Why do perfectly good cancer treatments suddenly stop working? Researcher and lymphoma survivor Kris Wood is finding answers.

Wood's research focuses on cancer resistance: the ability of cancer cells to activate effective biochemical defenses to protect themselves from the drugs we use to fight them.

“We have drugs that, in principle, should kill many cancers,” Wood says. “But in practice, they don't. That's resistance. I would argue that it's as big a problem as any in cancer. Because if we could figure out what the cancer cells are doing to stay alive in the face of drugs that should kill them, then we could target those mechanisms. And then all of a sudden a drug that's currently pretty paltry would become one that's super potent.”