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.”
Brian Cunningham
Intel Alumni Endowed Chair and Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
I asked myself, ‘How can we improve our diagnostic tools to reduce the need for painful and troublesome biopsies in patients?”
Wawrzyniec Dobrucki
Associate Professor, Bioengineering
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.”
Timothy Fan
Khan Family Chair and Professor, Veterinary Clinical Medicine
We have data that could inform decisions on how we could prevent, diagnose, or treat disease. That’s really something that invigorates not just myself, but my students and collaborators as well.”
Christopher Gaulke
Assistant Professor, Pathobiology
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.”
Bumsoo Han
Phil and Ann Sharp Scholar and Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
Being a patient really changed my focus—I wanted to become engaged in work that was relevant to cancer.”
Brendan Harley
Robert W. Schaefer Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
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.”
Joseph Irudayaraj
Founder Professor, Bioengineering
I’ve always been fascinated—and impacted—by cancer research.”
Cecilia Leal
Racheff Faculty Fellow and Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
The impact [our research has] makes me excited to work on this disease every single day.”
Yang Liu
Professor, Bioengineering
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.”
Zeynep Madak-Erdogan
Sylvia D. Stroup Scholar and Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition
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.”
Erik Nelson
Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
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?”
Sara Pedron Haba
Research Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
My journey to cancer research is deeply rooted in my personal experience.”
Huanyu Qiao
Associate Professor, Comparative Biosciences
We are in the process of looking at colorectal cancer from more of a tumorigenesis perspective and understanding what environmental factors kind of precipitate how different rates of cancer might develop in different populations.”
Michael Robben
Assistant Professor, Animal Sciences
It’s just so obvious there’s really a major threat to human health, and that’s really an intrinsic motivation for me.”
Hua Wang
Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
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