Cody started volunteering with the American Cancer Society through Relay for Life. At an event he heard the story of a childhood cancer survivor, and this started to inspire him to want to be a cancer researcher.
As a cancer researcher I want to change lives, but we need funding investment to do this.
He took biology as an undergraduate student, and he became very interested in cancer from a biological perspective. Eventually Cody joined a research lab and began studying breast cancer.
Cody has since finished his PhD, and he is a post-doctoral cancer researcher. His PhD studies were funded by the National Insitute of Health, without this funding he would not be where he is today.
He now studies pancreatic cancer, a cancer that hasn’t been studied as much as others. He is working towards a long academic career where he can hopefully be a part of more research that changes lives.
But Cody has already seen young scientists leave the field due to funding cuts and to the current level of instability in research. As an early career scientist, he is evaluated on his ability to obtain grants. As funding goes down, it becomes more difficult to win grants to fund the work and find cures.
Cody continues to use his voice to ask for further investment in cancer research. As a researcher, he knows that cures can be within our reach if we prioritize it.