What's the best degree if I want to do researches about how to fight diseases ?

What's the best degree if I want to do researches about how to fight cancers and tumor? I would like to work in scientific or medical lab and maybe discover something new. Is this possibile ?
A degree in medicine is required?

Reply 1

JJJJJAAAAMES

Chemistry, Pharmacology/ Pharmacy, genetics, immunology, medical biochemistry,

chemistry and lab related courses lead the way

Reply 2

username4429376

Original post by JJJJJAAAAMES

Chemistry, Pharmacology/ Pharmacy, genetics, immunology, medical biochemistry,

chemistry and lab related courses lead the way

Biology? In that case wouldn't be important all the knowledge like molecules and things like these that you study in biology ? In chemistry you do not study such things

Reply 3

Wwys

Biological Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Pharmacology, Biomedical Sciences, Biological Sciences etc.

Chemistry however will involve other aspects of the subject such as physical chemistry, inorganic, etc. which are less related to fighting cancer, though it I would suggest Chemistry courses with biological modules as you'll learn about drug design/discovery in further detail compared to pure biology courses.
My suggestion would be to do a Biology/Chemistry-related undergrad course and follow it up with a masters course that is more specific to cancer research since medical research/drug discovery will definitely require people with at least an MSc.

I did an undergrad in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and I am now doing a masters course in Pharmacology, feel free to ask me any more questions. :smile:

Reply 4

kkboyk

Original post by cloud10

Any sort of biological (provided that you've learnt a good deal of biochemistry) or chemistry related degree is acceptable if you are interested in lab work. The requirements are quite flexible. Also cancer research is very vast and approached at lots of different angles, so there's lots of opportunities for those specialised in different areas. For example here's how a computer scientist can contribute:

Biochemical reactions inside the cell form huge networks. Each has certain thermodynamic properties and equilibria. The thermodynamic equilibrium of the physiological state defined as "healthy" must be different than the one defined as "disease", with some elasticity allowed for in-between states and before the balance tips. Cell-cell interactions can also be seen as networks of thermodynamic equilibria. Find algorithms or computation methods to analyze these complex systems and you can help solve major biological problems.

One of my mathematics lecturer has published lots of research in cancer cell biology that has contributed a lot, so even if you don't get into lab work there's always a way to contribute.