Todd Golub, director and founding core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, appeared on the Cancer Luminaries podcast, a series launched by the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center to mark its 50th year as a National Cancer Institute-designated center.
Last week, the Cancer History Project highlighted a Cancer Luminaries podcast episode featuring Otis W. Brawley, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Oncology and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, and co-editor of the Cancer History Project (The Cancer Letter, May 3, 2024).
Golub, who earned his medical degree from UChicago, spoke with Camilla Frost-Brewer, UChicago’s program manager for diversity, equity, and inclusion. They discussed Golub’s experiences at UChicago, how to encourage early-career scientists, and the benefits—and challenges—of collaborating with researchers across disciplines, an endeavor that led to the establishment of the Broad Institute.
“It can be a real thing of beauty, because then you’re bringing together complementary capabilities and expertise far beyond what either one could do on their own,” Golub said.
The podcast recording and transcript of this interview are now available on the Cancer History Project:
Cancer Luminaries Podcast: Dr. Todd Golub Talks about Maximizing Your Impact on the World through Bold Science
By University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, May 9, 2024
Tune in once a month to hear from our Cancer Luminaries as they share stories about their experiences, significant people and discoveries made at UChicago, and 50 years of cancer research!
A production of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center in honor of the 50th anniversary of National Cancer Institute designation.
This debut episode of the Cancer Luminaries podcast features alumni star Todd Golub, MD, founding faculty member and now director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Golub is a world leader in applying genomic tools to cancer research, having made important discoveries in the molecular basis of childhood leukemia. He talks about the emotionally intense moments of his training that inspired him to become a cancer researcher and the lessons he took from working with legendary minds at UChicago. Throughout his career, Dr. Golub has fostered interdisciplinary research that has led to truly powerful collaborations. He also encourages scientists to push the biggest, boldest, riskiest ideas forward to make a truly important contribution to the field.
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Janet Rowley, cancer genetics pioneer, 1925-2013
By University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, Oct. 14, 2021
Janet D. Rowley, the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, was a pioneer in connecting the development of cancer with genetic abnormalities.
Before Rowley, few scientists suspected that chromosomal aberrations caused cancer. Beginning in the 1970s, however, she made a series of fundamental discoveries demonstrating that specific chromosomal changes caused certain types of leukemia.
Rowley’s discoveries changed the way cancer was understood, opened the door to development of drugs directed at the cancer-specific genetic abnormalities and created a model that still drives cancer research.
“Janet Rowley’s work established that cancer is a genetic disease,” said Mary-Claire King, professor of genetics and medicine (medical genetics) at the University of Washington and president of the American Society of Human Genetics. “She demonstrated that mutations in critical genes lead to specific forms of leukemia and lymphoma, and that one can determine the form of cancer present in a patient directly from the genetic changes in the cancer. We are still working from her paradigm.”
Nevertheless, she struggled for years to convince fellow researchers. “I became a kind of missionary,” she would often recall, preaching that chromosome abnormalities were important and hematologists should pay attention to them. “I got sort of amused tolerance at the beginning.”
But thanks to her persistence and a long list of related discoveries, her ideas gained credence. Eventually, they brought her widespread recognition, including the Lasker Award, the National Medal of Science and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors.
The Cancer History Project is a free, web-based, collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity. The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available.
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