Science can be an art form – especially when practiced by Gustavo Leone.
“We can imagine things as scientists, it is a creative process,” said Gustavo, a professor in the Human Cancer Genetics Program at Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
He also helped create the Pelotonia Training Program in Cancer Research, a program that will soon bring top talent to Ohio State and set these bright minds on a course toward creative scientific thinking – and breakthroughs in cancer research.
Creative thinking helped Gustavo and his team look outside of cancer tumors – and discover something important.
Gustavo helped create the Pelotonia Training Program in Cancer Research
“We recently found that genes outside the tumor cell have a huge influence on cancer,” he said. “Usually scientists look only inside the tumor, at those cells, but the genes outside influence how it advances and how fast.”
This is an important discovery, one that will help other scientists look at and fight cancer differently. A paper on their findings by Leone and two of his associates at OSU – Hui-Zi Chen and Shih-Yin Tsai – was recently published in Nature, one of the most influential scientific journals.
“All these cells work as a community of cells and we’re discovering the cells that promote or prevent cancer cells,” Gustavo said. “And hopefully, we’ll stay ahead of the other scientists in this. I am a little competitive.”
This competitive nature has marked Gustavo’s career – and was the prime reason he was able to ride the 180-mile route at the first Pelotonia ride without any training. Not even a single ride or a single mile in advance.
Please don’t try this at home.
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Gustavo was born in Uruguay and moved to Canada when he was 12 with his family. He attended college and did his graduate work north of the border – and then post-graduate work at Duke before coming to Ohio State in 1999.
His job was simple: research, research, research.
“They look at you and think this guy is smart and energetic and some day he may do something great,” Gustavo said of his job offer from Ohio State.
His research focuses in on breast cancer and intestinal cancer.
“We are looking at the family of genes that regulate cells, that mutate to form cancer,” he said. “You can’t correct a mutation, but the best course of action is to attack what the mutation creates.”
Gustavo oversees a large lab – and has several researchers working for him. He takes pride in his research – and teaching the next generation of scientists.
“It is always hard to recruit post-doctoral students,” he said, adding this helped him come up with the overall concept for the Pelotonia Training Program in Cancer Research.
The program has three parts, will start up in the fall and is funded by money raised by Pelotonia’s riders.
There will be 25 undergraduate students. Many will be recruited from Ohio State and some of these students will spend time doing research in foreign countries; some of the 25 will be foreign students who come to Ohio State.
The program will include 18 graduate students. “These are students doing PhD work in any department at Ohio State,” Gustavo said. “We wanted to develop a cross-disciplinary program from all over Ohio State, not just from the hospital and cancer center. The only requirement is their research must be cancer related.”
There will also be 12 post-doctoral students in the program, who will work in one of the cancer center’s already established labs.
“This is the largest program of its kind in the country,” Gustavo said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. We’re training the future scientists – this is fantastic.”
Funding from Pelotonia will be $1 million the first year, and then $2 million a year thereafter, with new “classes” of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students being added every year as others “graduate” from the program.
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Gustavo will once again ride 180 miles in Pelotonia. And the odds are he will once again not have any time to train.
“Let’s not talk about that,” he said with a smile.
But the odds are he will once again will himself to the finish – and suffer the consequences of his lack of training.
“I did the first 50 miles on adrenaline – there were so many people on the streets waving and cheering and holding signs and giving us cookies,” he said. “And then I got my inspiration from my colleagues who rode with me.”
But, Gustavo warned, don’t follow in his pedal path.
“Yes, everyone should train – you don’t need that pain,” he said. “But it was so much fun and when we got there, there was cold beer and a band was playing.”
