Professor Mel Greaves discusses his 30 years at the ICR in a video about the science which recently won him Cancer Research UK’s Lifetime Achievement award.
The award, which was presented at the NCRI conference in Liverpool earlier this month, recognises his work throughout his esteemed career to investigate the causes and clonal evolution of childhood leukaemia.
The video was filmed on the day of the award ceremony, and discusses highlights of Professor Greaves’s research across his long career, how it has opened up the whole field of cancer evolution, and what the future holds for leukaemia and cancer more generally.
Professor Mel Greaves has worked at the ICR for more than 30 years, joining in 1984 to establish the UK’s first ever Leukaemia Research Fund centre. Since then, his team has made huge advances in the field of leukaemia research – unravelling the biology, natural history and possible causes of the disease.
During the video Professor Greaves discusses receiving the award with Richard Hoey, the ICR’s Director of Communications, and looks back over his career at the ICR.
Professor Greaves’s research found that populations of cancer cells with different mutations evolved dynamically over time, and was key to demonstrating the significance of the process of Darwinian evolution that occurs in leukaemia and cancer more generally.
His work identified the role of infection in childhood leukaemia, and experiments involving identical twins led to his team’s discovery of genetic mutations that occur to babies in the womb which promote the development of the disease.
Professor Greaves said that it was difficult for us to understand our vulnerability to cancer without taking into consideration the role of evolution, and that his work was a “wake-up call” to researchers about the complexity of the disease.
discusses his 30 years at the ICR in a video about the science which recently won him Cancer Research UK’s Lifetime Achievement award.
The award, which was presented at the NCRI conference in Liverpool earlier this month, recognises his work throughout his esteemed career to investigate the causes and clonal evolution of childhood leukaemia.
The video was filmed on the day of the award ceremony, and discusses highlights of Professor Greaves’s research across his long career, how it has opened up the whole field of cancer evolution, and what the future holds for leukaemia and cancer more generally.
Professor Mel Greaves has worked at the ICR for more than 30 years, joining in 1984 to establish the UK’s first ever Leukaemia Research Fund centre. Since then, his team has made huge advances in the field of leukaemia research – unravelling the biology, natural history and possible causes of the disease.
During the video Professor Greaves discusses receiving the award with Richard Hoey, the ICR’s Director of Communications, and looks back over his career at the ICR.
Professor Greaves’s research found that populations of cancer cells with different mutations evolved dynamically over time, and was key to demonstrating the significance of the process of Darwinian evolution that occurs in leukaemia and cancer more generally.
His work identified the role of infection in childhood leukaemia, and experiments involving identical twins led to his team’s discovery of genetic mutations that occur to babies in the womb which promote the development of the disease.
Professor Greaves said that it was difficult for us to understand our vulnerability to cancer without taking into consideration the role of evolution, and that his work was a “wake-up call” to researchers about the complexity of the disease.