WE MAY not have found a way to beat cancer into submission just yet, but more researchers than ever are entering the field to help find a cure. It鈥檚 not difficult to see why they are choosing such a career. From a biochemical perspective, cancer is a fascinating disease, caused by a complex web of genetic and molecular interactions, many of which are not fully understood.
What鈥檚 more, researchers find great motivation in the distinct possibility of developing powerful treatments that save lives. 鈥淭he fact is that around one in three people will still get cancer,鈥� says Steve Jackson, a laboratory head for Cancer Research UK and professor of biology at the University of Cambridge. 鈥淭here are very few people who aren鈥檛 touched by cancer in one way or another, and to know that you鈥檙e working in an area that has the potential to make the lives of so many people better is a big positive.鈥�
In recent years, the field鈥檚 popularity has contributed to careers in UK cancer research becoming more competitive for scientists, who now need something more than a passing interest in cancer to make any waves. 鈥淏ecause of its high profile and because it鈥檚 such an exciting area of science, it鈥檚 a highly competitive and dynamic place 鈥� you have to keep your wits about you,鈥� says Jackson. To succeed, it鈥檚 vital to keep track of how cancer research is evolving and ensure you nurture the right skills to adapt. New 杏吧原创 asked a selection of leading cancer researchers 鈥� from scientists near the front line of hospital treatment to Nobel prizewinners 鈥� what it takes to excel in the field today (also see 鈥淟eading lights show how to shine鈥�).
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One of the most significant trends cancer researchers should be aware of is the increasing emphasis on 鈥渢ranslational鈥� research. In essence, this is about fast-tracking discoveries from the lab bench to the patient鈥檚 bedside as quickly as possible. For example, the UK鈥檚 largest cancer charity, Cancer Research UK, recently joined forces with the various departments of health across the UK in a 拢35 million project to form a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres over the next five years. At 19 new cancer centres, people from various backgrounds 鈥� including academia, charity, industry and hospitals 鈥� will collaborate to develop new drugs and treatments.
All this focus on translational research means big changes for the scientists involved. Patients now take centre stage, and research must be viewed in terms of how it could eventually be applied to help them. For basic researchers, this means having at least some awareness of the clinical and public health issues affecting their work.
Clinical mindset
Charlie Swanton, a clinician scientist at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, says his clinical experience has helped in directing his academic work. 鈥淰ery often in science you come to a fork in the road and you鈥檙e not sure which route to take. Sometimes having a clinical perspective helps you prioritise laboratory problems,鈥� he says. Swanton and his colleagues are hunting for genes that cause patients鈥� cancers to become resistant to a class of drugs called taxanes. So far they have found a series of genes that appear to be linked to this resistance. Even more intriguing is that these same genes induce polyploidy 鈥� having more than two copies of each chromosome per cell 鈥� in tumours. This fact could be useful for doctors, because spotting polyploidy in patients鈥� cells could help them pinpoint which individuals could be resistant to the drugs, as well as who might respond most effectively. Without his clinical experience, Swanton might not have spotted this potential to apply the research findings, he says. A traditional biochemist might have chosen to look closer at the functions of one or two of the genes instead, for example.
Translational research also requires scientists to work closely with each other, so it鈥檚 important to know how your work can influence other disciplines, says Simon Vincent, head of personal awards and training at Cancer Research UK. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 expect everybody to suddenly start designing drugs. If you鈥檙e a Drosophila [fruit fly] geneticist, fantastic 鈥� be an excellent Drosophila geneticist. All we ask is that you think about where you fit into the bigger picture. Think about the data and information and results that you鈥檙e generating, and whether you can pass that information on to the next stage, and who you can collaborate with.鈥�
A willingness to learn about other disciplines can be a real advantage in your career, says David Knowles, chief scientific officer at Berkshire-based Piramed Pharma, a biotechnology company that develops cancer drugs. 鈥淐ancer research is very complex, bringing a whole set of different experiences and thoughts together, and it鈥檚 the people who sit at the boundaries who can help make or break a company,鈥� he says.
A wider perspective could prove particularly useful now that many pharmaceutical companies are conducting their own basic research as well as concentrating on molecule discovery. Encouragingly, companies and universities are increasingly working together, says Andrew Hughes, medical director in oncology and infection drug discovery at AstraZeneca. 鈥淐learly each of those parties has a potentially separate agenda. But we all have a common goal, which is that we want the drugs to get to patients.鈥�
聯We all have a common goal: we want the drugs to get to patients聰
Charities and hospitals are also seeing the benefits of pooling their resources. Take a look at the new Manchester Cancer Research Centre, where the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research has joined forces with the nearby Christie Hospital Foundation Trust, the University Of Manchester and Cancer Research UK. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really working,鈥� says the centre鈥檚 director Nic Jones. 鈥淭he centre has only been going for a year and a half, but we鈥檝e made a lot of advances in terms of building up our research infrastructure and developing new areas of research that wouldn鈥檛 have happened if we hadn鈥檛 got together.鈥�
Manchester is not alone, says Vincent. Many other universities and medical schools are specialising in cancer. Such up-and-coming hubs of activity can provide new job opportunities for cancer researchers and could be good places to make your mark, so try to keep track of what鈥檚 new.
Of course, succeeding as a cancer researcher is about much more than spotting the fashions in your field. Swanton believes that your work should almost be your hobby. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to be in this field, there鈥檚 not much time for reading normal books: when you鈥檙e at home, you tend to read papers, PubMed [the medical search engine] or analyse your data, because that鈥檚 the only way you can keep up with both lab and clinical commitments,鈥� he says.
The real key to success in the cancer-research industry is having the resilience to keep going even when the work gets tough. 鈥淵ou need to put the hours in,鈥� says Tim Crook, team leader for the cancer genetics and epigenetics laboratory at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre in London. 鈥淚t all comes down to passion, motivation and a desire to be the best. I know it sounds very old-fashioned, but that鈥檚 what makes the difference between the winners and the losers in science.鈥�
So despite cancer鈥檚 complexities, and the wider changes in the field, if scientists can stay on top of the information and refine their skills to fit the ever-changing research environment, there are real opportunities for success in what is still a hugely exciting and rewarding area. 鈥淥nce you get into the field and start defining what it is you want to work on, some of the complexity melts away,鈥� says Jackson. 鈥淚n the end, what really matters is that you鈥檙e a scientist: you鈥檝e got to come up with a hypothesis and test it.鈥�
Leading lights show how to shine
Four of cancer research鈥檚 best brains reveal to Zoe Smeaton what they have learned during their eminent careers
Barbara Weber
Barbara Weber is vice-president of discovery and translational medicine in oncology at GlaxoSmithKline. She was formerly professor of medicine and genetics at the University of Pennsylvania, and is an international expert in breast cancer genetics.
CANCER RESEARCHERS ARE LUCKY. They have a disease model that is relatively easy to work with. You can take a tumour out, you can look at it, and you can understand why it鈥檚 doing what it鈥檚 doing in a way that you can鈥檛 really do with many diseases 鈥� it鈥檚 a great scientific model.
MENTORS ARE CRITICAL. There were several times in my career where I was really lucky to have people take an interest in me and help me out, and a lot of important findings came out of working with them.
BE FEARLESS. I鈥檓 most proud of my work around the BRCA1 and BRCA2 susceptibility genes. My group focused on understanding who was likely to have mutations and how they should be managed. At the time, making strong recommendations that women should get tested was difficult as many researchers still had reservations about genetic testing.
STAY FOCUSED. The biggest mistake I made was shifting the focus of my lab to the functional biochemistry of BRCA1 after the gene was identified, moving away from my genetics expertise. It was not a smart choice, and I realised quickly that I had to get back to what I knew.
COMPETITION HELPS PUSH THINGS FORWARD. At one point in my career it felt like everyone in the world was working on breast cancer, and there was a huge race to identify the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. If you鈥檙e not worried that somebody鈥檚 coming up right behind, you work more slowly.
David Lane
David Lane is professor in molecular oncology at the University of Dundee and has built an international reputation for his discovery of the tumour-suppressor gene p53. He has set up a business and written a manual on antibody techniques.
CANCER RESEARCH CAN BE TOUGH. You鈥檙e always under pressure to perform and to be original. When I had been working on p53 for several years, many people were saying it didn鈥檛 sound that interesting, so keeping going was a challenge.
KEEPING UP CAN BE TOUGH, TOO. In my field, there are still astonishing results emerging, like a recent Nature paper showing p53 could affect ageing. It鈥檚 terribly difficult to stay abreast of developments, so talking to colleagues is vital to help you get a sense of what is right and wrong.
HAVE FUN. I think recognising that it鈥檚 actually a lot of fun is important 鈥� sometimes people get terribly serious about it all, but scientists tend to be crazy, enthusiastic people, and they鈥檙e a lot of fun to be with.
FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS. I think people can get too obsessed with getting their papers published, but what matters is your integrity as a scientist, and trying to get things right. If you do that, all the other things will follow.
BUSINESSES NEED NEGOTIATION. I thought, rather naively, that if I started my own company I wouldn鈥檛 have the problems of fitting into a big company鈥檚 priorities, but it was a tremendous challenge: getting the university, charity, and venture capitalists to agree was a nightmare.
Fiona Watt
Fiona Watt is deputy director of both the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute (CRI) and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research. A highly respected cancer researcher, she is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cell Science.
TAKE THE TIME TO TRAIN. I only had three years as a PhD student and two as a postdoc before I started my own lab. That wasn鈥檛 long enough!
THINK ABOUT PATIENTS. I鈥檝e always been motivated by a desire that my research should be of benefit to other people. We encourage fund-raisers to visit the CRI, and I often listen in on conversations between my postdocs and fund-raisers who have lost a friend or relative to cancer 鈥� there is a mutual admiration and respect there that I find very moving.
FOLLOW THE QUALITY. It鈥檚 very important that you choose important problems to study and that you never compromise on quality in order to publish quickly.
COLLABORATING IS VITAL. Links with clinically qualified scientists are very important and enrich my research. Sometimes I have ideas for new tests or treatments, and my clinical colleagues provide a reality check. Sometimes I need access to clinical material or information about aspects of cancer that I don鈥檛 encounter in my own research.
STARTING YOUR OWN LAB IS SCARY. I was worried I wouldn鈥檛 have any ideas about what to work on, but in fact that turned out not to be a problem.
Paul Nurse
Paul Nurse won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 2001 for his work on understanding the control of the cell cycle. He was previously head of Cancer Research UK, is now president of Rockefeller University in New York and still runs a lab.
BASIC RESEARCH IS VITAL. Cancer is a complex umbrella of diseases, not a single disease, so to understand it we need every piece of help, such as background information from model organisms.
CANCER RESEARCHERS NEED PASSION. Without a real passion for wanting to know the answers, high-quality science is too demanding. You have to grind away a lot, and keeping going requires that passion.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. A real problem with research is getting stuck in a rut. You need ways to jump out of that 鈥� it might come through reading, speaking to colleagues, or just looking at what is under the microscope.
BE YOUR OWN CRITIC. It鈥檚 so easy to become an advocate of your own theories, but in fact you should be the person trying to destroy them. That is a bit counter to how we normally behave, so it鈥檚 something you have to work on.
BE BOLD. An exciting time for me was when we discovered a human-gene equivalent to the cell-cycle master control gene in yeast. We did that using a very bold experiment at the time 鈥� everybody thought we wouldn鈥檛 find anything, so when we did, it was wonderful.
MANAGEMENT IS CRUCIAL. To keep the scientific endeavour going you have to run it well administratively and you have to convince the public that it鈥檚 a good idea, so if a scientist has skills in those areas, they should use them.