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Hamid Band, M.D., Ph.D. |
NOTE: This profile is part of a series highlighting the 23 researchers who were named UNMC Distinguished Scientists or New Investigators for 2008. Each of these researchers will be profiled in UNMC Today leading up to a March 16 ceremony to recognize their achievements.
- Name: Hamid Band, M.D., Ph.D.
- Title: Professor in the Eppley Institute and associate director of education and training at the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center
- Joined UNMC: 2007
- Hometown: Chachkoot, Kashmir, India (Adopted Hometown: Boston)
Describe your research in laymen terms, please.
We study how our body’s “cellular brakes” control our “cellular accelerators or gas pedals.” This knowledge should help devise and improve targeted therapies for diseases such as cancer and autoimmunity.
What led you to pursue this area of research?
As a beginning assistant professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, I was fascinated by how many white blood cells our body makes on a daily basis, especially when faced with infections. The enormous cellular multiplication and deployment to correct sites where the cells are needed are fraught with the possibility of errors, yet most of us live long lives without suffering from autoimmune diseases or cancers of white blood cells. Why? This question led to my interest in “cellular brakes” that allow precisely controlled cellular multiplication, migration and activity. As it turns out, these mechanisms are shared between different cell types and in fact between different organisms. What we began studying in white blood cells tuned out to be equally relevant to cells that can give rise to breast or other forms of cancer.
How do you see your research contributing to science?
Workings of a human body in health and disease are intellectually fascinating and each step forward by the community of scientists brings better understanding as well as potential to counter human ailments. Thus, my long term hope is that our research will become a part of our collective knowledge that will inform better diagnoses and treatments of human diseases. The specific genes whose biology we have helped elucidate are now known to be altered in cancer and the pathways by which they work are suitable for the development of anti-cancer strategies.
Why did you become a scientist?
As a medical student, I became fascinated with mechanisms of disease and how drugs work, and I felt an inner desire to contribute to this knowledge. As a medical intern and resident, I realized how little we understood about human body and human diseases, and how powerless that lack of knowledge made me feel against major illnesses that took my patient’s lives or left them with lifelong challenges. As a young physician in India, I lacked opportunities to continue to care for my patients (my first love) and at the same time do research (my other first love). At 26, I gave up clinical medicine to pursue laboratory research with an oath to return if by age 40 I did not feel I was making a contribution to biomedical research. I have not returned to the clinic although I have missed seeing patients each day of my life.
What is your hope for the next generation of scientists?
The next generation of biomedical scientists is in a unique position to take advantage of the enormous strides made over the last half century to bridge basic and clinical biomedical sciences towards better understanding of diseases, newer targeted therapies and personalized medicine. Yet, biomedicine faces an enormous challenge with inadequate financial support. I hope that our biomedical and political leaders will come together to ensure increased investment in biomedicine so that many of our young scientists do not have to decide against careers in biomedical research and our young students do not opt disproportionately for non-science careers for economic reasons. I also hope that our young scientists will combine their creativity with a sense of greater purpose that has always been the hallmark of biomedical research.
Beyond grant funding, how do you measure success?
I measure success as a scientist in one’s contribution to perpetuity; by doing science that is rigorous and adds to our collective knowledge; by my commitment and effectiveness to mentor future scientists to sustain scientific enterprise after our time has passed; by creating an environment, at the level of one’s laboratory, institution and the scientific field, that motivates and inspires others to become involved in doing science and in supporting it.
What would you tell a student interested in a research career?
I tell my students that I wish I were 26 again, so that I could be a part of what I see as an exciting new dawn in biomedical science where we will see many cures previously deemed impossible and see biomedicine transform our personal lives and social fabric for better. I also would tell them that biomedical research is a long-term commitment that has to come from your heart and that you will need to pursue it to the best of your intellectual ability and give it every ounce of your physical energy. Science is not a line of work, it is a commitment to a purpose-driven life!
Do you have a hero/role model? If so, what do you admire most about this person?
I have had many role models that have helped shape the way I think, work and approach people. My parents gave me my work ethic and my desire to serve other human beings. My wife, (UNMC scientist) Vimla Band (Ph.D.), has taught me the value of maintaining focus and not to lose sight of what is important. In the larger community of scientists, I have admired David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate, for his tremendous creativity and for having trained an outstanding number of students that have become leaders in biomedicine. I also admire my postdoctoral mentor Michael Brenner for his uncanny ability to sift out important scientific questions from mundane ones.
Tell us about your family and hobbies outside of the lab.
My wife of 25 years (Vimla Band) and I are raising two boys — Sheehan, 19, is a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis and Neil (11) is a fifth grader at Ezra Millard Elementary School. They fill me with hope and optimism. I have few hobbies outside of science. When I was younger, I read voraciously about philosophy, science fiction and general topics, and I still read some whenever I can bring myself to ignore a deadline. I like watching sports, mostly on TV (although the live Husker games are beginning to be part of our entertainment). I like trying out different cuisines aside from homemade Indian food (my wife and mother-in-law are great cooks).
List three things few people know about you.
- I had to go through three wedding ceremonies to marry my wife (one each according to Hindu and Muslim customs and one in front of a judge, just to make sure!);
- I am a huge soy food enthusiast; and
- As a medical student, a buddy of mine and I talked the library staff into locking us inside the library during Friday afternoon breaks — this gave me more than two hours of uninterrupted reading of the latest research advances and served as a preparation for my scientific career.