FAV: Hangin with Dr. Pinney

We're taking a break from (awesome) music videos today to do something a little bit different. Baylor University is home to some fantastic research and I'd occasionally like to use this platform to highlight some of it. Today's research comes from somebody particularly near and dear to my heart: Dr. Kevin G Pinney.

Dr. Pinney has been a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Baylor since 1993. In addition to pulling off the notably difficult task of making Organic Chemistry a fun course, he has run a successful lab that focuses on the synthesis of small organic molecules that are potential anti-cancer agents. Specifically, these molecules focus on trying to deprive tumors of their blood supply. The success of Dr. Pinney's work has resulted in him receiving a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 establishing the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and authorizing the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in Texas.

Below is a video of Dr. Pinney briefly talking about his research made by CPRIT.

On a personal note, I quickly decided to do my undergraduate research and Honor Thesis under Dr. Pinney after taking his surprisingly entertaining Organic Chemistry class. While in hindsight I shudder at how green and inexperienced I was in the lab, my experiences over those two years helped convince me to pursue biomedical research in my 'career'. I will always be grateful to Dr. Pinney for his patience, humor, and teaching and remember those days fondly.

You can read the press release from 2010 here.