Two NYU scientists on melanoma, lung cancer, challenges, and research dreams

At first glance, the work of Eva Hernando and Thales Papagiannakopoulos might not seem to have much in common. Dr. Hernando studies the contributions of non-genetic alterations to the aggressive behavior of melanoma. Dr. Papagiannakopoulos is applying CRISPR/Cas9 to study lung cancer. But in this conversation, Drs. Hernando and Papagiannakopoulos take us through the ins and outs of their research into why cancer grows and spreads, and we learn how they learn from each other, how NYU Grossman School of Medicine encourages collaboration, and why new directions in cancer research have them feeling optimistic. 3:05 – Eva Hernando, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Pathology and Assistant Dean for Research at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Thales Papagiannakopoulos, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. 5:26 – Dr. Hernando on why cancer cells metastasize 10:10 – Why she studies metastasis in melanoma 13:28 – Dr. Papagiannakopoulos on why it’s so hard to understand what the cancer genome is telling us 20:50 – Dr. Papagiannakopoulos on why he studies lung cancer 23:32 – Dr. Hernando on the biggest challenge she’s facing as a melanoma researcher 27:42 – Dr. Papagiannakopoulos on new directions in lung cancer research 30:34 – On encouraging research collaborations at NYU 35:16 – How ACS funding has impacted their cancer research