CancerQuest | Interview with Dr. William Hahn

Dr. William Hahn
Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Senior Associate Member
Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Dr. Hahn's research focuses on how cancer forms. He is interested in the mechanisms that allow cancer cells to reproduce indefinitely, including an enzyme called telomerase. He also works to develop new model systems to study cancer. In this interview Dr. Hahn discusses his research and the impact of the human genome project on cancer researchers.

Questions and Answers

	About Dr. Hahn(Time: 10 sec)
	How did you first become interested in research?(Time: 34 sec)
	How did you get to where you are today in your career?(Time: 30 sec)
	What is a stem cell?(Time: 1 min 36 sec)
	What are cancer stem cells and how are they different from stem cells we hear about in the news?(Time: 1 min 49 sec)
	What is reverse transcriptase?(Time: 1 min 11 sec)
	What is telomerase and what role does it play in cancer?(Time: 2 min 29 sec)
	What can be learned from the model systems you produce?(Time: 1 min 29 sec)
	You are also working with the human genome, how are you using cancer genomics to develop a better understanding of cancer?(Time: 1 min 51 sec)
	Your work focuses on the mechanisms of cancer formation, how will this benefit cancer patients in the long run?(Time: 3 min 15 sec)
	What are phosphatases and kinases?(Time: 2 min 24 sec)
	What is the single biggest challenge faced by researchers in your field?(Time: 2 min 31 sec)
	Specifically, how does having the human genome impact your research?(Time: 3 min 1 sec)
	Do you involve undergraduates in your research?(Time: 2 min 07 sec)
	What would you say to a teenager interested in pursuing a career in cancer research?(Time: 3 min 51 sec)
	How has your choice to combine MD and PhD affected your research?(Time: 1 min 17 sec)
	What are you currrently working on in your lab?(Time: 52 sec)
	What are the steps taken when you need to collaborate with another researcher or lab?(Time: 1 min 51 sec)
	In the next ten or twenty years, what do you foresee for your field of research?(Time: 1 min 42 sec)
	Do you think that, in time, cancer will become a chronic disease or will it become eradicated?(Time: 1 min 35 sec)