PROFILES IN RESEARCH EXCELLENCE: Dr. Jason Bielas

The title of this picture is "Linda in a red sweater"

Where?  When"  I have no idea.

But it certainly is Linda, in a red sweater.

As promised I am going to introduce you to a promising young scientist doing original work on ovarian cancer: Dr. Jason Bielas.  Dr. Bielas seems to have a joint appointment with Fred Hutch and the University of Washington.  I presume that he is a “young” scientist – he received his Ph.D. in 2003, from York University in Toronto.  That was only 11 years ago.  Of course, 11 years after I finally nailed down MY Ph.D.. I was almost 50.  Was 50 young then?  It seems so now.  But not to quibble: Jason Bielas is a certified early career investigator, as shown by the fact that he recently received a $2.6 million grant – one of only 6 awarded, specifically to “early career investigators”.  Also, he looks young.  In fact, he looks quite a bit like my grandson-in-law, James Wiese.  Maybe, like James, he is a martial-arts aficionado in his spare time.

So anyway, Dr. Bielas studies the effects of mutations on age-related cancers, of which ovarian cancer is one.  Partly he looks at mutations in mitochondria .  You know what mitochondria are, right?  They are the power generators for cellular activity; little compartments in the cytoplasm of cells, stuffed with DNA and many other things.  Apparently Dr. Bielas has reason to believe that mutations in mitochondria, accumulating with age, give rise to some types of cancer.  He also works on mutations in the more commonly discussed DNA: that in the nucleus.  And from the title of one of his publications he also seems to have an interest in developing a means of detecting the presence of cancer from types of cells in the blood.  In short, my kind of guy: a basic get-the-facts human biologist with his eye on solutions to important problems.  I am encouraged that there are people like Jason Bielas working in cancer biology.  Now, if only we could reform the way research money is handed out (see my last blog entry.)

Google Scholar lists about 30 publications authored or co-authored by Dr. Bielas since 2003. One of them already has been cited 253 times.  Nine of them concern ovarian cancer.   Pretty good, I’d say.