Inspiration Dissemination

The use of chemotherapy to fight various forms of cancer in the human body has been a successful method for decades, but what happens when it fails? This question strikes a personal note for Martin Pearce, a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Siva Kolluri’s Cancer Biology lab group at Oregon State University researching new strategies that target the cancer cells that continue to grow after treatment with chemotherapeutic agents. In this episode of Inspiration Dissemination, we talk to Martin about his work screening tens of thousands of compounds to find one capable of binding to proteins that are typically expressed in cancer-resistant cells and transform them from proteins that protect the cancer cell into those that kill it. Beyond discovery, through the work of his Ph.D. Martin has also realized other critical steps in the long process of developing effective cancer treatments that occur outside of the lab, such as patent protection. The dedication to ‘translational research’ or science that is specifically designed