Interview by Jonathan Patience, Commissioning Editor Keith Stewart is the Dean for Research at Mayo Clinic (AZ, USA). He holds the Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Endowed Professorship in Cancer Research. He received his medical degree at Aberdeen University Medical School and trained in internal medicine and hematology in Glasgow, Kingston, Toronto and Boston. He was a consultant at the Toronto General and Princess Margaret Hospitals from 1992 to 2005 and a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He joined Mayo Clinic in Arizona in 2005. His lab-based research has focused on the genomics and developmental therapeutics of multiple myeloma. He has led numerous clinical trials from 'first in man', through to large international Phase III studies. Funding for his research includes the National Cancer Institute, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF). In addition, he is an associate editor of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).