Meet Miriam – molecule inhibitor developer, explorer, and happy to know that she doesn’t know it all.
Q: What is your research area of interest?
A: I am interested in the molecular mechanisms of cancer, specifically factors that modulate cancer progression and/or metastasis and that may ultimately be useful biomarkers or therapeutic targets.
Q: What excites you about your work?
A: Regarding working in the field of therapeutics, it is exciting to think that the work we do on a daily basis in the laboratory is translational and has the potential to one day result in a treatment for a patient suffering from advanced forms of prostate cancer.
Q: What made you decide to go into your line of work?
A: There was no real single life event that made me decide on research. I think it really started with my undergraduate studies, where I first encountered a research laboratory setting, which I enjoyed a lot, and the continual search for the unknown. Those things have really kept me driven to continue and further myself in the field.
Q: What has been the proudest moment of your career thus far?
A: I was awarded a Prostate Cancer Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship this year, which was a great personal achievement and was also a validation of the merits of my current research project here at the Vancouver Prostate Centre.
Q: What’s the best work advice you were ever given or would pass on to budding, young researchers?
A: Be confident in what you know but never believe that you know it all!
Q: How do you like to spend your non-working hours?
A: I enjoy reading and listening to music.
Q: What is your most prized possession on your desk right now?
A: I currently store my pens in an empty chocolate tin from Australia and this reminds me of home and sadly of the delicious chocolate I don’t have access to!
Q: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2015?
A: Just to be happy and to try to take some time to explore more of the world.
