Alumni Stories with Don White: Cancer research, from mouse models to clinical programmes

I moved to Montreal from Hamilton, Ontario, in 2002, during the final 2 years of my PhD studies in Pathology and Molecular Medicine. My supervisor at the time – Professor William Muller FRSC – had only recently relocated his lab from McMaster University to the McGill Molecular Oncology Group in the Royal Victoria Hospital. The move was challenging from an operational point of view, as it involved the transfer and rederivation of multiple mouse models of human breast cancer, including the myriad of crosses comprising the bulk of my thesis work. But from a scientific and educational perspective, it was well worth it.

The environment at McGill provided an excellent background to round out my training as a PhD student in cancer biology. The energy and ideas in the Molecular Oncology Group and affiliated departments opened up for me new ways to think about cancer, and introduced me to new approaches to modelling and studying the disease – and disease in general – which I carried through into my postdoctoral work in the same lab.

After 4 productive and stimulating years in the Molecular Oncology Group I was well prepared to take on a second postdoctoral position at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, UK, working with the world-renowned Professor Christopher J. Marshall FRS, who I met thanks to McGill University’s place and reputation amongst the best educational and research universities in the world.

Working at the ICR in London not only added to my skills as a research scientist, but also opened up for me a whole new career path in the cancer field, a path which was first inspired by some of the projects I observed during my time at McGill. This new path was along the lines of translational (ie. bench-to-bedside) applications of research, including the delivery of research results directly to the clinic in the form of clinical trials. Since 2018 I have had the exceptional opportunity to develop and deliver new skills in clinical applications of cancer research at Cancer Research UK (CRUK), the largest independent supporter of cancer research worldwide. My roles at CRUK to date have both been at the senior management level: first as head of a UK-wide genomic screening programme for precision medicine applications to lung cancer, and now as the lead on a large portfolio of novel targets and compounds in a drug discovery and development pipeline.

Looking back on my career so far, it is clear to me that everything I was able to do in the cancer field all goes back to solid early training in the biology of cancer and how to think about disease. This, therefore, is one piece of advice I would share with the next generation of students and researchers: never underestimate the importance and value of learning the basics well. In my case, I was fortunate to have an absolutely excellent PhD supervisor who not only taught me how to think about science, but who also introduced me to colleagues and collaborators who inspired and nurtured my knowledge and appreciation of cancer biology and pathology -- and taking me with him to McGill was a big part of that experience. All of this provided a foundation upon which I could build my leadership skills to drive forward programmes of clinical value in the cancer field, with patient benefit being front-and-centre as the ultimate goal.