Sometimes we have the driver and we have the drug, but the cell responds in an unexpected way. For example, let’s imagine that our cell is a balloon that has air inside it. This balloon has a small hole, and through it, all the air disappears. We try to stop the air from disappearing by putting a finger over it, but there is still air in the balloon and, inevitably, another hole appears. So, you put another finger over it, but the same problem happens again. With cancer, sometimes you stop a driver, but you activate another one which you didn’t see there. One of the challenges that we therefore have is that, sometimes, stopping one or two or three different drivers is not enough to stop the growth of a cancer cell.

For me, the definition of success is to continue working. You could say that success is getting good results, discovering something. But when you get a good result, there are many questions that follow. Even if there is a bad result, a result that we do not want, in the end, you learn. So, for a scientist, a bad result is a good result. Perhaps for the institution that you are working with, this is not the case. As a scientist, I appreciate it when a colleague of mine says, “Albert, don’t go in that direction because it’s wrong”, because it means that I can change and dedicate my time to other things that can be more successful.

I feel very privileged to be working in research for a disease that affects so many people. One sixth of the human population will die of this disease, and in twenty years it’ll be one third of the population. That’s a lot of people. So, investing money in cancer research, and continuing to work in this field, is a social event.

I always say that in research it’s essential to work as a team. Cancer is a multifactorial disease. You can focus on apoptosis or on proliferation; you can focus on organic chemistry, because you need organic chemists to design drugs. You also have to work with clinical doctors. What’s important is being in an atmosphere that collects knowledge from different fields, with people working together with the same aim: in this case, finding the cure for cancer. I want to highlight the potential of collaboration, not only with people who think in the same way as you, but with people who can see the problem in a different way to you.