It is becoming clear that many diseases – especially cancer – are highly complex and may respond better to a multi-drug approach which targets many different aspects of a disease process.

It’s possible, although far-fetched, that in the future we could think of cancer being used as a therapy.

It's possible, although far-fetched, that in the future we could think of cancer being used as a therapy.

It is becoming clear that many diseases - especially cancer - are highly complex and may respond better to a multi-drug approach which targets many different aspects of a disease process.

I don't want to say, 'I want to cure cancer.' It's such a grand thing. People have been trying for so long and we're not getting very far. But I do want to try to understand it better, and I want to make some forward movement.

Prevention is a very important part of solving the problem of cancer.

My grandmother was a chemist. She worked at the Banting Institute in Toronto, and at 44 she died of stomach cancer. I never met my grandmother, but I carry on her name - her exact name, Eva Vertes - and I like to think I carry on her scientific passion, too.

When I was about 9 years old, I became very interested in the human body and diseases. In general, I was just curious about the world around me. I think that any sort of curiosity as a child is a good beginning to a career in science because science, at least to me, is a continuous exploration of the unknown.

Muscle is constantly being used - constantly being damaged. If every time we tore a muscle or every time we stretched a muscle or moved in a wrong way, cancer occurred - I mean, everybody would have cancer almost.

I decided to take two years between finishing undergraduate and beginning medical school to devote fully to medical research. I knew that I wanted to go to medical school during undergraduate, but I was also eager to get a significant amount of research experience.