"Discovery is our Business." Charles Huggins (Nobel Prize Laureate)

Welcome to the Ben May Department

Faces of Ben May Dept. of Cancer Research View the Gallery

Faces of BMDCR

CANCER AND METABOLISM Understanding how cancer cells source and burn energy differently from normal cells is a new and exciting frontier in cancer research.

Ben May Symposium May 7, 2012

Biography of Charles Brenton Huggins

"With blood on the hands I have chance, seated at the desk I have no chance." Charles Brenton Huggins (Nobel Prize Laureate) Click Here for Biography of Dr. Huggins

Biography of Charles Brenton Huggins

Welcome to the Ben May Department for Cancer Research

Our vision is a future where cancer is eliminated by total cure or managed by chronic treatment that enables a high quality of life.

The mission of the Ben May Department is embodied in the motto of our founder, the late Nobel Prize winner Charles Huggins: "Discovery is our Business."  In that spirit of discovery, our researchers are pushing the boundaries of understanding and challenging the assumptions that often impede progress.  We believe the first step toward preventing or curing cancer is basic research on the intricacies of the human body and the molecular, cellular, and genetic events that lead to cancer.  Advances in our fundamental understanding of cancer can then be translated into better methods of prevention and diagnosis.

Latest News and Announcements

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ABC News Medical Unit Coverage: "Beehive Glue Stops Prostate Cancer in Mice" (Jones Lab)

Link to ABC News article: click here

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How Do Cancers Become Resistant To Chemotherapy?

Genetic mutations in cancer cells can lead to resistance to treatment, thereby potentially resulting in relapse. However, a new article, published April 3 in the magazine section of the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, suggests that the converse may also happen. Steven Frank from the University of California, Irvine, and Marsha Rosner from the University of Chicago, propose that it may often be the case that a few cells become resistant before any genetic change, and then later acquire the genes to stabilize that resistance.

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Epic Academy visits BMDCR for Scientist Fieldwork Day

"Today's fieldwork day [at University of Chicago] felt like being a scientist for a day, full of new discoveries." -Nancy Chavez, Class of 2017/2021

Twenty 9th grade biology students from Epic Academy, a Chicago charter high-school visited the Ben May Department to learn about scientific research. 

After taking a tour of the campus, they attended a presentation by Richard Hipakka and Beth Russell on the history of the Ben May Department and learned about cancer research and were able to tour the cell culture laboratories of G. Greene & S. Liao.

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Dr. Zhao's paper selected as 1 of 5 highlighted by Cell

Cell has selected Dr. Zhao's research presenting a new type of histone modification as one of five of the journal's 2011 highlighted papers. Cell published more than 300 original articles in 2011.

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