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Video transcript
Those are the real heroes of Huntsman Cancer Institute's research endeavor. It's the students and fellows that work in the research labs, albeit overseen by principal investigators like myself.
My name is . I am the senior director for pre-clinical translation at Huntsman Cancer Institute. But I also have a couple of additional hats that I wear. I'm co-leader with Howard Colman of the , and I'm also a professor in the .
What is pre-clinical translation?
Pre-clinical translation is everything that kind of goes from the lab bench through experimental model systems that would lead to the beginning of a clinical trial. And so, we are very interested in how we can develop basic science that goes on within the labs of Huntsman Cancer Institute and translate that into something that could actually have direct impact on patient care.
Can you tell us about your research?
Many of the cells in our body have specific times that they need to grow and expand in number. If you think about it, our skin, our blood, the cells in our gut, are constantly turning over and so there are constant processes of cell division to basically generate new cells to replace old cells as they die and disappear.
RAS proteins play a critical part in the normal proliferation of normal cells in our body. However, genetic damage to the RAS gene can give rise to a form of the RAS protein that is stuck in a constantly on position, a little bit like putting a brick on the accelerator of your car. RAS is a family of genes that are frequently mutated in human cancer, and so these are really important drivers of cancer biology, and now recently, have become major targets for the pharmaceutical industry to target RAS proteins in various different types of human cancer.
How did you become a cancer researcher?
I think in some ways, I'm sort of an accidental cancer researcher. I was the first kid in my family to go to college, and so I didn't really have anyone ahead of me that could tell me how to follow my ambition or my desire. Somewhere along the line as an undergraduate, I became interested in cancer research, and I spent a summer working as an intern in a research laboratory in London, and that inspired me to think about the possibility of becoming a scientist by doing a PhD.
What makes Huntsman Cancer Institute a unique place to conduct research?
What I really love about this place is the fact that all of the research and all of the clinical care all goes on within this complex of five buildings, and I frequently rub shoulders with my medical oncology or radiation oncology or surgical colleagues in ways that we can have informal conversations in the hallway or in a meeting room to think about ways or even just to discuss what's going on in the context of cancer research. And that's a really, really important element, especially in the job that I do, which is in, as you mentioned, pre-clinical translation. The idea is, how do we bring laboratory research to the door of the clinic.
Is there a part of your job you’re most proud of?
I'm incredibly proud of all of . I've been fortunate to have trained a very large number of undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows. And the thing that makes me excited to come to work most days is the success of my trainees. Those are the real heroes of Huntsman Cancer Institute's research endeavor. It's the students and fellows that work in the research labs, albeit overseen by principal investigators like myself, but those are the folks that are at the coalface day after day after day. Without them, none of this research gets done.
Learn more about Dr. McMahon's research.
Get to know the providers and researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute! Watch more Talks with Docs.
The critical research happening every day at Huntsman Cancer Institute is supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, including cancer center support grant P30 CA042014, as well as Huntsman Cancer Foundation.