716: What It’s Like to be a Systems Biologist With Dr. Galit Lahav, Harvard Medical School [Main T4C Episode]

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Galit Lahav is the Chair of the Department of Systems Biology and a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. She is known for identifying a range of behaviors in the tumor suppressor protein p53 and uncovering its significance for killing individual cancer cells. She has been recognized globally for her excellence in teaching and research, receiving awards such as the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science and an Excellence in Mentoring Award. Dr. Lahav received her Ph.D. in 2001 from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. She is working to make Harvard a destination of choice for women in science. 

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE:

• What systems biology is and how it works (3:15)
• What Dr. Lahav’s research focuses on (4:40)
• Why the P53 protein, the “guardian of the genome,” is so important (5:46)
• How taking a systems approach works in researching the P53 protein (9:14)
• What Dr. Lahav’s typical workday looks like (13:34)
• Why it’s important to give yourself a break from work on a daily basis (16:42)
• What the gender breakdown of Galit’s job is like (18:27)
• How Dr. Lahav found what she wanted to do post-grad (19:48)
• What Dr. Lahav learned from a failure she experienced in New York (22:51)
• What advice Galit would give to her former self (27:06)