Acs Research - Theorylab

NCI-designated Cancer Centers play leading roles in their communities through cancer research, cancer prevention and control, and clinical research. Being the director of a Cancer Center is a position of immense responsibility. Now imaging taking on that role during a pandemic. Joann Sweasy, PhD—the inaugural holder of the Nancy C. and Craig M. Berge Endowed Chair for the Director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center—joined the podcast to talk about her approach to the position and how the Cancer Center has dealt with the challenges presented by COVID-19. She also talked about her lab’s ongoing research into DNA damage and repair and how that relates to cancer. And she spoke at length about mentoring, women in science issues, and what it was like to study under Dr. Evelyn Witkin, one of the leading cancer researchers of our time. Dr. Witkin helped change our understanding of DNA repair. In 1946, when the American Cancer Society’s extramural research program was launched, Dr. Witkin was one of the