Robert Judson-Torres, PhD | Talks with Docs
Robert Judson-Torres, PhD, a research faculty member in the Department of Dermatology at Huntsman Cancer Institute, shares insights into his journey as a melanoma researcher and the intricacies of his work. With a focus on understanding melanocytes and their role in skin cancer development, Judson-Torres navigates the complexities of scientific inquiry with determination and passion. Drawing parallels to his 亚洲自慰视频hood explorations and his admiration for characters like Indiana Jones, he underscores the importance of interdisciplinary studies and collaboration to understand the mysteries of cancer. Outside the lab, Dr. Judson-Torres enjoys running in the mountains and spending time with his family, including his two-year-old daughter and his German shepherd. As he mentors the next generation of scientists, he remains steadfast in his commitment to advancing knowledge and innovation in cancer research, envisioning a future where his efforts yield breakthroughs in prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies.
Video transcript
If you鈥檙e going to make a great discovery, again, nine out of ten times you won鈥檛, right? And that鈥檚 how you get to that great discovery.
My name is and I am a research faculty in the Department of Dermatology.
What is your favorite part of working at Huntsman Cancer Institute?
What I found here was, especially for what I do, which is melanoma research鈥攊t鈥檚 an incredibly integrated community. So any human disease鈥攎elanoma being one of them鈥攊s so extraordinarily complicated that in order to really have the best care for patients, as well as sort of pushing the envelope on research, you need experts in all of it, right? From prevention to diagnosis to the treatment of that patient鈥攆iguring out what the best options are鈥攖o the researchers like myself, who are trying to make things better.
What is your cancer research focus?
really focuses on all things revolving around a cell type called a . So melanocytes are famous for a few things鈥攖hey鈥檙e famous for giving us our different skin tones, they鈥檙e famous for giving us a tan, they鈥檙e also infamous for being the cell of origin for melanoma. We don鈥檛 really know a whole lot about human melanocytes or these very early stages of melanoma development. And so some of the fundamental questions we鈥檙e asking are how melanocytes are different across the human body, how these different types of melanocytes can be cells of origin for different types of skin cancers and different types of melanoma. We hope that through understanding cell of origin, why you get a mole, why you get a melanoma, that this will actually lead to new strategies for prevention, for early intervention, and then potentially also therapeutic intervention.
Why did you become a cancer researcher?
I always knew that I wanted to explore and discover鈥 that鈥檚 really the driving force here. I grew up on a family-owned farm in very rural Pennsylvania. We didn鈥檛 have TV, I didn鈥檛 have an Atari鈥攖here weren鈥檛 many people around, right? And so when the chores were done there was really only one thing to do and that was to explore. When I realized that I could just close my eyes and randomly point to any biology鈥攚hether it is a bug, a leaf, a twig, any part of our anatomy鈥攁nd I鈥檇 be pointing at something that you could spend another hundred lifetimes studying and not really fully understand. That鈥檚 when I knew that that that was my frontier, so to speak.
What do you do when you鈥檙e not in the lab?
If I have any free time during the day that suddenly randomly pops up, meetings cancelled, I just change into running clothes and take off in those mountains, right, so that鈥檚 something I love to do. Outside of that right now I mean it is almost exclusively my family. I have a two-year-old daughter, another 亚洲自慰视频 on the way in about two months, German shepherd, a wife鈥 all of who I just adore and any free time I get I spend with them.
What fictional character do you relate to?
Throughout life would be someone like Indiana Jones. He is someone who really, I mean as corny as it is, he inspired me to want to be a teacher and want to be an explorer, just flat out. I think the approach of being willing to ask questions that others might not have thought of, to follow essentially the data wherever it goes, even if it doesn鈥檛 make sense at first, and when push comes to shove just roll up your sleeves and get through something through total grit is a rough approach I have. I use very different tools, right鈥攏ot a lot of whips, guns, or fists in my labs鈥攂ut the approach is similar. And so I would say that at a time in my life when sort of my brain was forming what I was interested in, those movies certainly played a fundamental role.
What鈥檚 it like to train the next generation of cancer researchers?
I do see young scientists get frustrated. You put a lot of work, love, and energy into a project and turns out there the null hypothesis was true, but that鈥檚 part of it鈥攖hat is the game, right? You should say, wow I took this knowledge that we have, I came up with the possibility that makes the most sense to me, and I was wrong鈥攖hat makes it more interesting, right? That means that nature is doing things in a way that you literally can鈥檛 conceive right now and so then you need to design the next set of experiments to try to get a bead on, well, what really is happening. But for me the real reason I鈥檓 here as opposed to another sector of science of research is its academia. It is the training, right? So to me the most meaningful part of the job is the students. I just very strongly believe that getting that very high level of training in the scientific process for anyone in the game, no matter what they鈥檙e going to do, is why I鈥檓 here.
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