Why I Study Cancer
Every journey to cancer research begins with a story. Here are the stories behind the science motivating the pioneering work of Cancer Center at Illinois researchers.
“I made a decision in my 30s to change the direction of my career to try to use my engineering talents to have some impact on cancer.”
“I asked myself, ‘How we can improve our diagnostic tools to reduce the need for painful and troublesome biopsies in patients?”
“Pet owners and pets are seeking help and it’s very gratifying to just provide them with some hope and some improved quality of life.”
“Is there any way I can help them [cancer patients] using the knowledge I have? That was one of the main motivators to work on cancer research.”
“The focus now is looking at the effect of environmental contaminants in cancer, because there’s a big focus and we see a need there.”
“I’ve always been fascinated—and impacted—by cancer research.”
“The impact [our research has] makes me excited to work on this disease every single day.”
“The mother of one of my closest friends got breast cancer, and seeing what they went through, it really made me want to help them.”
“I took a circuitous route to get here, but as I transitioned from my Ph.D. into my postdoc, that’s when I really started focusing more and more on cancer.”
“As engineers and material scientists, how can we use those tools that we learn in tissue engineering to help and to find treatments for this big challenge that is cancer?”
“My journey to cancer research is deeply rooted in my personal experience.”
“It’s just so obvious there’s really a major threat to human health, and that’s really an intrinsic motivation for me.”