Cancer genomics: Collaborative research

摘要

When robert Strausberg started his career in 1976 as a microbiologist, studying yeast as a postdoc at Southwestern Medical School, he had no idea chat one day he'd be working in cancer genomics From a field that did not exist, it has become a promising new direction for understanding and treating cancer, attracting researchers from across scientific disciplines, some of whose expertise might not have seemed immediately useful for cancer research. "I didn't think what I was doing applied to much else," says Strausberg, now executive director of collaborative sciences at Ludwig Cancer Research in New York. But it turned out his experience was more useful than he thought. An early-stage biotechnology company, Genex, hired him to apply his knowledge of yeast to develop vaccines and drugs. His studies of yeast's mitochondrial DNA and what he'd learned about the physical mapping of DNA eventually won him the head role at the Sequencing Technology Branch at the US National Center for Human Genome Research among various other jobs at the National Institutes of Health. Because genomics is basic to biology, Strausberg's increasing knowledge helps him understand various fields important to human health, from infectious disease to agriculture. "My interest in genomics has opened a lot of doors for me."