Cancer Research

Interview with Joseph DeSimone, Sanjiv Sam Gambhir Professor of Translational Medicine and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford. DeSimone describes Gambhir’s pioneering work in molecular imaging, and he explains the value in his multiple departmental appointments for his research agenda. He recounts his upbringing in the Philadelphia area and his undergraduate focus on polymer chemistry at Ursinus College. DeSimone discusses his graduate research in the same field at Virginia Tech, where he studied CO2 polymers under the direction of James McGrath. He explains the opportunities that led to his appointment at UNC Chapel Hill, and he discusses the research advantage of his dual position at NCSU. DeSimone discusses his advisory work for the NSF, and he describes how he became involved in bio-nanotechnology and gene therapy research. He explains his increasing interests in entrepreneurial research. He narrates the origins of the Carbon 3D company and the possibilities he saw in 3D printing. DeSimone reflects on the fantastic financial success of the company, and he explains his decision to return to academia at Stanford, and at the end of the interview, he describes the value of Peter Thiel’s “Zero to One” approach for science research.

This is an interview with Paula Hammond, David H. Koch Chair of Engineering at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Department Head of Chemical Engineering at MIT, and member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She describes her childhood in Detroit and her parents’ professions in medicine and science, her father’s activity with the NAACP, and an influential schoolteacher who encouraged her to look into chemical engineering. Hammond describes the opportunities and attraction that led her to enroll at MIT as an undergraduate, where she focused on chemical engineering and developed a particular interest in polymer science. She describes her brief work as a process engineer at Motorola before getting a Master’s at Georgia Tech before returning to MIT to join a new PhD program, Polymer Science and Technology, founded by Robert Cohen who had mentored Hammond as an undergraduate, and where Michael Rubner supervised her thesis research in diacetylene and high-strength fibers. She describes her postdoctoral research at Harvard before returning to MIT to join the faculty and her subsequent focus on soft lithography, carbon nanotube electrodes for high-density batteries, and electrochemistry on patterned surfaces. Hammond explains how she became interested in chemical engineering applications to biology, and how her sensibilities are useful to the biologists she collaborates with, and the physicists with whom she is working on battery technologies and energy efficiencies research. She describes the impact of growing computational power on her research over the years, and she discusses her current interests in nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer therapies. Hammond shares her perspective on recent efforts to enhance diversity and inclusivity across STEM, and at the end of the interview, she expresses her optimism with MRNA technology.

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Douglas Brash, Professor in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology in the Yale School of Medicine. Brash recounts his childhood in a rural community outside of Cleveland, and then in Chicago, and he describes his early interests in science and his determination to become a physicist by the third grade. He discusses his education at Illinois where he majored in engineering physics, and he describes his formative summer job at Livermore Laboratory which helped to compel him to pursue biophysics for graduate school. Brash discusses his research at Ohio State under the supervision of Karl Kornacker, and the work of his graduate adviser, Ron Hart who was focused on DNA repair. Brash discusses his interests in aging and molecular biology which was the foundation for his dissertation, and he provides an overview of biophysics as a discrete field in the 1970s. He discusses the distinctions in his research regarding basic science and clinically relevant therapies as it relates to understanding cancer, and he describes the varying interests in environmental carcinogenesis and retroviruses as a basis for cancer research. Brash explains the origins of the discovery of oncogenes and the connection leading to his specialty in skin cancer research. He describes his postdoctoral research at Harvard and the Dana Farber Institute with Bill Haseltine working on DNA damage and mutagenesis. Brash discusses his subsequent work at the NIH where he continued his research in cell mutation and where he began to study the effect of UV rays on skin cancer. He explains the circumstances leading to his decision to join the faculty at Yale, where he realized he had greater opportunity to continue examining UV rays and skin cancer. Brash offers an overview of the major advances over the last two decades in skin cancer research, and he describes the central importance in DNA sequencing and Chemiecxitation. He discusses the many research advantages associated with having an appointment in a medical school, and at the of the interview, Brash describes the value of bringing a physics approach to cancer research, and some of the policy and communication implications that come with working at the cutting edge of the field. 

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Kandice Tanner, Stadtman Investigator at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Tanner recounts her upbringing in Trinidad and Tobago, and she shares that her mother "knew" she was going to be a physicist before Tanner herself decided on this career track. She describes how her abilities in math and science prompted her to go to the all-boys school for high school, and she discusses the factors and opportunities leading to her undergraduate studies at South Carolina State University. Tanner describes some of the cultural adjustments coming both to the United States and to attending a historically Black college, and she explains how an encounter at a conference of the National Society of Black Physicists led to her acceptance to the graduate physics program at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. She describes her research in biophysics under the direction of Enrico Gratton and she discusses her dissertation on the deconvolution of spectral photonics of a mammalian brain. Tanner discusses her postdoctoral work at University of California, Irvine where she worked with Bruce Tromberg on building a joint microscope that did optical tomography and two-photon microscopy. She describes her subsequent work at Berkeley in Mina Bissell's lab, which is where she developed her career interests in cancer research, and she discusses the formative effect of Ken Yamada's work. Tanner explains the attractions that led her to join the NCI, which offered unparalleled advantages of in vivo research. At the end of the interview, Tanner describes her current research on breast cancer and glioblastomas, and she explains why she wants to focus her research in the future on immunotherapies as among the most promising avenues in cancer treatment. 

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush professor of Biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts. Levin recounts his early childhood in Moscow and the circumstances leading to his family's arrival in Massachusetts. He explains his early interests in technology and physics, and he describes his multidisciplinary curriculum at Tufts that that explored computational and biological questions which fascinated him. Levin discusses his graduate work at the Harvard Medical School where he studied gene expression in embryos from a quantum level perspective. Levin explains his postdoctoral research with Mark Mercola and his work at the Forsyth Institute. He discusses his developing interests in bioelectricity and the challenges associated with presenting his work in mainstream academic science.  Levin discusses in interest in cancer research and he describes his work as director at the Allen Discovery Center. Levin explains his decision to take on a joint appointment at Harvard, and he describes the utility of using the metaphors of computer hardware to explain biological systems. He describes his current interests in AI and the future of evolutionary biology.

AIP Oral Historian David Zierler interviews Dr. Jenny Glusker of the Fox Chase Cancer Center.