• Question: what inspired you to start reasearcing cancer

    Asked by anon-328803 on 10 Jun 2022.
    • Photo: Rachel Harris

      Rachel Harris answered on 10 Jun 2022:

      During my degree, I was given a project to look into how a cancer drug (imatinib) worked. For me, it was this project that sparked my interest. I found it fascinating how both the cause and the cure to a deadly disease could be as simple as a single molecule. Since cancer has a quite well-understood mechanism (mutated DNA = mutated RNA =mutated protein) it feels like creating cancer treatments is a bit like being an engineer but for cells. To me that just seemed cool so I just wanted to keep doing that!

    • Photo: Karin Purshouse

      Karin Purshouse answered on 10 Jun 2022:

      Great question – I didn’t know I did for a long time, in fact I thought I wanted to be a surgeon for a while. But when I did my intercalated science degree (which was surgically themed), we all had to pick a research project, and everyone else seemed to want to do projects related to biomechanics or surgical training. I picked a project in a lab to do with breast cancer, and I had to go and collect blood samples from patients that I then processed in a lab. I realised I loved talking to the patients, even on difficult days, and the process of converting those patient samples into a scientific question. And so my career in cancer was born!

    • Photo: Jocelyn Bisson

      Jocelyn Bisson answered on 10 Jun 2022:

      During my degree I got really interested in genetics. I find DNA and genes amazing (it’s a recipe for a person on one really long strand of DNA!). Cancer occurs due to mutated genes and I was really interested in that and wanted to study it more. I was also keen to help veterinary patients with cancer and try to give them better treatment options.

    • Photo: Maria Peiris Pages

      Maria Peiris Pages answered on 13 Jun 2022: last edited 13 Jun 2022 10:53 am

      That was the subject that I liked the most during my Bsc in Biology. It was called the Biology of Cancer and I found it extremely interesting. I then went on to do a MRes in the lab of the teacher who taught that subject!

    • Photo: Chelsea Gerada

      Chelsea Gerada answered on 16 Jun 2022:

      For me it was from more of scientific standpoint, I had come from a background of studying how foreign invaders such as viruses manipulate our cells and immune system to cause disease. In the case of cancer, it’s our own cells that change to cause to disease so I was interested in the immune involvement in this process and how different/ similar it would be to dealing with infections. Additionally I was interested by the potential of manipulating our own immune system to treat cancer.

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