David Dankort was 4 years into his postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, without a single paper to show for his work since his PhD. His first two major projects had failed, and if his third experiment didn’t pan out, he was ready to kiss his academic career goodbye. In a last-ditch effort, Dankort had constructed transgenic mice that could be induced to form cancer by activating a particular enzyme. In early 2005, as part of the final test of the experiment, he sedated his mice, placed a solution containing a virus expressing the enzyme under their noses, and waited a couple of weeks. “I’m waiting, I’m waiting, and I start to think: ‘Am I imagining or are these mice ill?’” Dankort recalls. He weighed the mice, and found that they had lost a few grams. Dankort then dissected the mice and found that their lungs were riddled ...
Next top model
By Elie Dolgin Next top model A mouse lung riddled with tumors after inhaling Cre recombinase. Courtesy of David Dankort David Dankort was 4 years into his postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, without a single paper to show for his work since his PhD. His first two major projects had failed, and if his third experiment didn’t pan out, he was ready to kiss his academic career goodbye. In a last-ditch effort, Dankort had constructed tra
Written byElie Dolgin
| 3 min read
Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
3:00
Share
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here
