Integrating chemistry, molecular biology and experimental oncology
Principal Investigator – Dr Masha Babak
I was born into a family of two surgeons in a small town in the south of Russia called Taganrog. Since my early childhood I had planned to be a professional musician, but everything changed one Saturday morning when my music teacher read to us the biography of a Russian composer Alexander Borodin:
“Small Sasha (short name for Alexander) loved chemistry more than anything in the world. He entertained his relatives with small chemical experiments during family dinners. Sometimes he would put a rose into a chemical solution and the rose would change colour…”
Every chemist knows Borodin for his Borodin/Hunsdiecker reaction, but I only knew that he had composed my favourite opera Prince Igor. That day I opened a chemistry book and my life has never been the same since.
When I was 16, I entered the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology in Moscow and the main lecture hall’s name was Borodin hall. I thought that was a good sign. I studied at the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences (HCC RAS), which is a very special faculty that enrolled only 30 students per year from the whole of Russia who wanted to become scientists. In 2005, whilst still an undegraduate, I started my research in the laboratory of ‘Transition metal Pi-complexes’ under the supervision of Dr Dmitri Perekalin. I was so impressed by his knowledge that I didn’t say a single word during my first year of working with him. We were working for 5 years together and this was an invaluable (although difficult) experience for me.
I was lucky to secure an internship in the summer of 2007 in the laboratory of Dr Christian Rolando in Lille, France. I was working with him on the development of ruthenium complexes for in-gel protein staining and also learned proteomics there. I worked with Christian every summer and winter for several years during my University studies and I really look up to Christian as an excellent scientist, a wonderful mentor and a very good friend.
By the end of my University studies, I came to the realisation that my scientific interests lay in the field of cancer and drug development. In 2010, I started my PhD in the group of Prof Bernhard Keppler under the supervision of Prof Christian Hartinger at the University of Vienna. Prof Keppler is known for the development of a ruthenium-based drug KP1019 (NKP1339, IT-139) which is successfully being tested in clinical trials. Those who have worked with Prof Keppler know that he has the aura of a great scientist around him. Everything about his look, his hat, his walk, just screams greatness. Prof Keppler has been such an inspiration not only to me, but to all scientists in the bioinorganic field. I really hope that one day KP1019 will reach clinics and save thousands of lives. Besides Vienna, I spent a part of my PhD studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand with Christian, who is also a great scientist and master of networking. As a result of my PhD, I developed a pull-down assay which allowed for the target identification of the anticancer candidate RAPTA-C.
I truly believe that the most important decision in the career of every young scientist is the choice of a postdoc mentor. Prof Wee Han Ang at the National University of Singapore was not only the best postdoc mentor I could have wished for professionally, but also he became a very good friend of mine. I strongly advise all talented students and postdocs to join his research group. Dr Ang and I were working together for 5 years on the early preclinical development of anticancer drugs. I was given the freedom to pursue my interest in molecular biology and experimental oncology, which remain my biggest passion till now.
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at the City University of Hong Kong and a graduate of the High Impact Cancer Research programme at Harvard Medical School. My scientific interests include the development of drugs for so-called ‘undruggable’ cancers, such as brain cancer and advanced metastatic cancers. My dream is to see my drugs in clinical use one day.