Name: August (Gus) Williams
Hometown: Camarillo, CA
Hobbies: Running, working out, video games, reading
Lab: Hangauer Lab
Lab website: https://www.sites.google.com/view/Hangauerlab
What do you study?
I study drug resistance in cancer cells. There are now many different drug therapies to treat different types of cancers, but a big problem is that a drug may work for a while to make the cancer shrink or go away, but then the cancer becomes resistant and regrows. Our lab is trying to find a way to block cancers from regrowing after an initial response to therapy by targeting cells that survive the first treatment.
Why is it important?
Cancer is among the top leading causes of death in the United States and in the world. The past decade has seen an impressive development of drugs that seek to limit toxicities and target specific proteins in cancer cells, known as targeted therapies. However, cancer cells become resistant to these therapies, so finding ways to make these therapies last longer is important towards managing this disease.
What piqued your interest in science?
I was always curious about how things worked, and why things were the way they were. I did not really know careers in science existed until I worked in a lab in college, and once I did I was hooked!
What do you like about being a scientist?
I enjoy working on something that no one else knows the answer to, and that will one day contribute to both our knowledge about life, and towards alleviating someone’s suffering. I also like being in the lab working with fun, smart people.
What are 5 general vocabulary terms someone should know going into your field of science?
- Protein
- Microscopy
- Cells
- DNA
- Drug
What are 5 specific vocabulary terms someone should know about your research?
- Oncogene
- Apoptosis
- Mutation
- Drug-resistance
- Tumor