Svasti Haricharan: Diversity Yields Better Outcomes

Dr. Svasti Haricharan is a scientist at the Sanford Burnham Prebys in La Jolla. Her lab focuses on the role of DNA damage repair in inducing resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer. Early in her career, she would have to present her research over IPA beers in the UK. (She learned to love beer as she connected with her scientific community.) While completing her postdoctoral training in Texas, her boss asked her to help him write a grant application on cancer disparities and how race affects cancer outcome. At the time, she had no idea this was a thing because no one ever brought it up in her 12 years of training in cancer research. Over the years, she’s gone deep to study who gets studied, why, and how to ensure we get better outcomes in research that will help more people in the general population. Join Grant and Svasti for this conversation about diversity, science, changing the world, and what it means to be open to multiple viewpoints.