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I’m a fierce competitor.
There may be a new comedy on TV called “The Big C,” but cancer still takes thousands and thousands of lives every year. And researchers like our beloved “Secret Lifer,” Eva Vertes, are working to save those lives. Check out this talk about cancer that Eva gave as part of the “Idea City” series.
And for dessert, watch a clip from the movie that our Eva really and truly referenced when she first told us how to pronounce her name… EE-VAH!
When you’ve been a prodigy—as Eva Vertes has—age matters a little more than it does to us non-prodigy types. And one of the great things about being part of the SLoS team is that, even though Eva’s videos only run a total of about eight minutes, we actually got to interview her for more than two hours.
Eva’s grandmother in the lab (Courtesy Eva Vertes)
And while we were interviewing her, Eva told us stories relating to two specific ages—44 and 2.
Story #1: Eva is named after her grandmother, also Eva Vertes, a chemist who worked in a diabetes research laboratory. Eva told us that her grandmother “was very passionate about her research…and my grandfather says that there are lots of similarities between her and me. But at 44, she died of cancer of the stomach, so I never got to meet her.” Eva didn’t originally think that she’d switched from Alzheimer’s to cancer research because of her feelings for her grandmother. But she now believes “there is a connection there—in a way, maybe I am doing this partly for her.”
Continue >UPDATE: We are no longer taking new questions for Eva. But check out the Q&A below—Eva may have given an answer to something you wanted to ask.
Q: Gaby Why did you not go to medical school directly after college?
A: Eva I decided to take two years between finishing undergraduate and beginning medical school to devote fully to medical research. I knew that I wanted to go to medical school during undergraduate, but I was also eager to get a significant amount of research experience.
Q: Partrick MacCann Hi Eva - Why do scientists continue to think that one target/one drug will actually have an impact on cancer and other diseases. It is obvious from all the research over the decades and evidence from HAART and combination therapy that more than one drug is needed. Why don’t scientists do more to learn the systems of disease and try to modulate (up or down) multiple targets simultaneously. You will probably find that you can use “sub-therapeutic, sub-toxic ” doses of a five, ten, or a dozen drugs and get a much better response, no resistance, an limited toxicity.
A: Eva There seems to be a trend towards the search for, and use of, combination therapies. It is becoming clear that many diseases – especially cancer – are highly complex and may respond better to a multi-drug approach which targets many different aspects of a disease process. Therefore, scientists are trying to unravel which combination of therapies may work best for treating a certain disease, rather than searching only for a single “magic bullet”.
Q:Anne Sywilok Hi Eva, I’m trying to get my students interested in science careers by encouraging them to think about what they like to do now and could continue that as an adult in a science career. What were your interests as a child?
A: Eva As a child, I was interested in animals (especially the “scary” ones such as sharks and snakes) and nature. When I was about 9 years old, I became very interested in the human body and diseases. In general, I was just curious about the world around me. I think that any sort of curiosity as a child is a good beginning to a career in science because science, at least to me, is a continuous exploration of the unknown.
Q: Peter Byrne There are many studies showing that industrial and household chemicals cause cancer. Risks are not so much personal, as social and economic. Researching treatment is fine, but why is not more effort being made to implement prevention?
A: Eva Prevention is a very important part of solving the problem of cancer. We are beginning to realize that many things play a role in the initiation and progress of cancer. Clear identification of what exactly causes or increases the chances of cancer are necessary to implement effective preventative measures.
Every once in a while we like to direct you to other NOVA scienceNOW profiles that relate to some of our SLoS scientists. Tyler Curiel is, just like Eva Vertes, a cancer researcher and a runner. Check out the incredible story of his deep connection with a cancer patient and how Tyler managed to save some of his research during Hurricane Katrina.
We’ll be premiering our next scientist, cancer researcher Eva Vertes, next week. (Until then, you can watch a sneak peek of her “10 Questions” right now in our video player.) Eva was a tremendous prodigy at an early age, has already done some truly groundbreaking research, and is a Princeton graduate. And all of that reminds us of another young person in a lab coat….
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