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Aude Fahrer
Lab researching:
Two main areas of research at the moment:
1. A very simple and inexpensive (and rather crazy!) cancer immunotherapy treatment I have come up with, involving a single injection of an immune stimulant into a tumour.
2. A bioinformatics study looking for novel proteins in different genomes. We have just published around 2000 novel proteins from humans and mice.
Greatest achievement:
I'm proud of the research done by my Ph. D. students, Laurence and Tina who have worked on the topics above. Also of the work of my previous Ph.D. students Katharine and Angelo who identified chromosome condensation as an important, and completely unexpected, requirement for T cell development. Each of these findings has involved a conceptual shift.
Perhaps my greatest achievement is retaining a small amount of sanity, and publishing novel work on a shoestring budget, while being heavily involved in teaching, and raising three kids...
Next big thing:
Our cancer therapy. We hope. It has worked in mice. We now have two pet dogs (out of 6) whose tumours have completely regressed. The next big thing will hopefully be to start a human trial....A one injection, 50 cent cancer treatment would be pretty awesome, but there are many major obstacles still to overcome...
Science Hero:
I don't have Heroes, although there are many scientists I admire. In cancer immunotherapy two of these would be William Coley (1862-1936; sometimes considered the father of cancer immunotherapy), and the little known Ariel Hollingshead, who carried out some fascinating, (but largely ignored) immunotherapy trials in cancer patients.
21 January 2014
