CancerQuest | Interview with Dr. Dennis Liotta

Dr. Dennis Liotta
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry
Emory University

Dr. Liotta has been involved in the development of several anti-retroviral drugs that are currently in use around the world. Most recently, Dr. Liotta was instrumental in the development of the AIDS drug Emtriva®. In this interview, Dr. Liotta discusses his current work in the development of anti-cancer drugs and cancer chemoprevention.

Questions and Answers

	About Dr. Liotta(Time: 0 sec)
	Why did you choose to work on drug development as a career?(Time: 38 sec)
	What guides your approach to drug discovery?(Time: 26 sec)
	What do you look for when identifying cancer drug candidates?(Time: 2 min 32 sec)
	How do you use computers in the design of cancer drugs?(Time: 40 sec)
	How do computers model the biology behind human disease?(Time: 39 sec)
	What is the process by which you identify possible cancer drugs?(Time: 2 min 41 sec)
	Why do current cancer treatments not always work? How does drug resistance develop?(Time: 57 sec)
	Can rational drug design assist in overcoming drug resistance in cancer?(Time: 33 sec)
	How does your approach to drug discovery differ from past efforts?(Time: 1 min 37 sec)
	What is the process by which you evaluate the effectiveness of a potential anti-cancer agent?(Time: 2 min 16 sec)
	Is it possible to develop agents that work to prevent cancer development?(Time: 1 min 18 sec)
	What is curcumin and why do you think that it is a possible anti-cancer agent?(Time: 1 min 08 sec)
	What properties does curcumin have that make it suitable as a anti-cancer agent?(Time: 24 sec)
	What is sphingosine and what does it do in cells?(Time: 1 min 20 sec)
	Can sphingolipids be chemopreventive agents?(Time: 19 sec)
	Can drugs be synthesized for individual patients?(Time: 1 min 09 sec)
	What is the status of your drugs? Why does it take so long to approve cancer drugs?(Time: 1 min 37 sec)
	Given the difficulties you face, what motivates you to continue working on this problem?(Time: 12 sec)
	What is metastasis and why does it cause complications?(Time: 31 sec)
	What are some concerns that motivate developing safer drugs?(Time: 54 sec)