Interview with Dr. Douglas Thrower
The person I interviewed is Dr. Douglas Thrower. He is a professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Note: Because I did not have a voice-recording device while conducting this interview, I had to take notes while he was talking. I mainly jotted key ideas and points of his responses. Due to this fact, many, if not all, responses to each question below are paraphrases of what he said.
Where are you from?
I was born in California. I briefly lived in North Carolina for my post-doctorate.
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What are your hobbies?
As you can see behind me, I grow insect-eating plants.
I love to show them in the classes I teach.
Other hobbies I have include reading, hiking, and taking care of my 10-year old son.
Where did you go to school?
I did my undergraduate at Cal Poly SLO, my masters and PH. D at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
What academic degrees did you earn?
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I have a BS in microbiology from Cal Poly SLO, and a masters and PH. D in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
What is your specialty in your field?
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I focus on pharmacology, human physiology, and cancer research!
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What made you interested in your specialty/field of study? What do you like about it? Did you have anyone in your life who peaked your interest in this field?
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After finishing my masters, I took a lab position at UCSB. I found drug mechanisms very interesting, in particular, microtubule-targeted anti-cancer drugs.
What is your research about?
My research is about how microtubules function in cells. I investigate newly discovered compounds and their potential in anti-cancer drugs. Simply put, I research various drug chemotherapies. [A more detailed description can be found here.]
Who do you consider to be the most important person in your field of study or research?
Tim Mitchison. [More of his research can be found here.]
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What is an important tool in your research?
How does it work?
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Fluorescent light microscopes [Fig. 1] to see the effect of drugs.
Antibodies to target specific proteins.
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Have you seen any changes in your field?
Major change: Everyone assumed these drugs were working in different ways.
Surprisingly, most work through a common pathway.
Recent change: Some drugs are so toxic that they would kill the patient. We discovered that we could take the drug and add it to an antibody. Through this, we could deliver small amounts of these toxic drugs to the tumor without harming the patient. Now we are able to treat cancer with drugs that we could not previously use!
What is a typical day for you?
[I listed them as follows:]
• Teach early morning class
• Hold office hours
• Write letters of recommendation
• Communicate with research students
• Once in a while, do research experiments
• Get the group together to talk about research
• Committee meeting at some point
• Prepare lectures for previously taught class or a new course
• Fill in for a professor
• Grade exams
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*After the interview was over, he asked me what major I was in. We then talked about the collaboration between statistics and biology. Some notes about what he said:*
When you have a lot of data, do you get a statistician to work with your data or how does it work?
We have to draw on expertise from other fields. I like how UCSB collaborates in that way. In some experiments, we had to ask engineers to create a device to help us measure the tubules over time and take data. It helps make the work less tedious. A big change in biology is the use of statistics and math in this field. We encourage, or UCSB encourages, collaboration.
Figure 1.