 
Watching for signals Basic science doesn't grab a lot of headlines. New drugs and new discoveries about this-or-that risk factor fill the front page. And yet, virtually none of these discoveries would be possible without the foundational work of basic science. Basic science, and scientists like Kermit Carraway. Researchers involved in basic science study how cells talk to each other and the implications of this conversation. In doing so, they create the blueprints for future developments in cancer treatment. Basic science is an essential component of a cancer center based in a teaching hospital and one that distinguishes it from community-based cancer programs. Since Hsing-Jien Kung, a nationally-known cancer scientist, came to the UC Davis Cancer Center to serve as director of basic science, several researchers have joined this integral division of the cancer program. Carraway, an assistant professor of biological chemistry in the UC Davis School of Medicine, is one. He studies a family of amino acids known as tyrosine kinases in an effort to understand how the process of cell growth goes awry in cancer - why, in effect, good cells go bad.
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Basic science researchers look for cancer clues in cell growth mechanisms. |
