Gary Cantor, Durham, NC Medical Researcher

It is the case that Gary Cantor studied biology at the University of Florida as a teenager because he wanted to become a medical researcher at some point. It is also the case that, even now, while still only in his 20s and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina, he already has significant experience in that field. He began working in his

first lab when he was still a teenager and, on summer, while still at Florida, he traveled to San Francisco for a four-month internship for Genentech in their Translational Oncology department, where he worked on a very important treatment for breast cancer.

Looking back, it seems as if all of this was a natural fit. He always knew he wanted a career in medicine, since he was a young boy growing up in Coral Springs, Florida, and he became enthralled by a medical reality show on TV. At first, he admired the coolness on the doctors on that show, especially the surgeons. He knew he wanted to save lives when he grew up and that medicine was the way to do that. That dream was altered slightly when he was 13 and he came upon a YouTube video from a medical researcher who convinced the young boy that medical research was the key to everything.

The doctor who posted that video, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, is a biomedical gerontologist who believes strongly that medical research can create life expectancies as high as 1,000 years. He corresponded with Dr. de Grey and realized that he wanted to do that type of research. These days, Gary Cantor, Durham researcher, can envision the human body as an advanced computer As such, he firmly believes that anyone with knowledge of its instruction manual (genome), can possibly make the computer run forever. These days, Gary works in the Genetics and Molecular Biology Department at the University of North Carolina, where he, at the tender age of 26 and a Ph.D. candidate, feels that he is just beginning to move medical science forward.

Gary Cantor’s great biomedical gerontologist mentor

In his youth, current Durham, NC, resident Gary Cantor learned a love for the medical field from the television. But a love of research, which became his lifelong passion and pursuit that he studies today at UNC Chapel Hill, that emerged from a YouTube video of his mentor biomedical gerontologist Dr. Aubrey De Grey who researched longevity in humans. Cantor was fascinated and held onto those ideas, even thanking De Grey for giving him a true purpose in life and career once he reached graduate school. Today, Gary Cantor studies research, DNA and similar ideas in the Genetics and Molecular Biology Department of UNC Chapel Hill as a fourth year PhD candidate.

Gary Cantor, Durham Researcher

At the tender age of 26, Gary Cantor, Durham, North Carolina researcher, is already a Ph.D. candidate and can already boast of a notable career in medical research. This should surprise no one. Even when he was a young boy in Coral Springs, Florida, Gary Cantor knew he wanted a career in the medical field.

His first dream was to be a surgeon, because he watched a lot of medical reality shows on TV and he thought they looked the coolest. However, his overall goal was to give hope to the hopeless, so that dream shifted a bit when he saw a YouTube video of Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist who firmly believes that medical research of the genome, which he refers to as the body’s instruction manual, could increase life expectancies to as much as 10 centuries. Medical research then became his life’s calling.

When he was accepted into the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a while back, Gary Cantor made Durham, North Carolina his home. He now works in the university's Genetics and Molecular Biology Department.

To Gary Cantor, Durham is Home to his Medical Research Career

When he was a young boy in Coral Springs, Florida, Gary Cantor found the medical reality show, “Trauma: Life in the ER,” on TV and something told him he wanted a career in medicine. He admired the doctors who worked to save people's lives, and he really liked the surgeons. At first, anyway.

Something happened to Gary Cantor's dream when he was 13 and he saw a YouTube video of Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist, who convinced him that medical research was the key to everything. He had many discussions with de Grey over the years and Gary now looks on the human body as an advanced computer. He now understands that anyone with knowledge of the body’s instruction manual, known as the genome, may be able to make the computer run well and run forever.

Soon, Gary Cantor was studying biology at the University of Florida and he was still a teenager when he worked as a researcher in his first lab. He also spent one summer in San Francisco doing a four-month internship with Genentech in their Translational Oncology department. He was an important member of a team looking at a promising treatment for breast cancer.

After Florida, he was then happy to be accepted into the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also joined the university's Genetics and Molecular Biology Department. To Gary Cantor, Durham is now home. Still only 26, he is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate, which means he has many years to make inroads in medical research.

Gary Cantor Inspired by Dr. Aubrey de Grey

Twice Gary Cantor has wrote to Dr. de Grey.  The first time was as a child when he saw a Youtube video of Dr. de Grey explaining what the Biomedical Gerontology field was which resulted in a reply inviting him to a conference in England, they were unaware of the fact that he was thirteen at the time, the second time was when he was accepted into the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in this letter he thanked Dr. de Grey for publicizing the idea that gave him a purpose in life: finding a cure for aging.

Born and raised in Coral Springs, Florida, Gary Cantor was always an active child in both thought and physical recreation.  Growing up, he was an avid chess player and won the chess championship of his Junior High School the two years he competed.  In addition to chess, he was also active in a variety of sports such as golf, soccer, football, track and field, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Krav Maga and weightlifting.

From a young age, Gary Cantor decided he wanted to pursue a career in the medical field and after hearing about the Biomedical Gerontology field, Cantor began his educational pursuits into that field.  He performed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida where he studied biology and immediately got involved in the research departments.