Contributing author

When Franziska Michor heard about Martin Nowak's plans to apply mathematical modelling techniques to cancer, her interest was piqued.

Michor had done undergraduate work in both molecular biology and maths, and originally planned to pursue experimental work in cancer genetics. But Nowak, who runs Harvard University's recently established Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, suggested she do a PhD with him. At his lab, she was able to pursue her interests in maths and biology, and to combine theory with experiment. Most recently, Michor was elected to be a Harvard junior fellow.

Nowak and Michor gathered a team together and modelled the resistance of cells to chemotherapy in leukaemia. They showed that a small subset of leukaemia cells — cancerous stem cells — determine the dynamics of treatment (Nature 435, 1267–1270; 2005). Here, Michor talks about how she got involved with the research and about the challenges of the field.

How difficult was it to make the decision to pursue mathematical biology?

When Martin suggested I do a PhD at Harvard, my undergraduate adviser at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna — Kim Nasmyth — said the time wasn't ripe for maths in biology. Since then, he's invited me back to talk about my work.

How did you and Nowak collect your collaborators?

Lots of connections and lots of luck. When I met Martin, he was working with Bert Vogelstein at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; Bert told Martin to work with a particular type of leukaemia. Then he referred us to Charles Sawyers at the University of California, Los Angeles, an expert in this kind of cancer. Charles got us in contact with Tim Hughes in Australia, who had access to clinical samples.

What is it like to be a molecular biologist working with both mathematicians and clinicians?

It's not easy, because they use completely different kinds of language.

Would you encourage other young scientists to do mathematical biology?

Yes, definitely. It's the best field to be in. People expect you to be brilliant in maths and brilliant in biology — and that's not possible. But with the simulations, experiments and data analysis, it's very much a team effort.

What do you do to relax?

I ride Icelandic horses. It's always good to go into the forest and hope to be inspired.