In profile: Dr Simon Baker of the Jack Birch Unit
Dr Simon Baker is the Deputy Director of the Jack Birch Unit at the University of York, where we fund internationally recognised research into bladder cancer. As a member of our Cancer Awareness/Education Committee, he has also spearheaded our new ENTHUSE Partnership project to educate schoolchildren about cancer.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I’m from Bristol originally and went to secondary school in Birmingham, but I have been in York for the whole of my post-school career. I did a third-year project with Professor Jenny Southgate (Director of the Jack Birch Unit) soon after she had taken over at the JBU and on the basis of that, she offered me a PhD. I’ve been at the unit ever since.
Q: What made you decide on biology as a career?
A: I’ve always been interested in biology, I suppose for traditional reasons – David Attenborough was one inspiration – but I think it’s just the subject area that is fascinating. I’ve always been interested in photography, so the imaging of cells has always appealed to me, to look at patterns in individual cells. The imaging of cells is a really powerful tool to answer scientific questions. Things like this are where art meets science and I enjoy those things. I’m also interested in the mechanical side, how things work. I’m really interested in engineering – I restored my own car, a TVR Griffith. I built it for my wedding and went on my honeymoon in it. That interest in engineering is why my PhD was in tissue engineering, which is about creating machines to create materials that you can use in the laboratory. We are often manufacturing equipment to make it work to our advantage and I do a lot of that.
Q: What does your role at the unit involve?
A: I look after the unit when Jenny is away and supervise a lot of our students. I write grant applications to bring in money, but whereas Jenny is 100 per cent management and funding I am still in the lab and doing the cutting-edge experiments that we need to get done. I do everything a little bit, but Jenny has all the responsibility!
Q: What have you been working on recently?
A: We partner with a lot of brilliant scientists working in drug development, and I have had a research project with the Institute for Cancer Therapeutics in Bradford. Through a Wellcome Trust fellowship I had shown that there was the potential for a pathway to be used by bladder cancers. I managed to show that it was specific to a small group of bladder cancer patients and that a new drug might specifically target that group.
The Bradford people had a drug that was looking for a home and we had a home looking for a drug and by chance I managed to find out on the web! As we’re so close it has been very easy to work with each other and we will hopefully publish that work early in the New Year.
Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
A: The fact that I discover something every day that no human being has ever known! It’s the feeling of being a true pioneer. When you come up with an idea, test it and it turns out you were right and you were the first person to ask that question, that feeling is hard to beat. We are often wrong, of course, but that leads us to other questions that can be fruitful. You feel that you are contributing to something that will outlast you, that you are contributing to the sum of human knowledge.
Day to day, it’s also great to work with a group of people who are all focused on one thing, and that’s to cure a disease. I am very lucky to have my job and I’m very proud of it and of the work I do for York Against Cancer.