Mark Davis: In ninth grade, I ran the fastest time in the country for the 400, which is one lap around. And so from that time, the only thing I worried about was I wanted to get around that track faster than anybody else in the country, but when I got to college, it just seemed like, for a little guy like me, I was ok, but I wasn't world-class. I knew at some point in time, I was going to have to quit that and actually go get a real job.

I'm a chemical engineer. Chemical engineering is kind of a marriage of chemistry and mathematics. I remember when I started as a student, I said, "Well, that's kind of cool. I want to do both of those things." Then when I heard it's usually the most challenging discipline on campus, I said, "That's for me." I chose to go the research pathway.

If someone had said 10 years ago that my experience as a chemical engineer would help me come up with a new cancer treatment, I would have said no way. I had a successful career. You know, I had a big research program. Everything was going along fine. But that was before what happened to my wife.

Mary Davis: So I was putting on some dresses, and my lump was way under my arm, and it wasn't a lump on my breast. It was just a lump under my arm, and you could hardly feel it.

I went to the doctor, and they did a needle biopsy. I got a phone call from the doctor saying it's cancer. And it just totally, totally shocked me. I had twin boys who were 3 and still in diapers, and I had a daughter who was 5 and in kindergarten. And you think about how old they're going to be when you die. I mean, Mark came home, immediately cancelled everything that he had on his docket.

Mark: You go from being someone who's a control-- we're all control freaks; believe me, every faculty member is a control freak - to actually having everything taken out of your control.

You know, your nice comfortable life gets, you know, all of a sudden destroyed.

Mary: Within a 2-week period, I had gone through all kinds of tests and had a mastectomy. And then the third doctor I saw just recommended a really, really aggressive form of chemotherapy. I had a drug called adriamycin, and it's nicknamed "the red death." And that's what it really felt like. I would lay in bed and throw up continuously for 2 days, not eat, hair loss. You’re more susceptible to infection. I mean, you just get so weak.

Mark: Your focus turns into battling the treatment. What you're trying to do is survive the treatments.

Mary: It's really hard to go into a doctor's office and to put something in your veins that you know is going to make you sick. Yeah, thinking about it now, just, you know, bringing up these memories, I...

You like to think there's a reason for everything, and sometimes I like to think that there's a reason that I got sick. When I was literally throwing up every day, almost every hour for a whole month, I would turn to him and say, "Mark, there's got to be a better way. "You know, you've got to find out how to have the treatment, get rid of the cancer, but not go through all these side effects."

Mark: When she said, "There has to be a better way," that was really the turning point. Cancer--what did I know about it? It was way out of my comfort zone from a scientific point of view. Mary said, "Well, what kind of excuse is that? You people over at Caltech are smart. You guys have a history of being able to solve significant problems. You know, why don't you work on it?" Easier said than done.

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