On why she studies lung cancer & what she values in talking to patients. 

MM [Monthly Measure]: What brought you into the cancer space?

Two things. I’ve been a math and science person since I was a little kid. As I got older I became interested in the questions behind biology, particularly genetics. I also have a lot of cancer of various types that runs in my family. While none of it is lung cancer, I got into the oncology space both from scientific curiosity about the biology behind how cancer works and, from a personal level, wanting to understand this disease that’s impacted multiple members of my family.

MM: How do you keep up to date with lung cancer research?

Professional meetings are number one. We try very hard to attend the major lung cancer research conferences every year and go to, at the very least, the big news-breaking presentations. Second, we have great partners. GO2 for Lung Cancer has a lot of partners in the pharma and biotech industry who are willing to provide updates on the breaking science that’s coming out of their specific companies. We also have our Scientific Leadership Board that brings topics and discoveries forward.

MM: Why is it important for patients and caregivers to understand the science behind lung cancer?

The treatment of lung cancer is becoming increasingly personalized. The treatment for one patient with lung cancer can be wildly different than the treatment for another. The science is dictating the best course of action for your particular treatment and your particular cancer. So, it really helps for patients and their caregivers to have a high-level understanding of the different types of treatments. The biology is different in every person and, increasingly, so is the treatment.

MM: You often explain complex scientific issues to non-scientists. What is it that you’re doing that makes you so good at it?

I’m good at it because of my upbringing. My mom was a nurse but was not in research or in science. The rest of my family has absolutely no science whatsoever. As I got interested in this, I would talk to them and explain to them what I was working on and have to translate the high-level conceptual terms. The person who hasn’t had to deal with cancer doesn’t know the concepts. So, you need to bring it into language that they understand, and be able to talk about it as if it’s an everyday thing.

MM: What do you value most about your interactions with patients and caregivers?

It’s so different from where I started. My PhD was in biology, but I was at a school where we were very heavy in molecular biology. It was very lab based. I was working on how cells grow and divide, and some important genes and proteins that are involved in how cells grow and divide. That’s absolutely critical for cancer, which is essentially cells growing too fast and out of control. But looking at cells growing in a dish is very, very different from the day-to-day experience of a person living with cancer. There’s often a disconnect where the scientific questions are not always the relevant patient questions.

For me to come and conduct science at a patient-facing organization has really brought forward the need to frame and prioritize all the questions. Which one of these things do we want to work on because it can really help the community the most? Whether the questions are about the biology of the cancer itself, or things like important side effects that people are having, or different ways that their lives have been impacted. For me, the value has been in reprioritizing the type of questions and the focus of how I’m thinking about lung cancer and science.

MM: Is there anything else you want the lung cancer community to understand?

The increased pace of the science in the lung cancer field in the last 5–6 years. We’ve gone from lung cancer being the disease where there were no advances to being one of the leading cancers in innovation and new therapies. This is such an unprecedented time of change; we’re going to be able to think about personalizing therapy and what cancer looks like and having all these different treatment options. It’s a very new time, which is also difficult because we don’t know how to use some of the drugs as well as we’d like to. It’s a good problem to have.

MM: How do you spend your non-work time?

Family time is big. I’m married and have two kids and a dog, and I spend a lot of time with them and at their activities. I double as a cheer mom, which is funny for a scientist. My daughter is a serious, competitive all-star cheerleader so she is at the gym tumbling constantly and – when we are allowed – I travel with her to competitions.  (We were in Dallas to compete at NCA All-Star Nationals two weeks before the COVID-19 shutdown!) My son plays little league, but recently talked me into a weekend of doing the 2020 Pokemon GO Fest with him. They keep me busy!