Aktuális
Interview with Prof. Yosef Yarden, Prize winner of Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine 2010
How do you appreciate winning the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine? It is a great honor and a great recognition. I started my PhD in 1976 so it is has been a long time since I started my career. Being a scientist is not just a profession, it is devotion, a dedication. Such recognition is a fulfilling of my work and an energizing moment for the next challenges to come. It is very satisfying from the personal point of view. Now, there is an opportunity here to combine the very detailed molecular knowledge into application. It is called “translatable science” that means to translate academic science into drug company products. It is not a single man work. We work in a university-type environment with many students, fellows and trainees all together. Is there an opportunity to have common projects with University of Debrecen? Future collaborations with the University of Debrecen are possible. We developed productive lines of interaction over the years; we had common projects together supported by the EU and other types of grant money. I am sure we can continue our common work to find new questions and answers together. Can you tell to the readers some words about your job? I am doing research on the relation of Growth Factors and tumor development. A single cell proliferates – this is the basic of tumors. A mutation is needed for the tumor development – this mutation can come from the sunlight, the food we eat, the environment we live in. I am interested in those factors that influence the proliferation of cells. How can we affect the tumor growth?! First is prevention: finding out what causes mutation and tell the public to avoid these risk factors. It is the most promising field. We should warn the young generation, that cancer is preventable. Second is prognosis: we want to know how the mutation affects the patient’s body. Whether or not it affects the survival time of the patient, or whether or not it affects resistance to therapy. The third important is the latter: therapy. If we understand the mutation behavior we can come up with therapy that specific to the mutation. That is why it is so important to understand the biochemistry of tumors. The new drugs help us to reduce the doses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy .We cannot cure tumors with drugs developed by us, but we can extend life and can support the quality of life. On the other hand, these products are quite expensive and recently another problem emerged: it`s resistance.
6
Medikus Lap