston&pg=PA420|journal=New Scientist|page=420|access-date=August 20, 2016}} Straus denied personal involvement in wrongdoing{{cite news|date=May 20, 1982|title=Doctor Admits Filing False Data and Is Barred from U.S. Support|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/20/us/doctor-admits-filing-false-data-and-is-barred-from-us-support.html|access-date=August 20, 2016}}{{cite web|date=May 21, 1982|title=Dr. Marc J. Straus, a cancer researcher barred from…|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/05/21/Dr-Marc-J-Straus-a-cancer-researcher-barred-from/1804390801600/|access-date=August 22, 2016|website=UPI}} asserting his innocence{{cite news|date=May 21, 2016|title=Doctor Denies Role in Fraud|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/21/us/doctor-denies-role-in-fraud.html|access-date=August 20, 2016}} and maintaining that he had been framed by disgruntled subordinates.{{cite news|last=Hilts|first=Philip J.|date=May 20, 1982|title=Cancer Researcher Punished in Fraud Case|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/05/20/cancer-researcher-punished-in-fraud-case/d66ca831-5137-405f-ab21-366ed2c2aa39/|access-date=August 20, 2016}}{{cite journal|last=Sun|first=M.|date=January 21, 1983|title=Banned researcher publishes a paper|journal=Science|volume=219|issue=4582|page=270|bibcode=1983Sci...219..270S|doi=10.1126/science.11644000|pmid=11644000}}

Straus resigned from his posts at Boston University Medical Center Hospital (since 1996 part of Boston Medical Center) and BUSM.{{cite news|date=July 17, 1980|title=Cancer research validity is criticized|newspaper=The Day|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19800715&id=pzAiAAAAIBAJ&pg=2539,2696809&hl=en|access-date=August 20, 2016}} later that month. Following his resignation, Straus made multiple requests for external peer review of the charges against him. BU refused, leading Straus to conclude that the internal evaluation of his work was tainted because of investigator bias and lack of protection for the records.{{Cite journal|last=Judith P. Swazey and Stephen R. Scher|date=September 21–22, 1981|title=Policies and Procedures for Responding to Reports of Misconduct|url=https://archive.org/details/whistleblowingin00unit|journal=President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research|pages=76–77}}

In 1980, while the investigation was ongoing, the National Cancer Institute awarded Straus a three-year grant of about $910,000 to conduct research. In 1981, Vincent T. DeVita Jr., Director of the NCI testified before Congress, saying that "his agencies award last year of a $910,000 research grant to a scientist last year... (Straus) …on the ground that ...the charges …had not yet been proven.{{Cite news|last=Times|first=Robert Reinhold, Special To The New York|date=1981-06-03|title=HEAD OF CANCER AGENCY DEFENDS AWARD OF GRANT TO ACCUSED SCIENTIST|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/03/us/head-of-cancer-agency-defends-award-of-grant-to-accused-scientist.html|access-date=2016-09-13|issn=0362-4331}}

One year later, Straus filed a $33 million lawsuit against five of his former co-workers, charging they had conspired to discredit his work.{{Cite news|last=Ap|date=1981-06-06|title=Researcher Sues 5 For Conspiracy|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/06/us/researcher-sues-5-for-conspiracy.html|access-date=2016-09-13|issn=0362-4331}} Straus strongly denied that he had engaged in any wrongdoing alleging that his signature had been forged.{{Cite journal|last=Broad|first=W. J.|date=1981-06-19|title=Straus defends himself in Boston|journal=Science|language=en|volume=212|issue=4501|pages=1367–1369|bibcode=1981Sci...212.1367B|doi=10.1126/science.7015514|issn=0036-8075|pmid=7015514}}

Ruth Moran, MD, PhD, Straus’ lab chief from 1972 testified:

"Having worked side by side with Dr. Straus for 8 years ...the allegations to be totally inconsistent with what I know his scientific standards to be... The (BUMC) committee refused to see me. Dr. Straus’ chief data manager (Mary Jane Rimmer, R.N.) reported to me ... that she had always been instructed by Dr. Straus to record data accurately."{{Cite web|title=A Guide to the Archival Collection of The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and in Biomedical and Behavioral Research|url=https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/708752/A%20Guide%20to%20the%20President%27s%20Commission%20for%20the%20Study%20of%20Ethical%20Problems%20in%20Medicine%20and%20in%20Biomedical%20and%20Behavioral%20Research.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y}}

After becoming convinced that this legal outcome was unavoidable, Straus settled with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1982, acknowledging that false reports were submitted without his knowledge.

In October 1982, Straus published a paper in Cancer Treatment Reports, a journal funded by the National Cancer Institute. The propriety of that publication was questioned in the journal Science. Straus continued to publish scientific clinical studies through 1998.{{cite journal|vauthors=Moran RE, Black MM, Alpert L, Straus MJ|year=1984|title=Correlation of cell-cycle kinetics, hormone receptors, histopathology, and nodal status in human breast cancer|journal=Cancer|volume=54|issue=8|pages=1586–90|doi=10.1002/1097-0142(19841015)54:8<1586::aid-cncr2820540820>3.0.co;2-9|pmid=6478400|s2cid=23348035 }}

LUNG CANCER Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment (1977) Edited by Marc J. Straus, M.D. Grune & Stratton{{Cite book|last=Straus|first=Marc J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eJ9rAAAAMAAJ|title=Lung Cancer: Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment|date=1983|publisher=Grune & Stratton|isbn=978-0-8089-1487-7|language=en}}

LUNG CANCER Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment (1983) Edited by Marc J. Straus, M.D. Grune & Stratton

SCARLET CROWN (1994), Aureole Press, Craftsman Printers{{Cite book|last=Straus|first=Marc|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rsZoGwAACAAJ|title=Scarlet Crown|date=1994|publisher=Aureole Press|language=en}}

ONE WORD (1994), TriQuarterly Books, Northwestern University Press{{cite book|author=Straus, Marc J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OG9bxED5Oc0C|title=One Word|date=October 26, 1994|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-5035-5}}

SYMMETRY (2000), TriQuarterly Books, Northwestern University Press{{cite book|author=Straus, Marc J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ni4IMKKFWUgC|title=Symmetry| year=2000 |publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-5096-6}}

NOT GOD: A Play in Verse (2006), TriQuarterly Books, Northwestern University Press.{{cite book|author=Straus, Marc J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XXSPxeDm3n8C|title=Not God: A Play in Verse|date=May 15, 2006|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-5169-7}}

Source:

• Straus, Marc J. "Combination chemotherapy in advanced lung cancer with increased survival." Cancer 38.6 (1976): 2232-2241.
• Straus, Marc J., et al. "Estrogen receptor heterogeneity and the relationship between estrogen receptor and the tritiated thymidine labeling index in human breast cancer." Oncology 39.4 (1982): 197–200. Straus, Marc J., and Ruth E. Moran. "Cell cycle parameters in human solid tumors." Cancer 40.4 (1977): 1453–1461.
• Straus, Marc J., and Ruth E. Moran. "The cell cycle kinetics of human breast cancer." Cancer 46.12 (1980): 2634–2639.
• Moran, Ruth E., and Marc J. Straus. "Synchronization of L1210 leukemia with hydroxyurea infusion and the effect of subsequent pulse dose chemotherapy." Cancer Treat Rep 64 (1980): 81–6.
• Moran, Ruth E., and Marc J. Straus. "Cytokinetic analysis of L1210 leukemia after continuous infusion of hydroxyurea in vivo." Cancer research 39.5 (1979): 1616–1622.
• Moran, Ruth E., and Marc J. Straus. "Effects of pulse and continuous intravenous infusion of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum on L1210 leukemia in vivo." Cancer research 41.12 Part 1 (1981): 4993–4996.
• Straus, Marc J. "Cytokinetic Chemotherapy Design for the Treatment of Advanced Lung Cancer 1, 2." Cancer treatment reports 63.5–8 (1979): 767. Cytokinetic analysis of L1210 leukemia after continuous infusion of hydroxyurea in vivo
• Straus, Marc J., Vivian Sege, and Sung C. Choi. "The effect of surgery and pretreatment or posttreatment adjuvant chemotherapy on primary tumor growth in an animal model." Journal of surgical oncology 7.6 (1975): 497–512.
• Straus, Marc J., et al. "The uptake, excretion, and radiation hazards of tritiated thymidine in humans." Cancer research 37.2 (1977): 610–618.
• Straus, Marc J., Nathan Mantel, and Abraham Goldin. "The Effect of the Sequence of Administration of Cytoxan and Methotrexate on the Life-span of L1210 Leukemic Mice." Cancer research 32.2 (1972): 200–207

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.hudsonvalleymoca.org/ Hudson Valley MOCA]
• [https://www.marcstraus.com/ Marc Straus Gallery]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straus, Marc}}

Category:Living people

Category:1943 births

Category:American art collectors

Category:American oncologists

Category:People involved in scientific misconduct incidents

Category:Jewish art collectors

Category:Franklin & Marshall College alumni

Category:Cancer researchers

Category:SUNY Downstate College of Medicine alumni

Category:Jews from New York (state)

Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers