Grace Wang’s journey earning a PhD in medical and molecular genetics started in a small mining town in northern China. She may not have taken the typical route to Indiana University, but it was her own.
“I never was one of the kids who were like, ‘Oh, I wanted to be a doctor since I was little,’” explained Wang. “I was always the type of person who was like, ‘You are going to go for engineering.’ I had a natural math ability, so I wanted to use it.”
Wang's whole life changed in her pre-teen years: as her grandfather's health declined, her dream of becoming an engineer faded.
“My grandfather was a miner and back then the conditions in the mines were very poor,” Wang stated. “So, he developed a lot of lung-related problems which eventually led to lung cancer. When they discovered it, it was already at the end stage. So, we had nothing we could do anything about it. But the physicians that we interacted with just kept on trying. I really appreciated those caring physicians. Those physicians were my inspirations of why I chose this career.”
After her grandfather lost his battle with cancer, life changed dramatically for Wang and her family. A little over a year later, Wang's family moved to the United States and settled in Illinois, where she finished high school.
Wang begun working toward her goal of pursuing a medical career at a two-year community college, where she met her future mentor, Steven Burks, PhD. He suggested she join the pre-med program at Earlham College, his alma mater. Other mentors suggested an additional path.
“While studying at the community college in my town, Dr. Kordik [Cheryl Kordik, PhD] and Dr. Socol [Steven Socol, PhD] my first research mentors, realized that I was really into research,” Wang explained. “Dr. Kordik asked, ‘Why don't you just pursue an MD-PhD career?’ It was the first time I learned about this path. She told me, ‘Go do more research about it. It's a longer route, but since you wanted to do an MD, and you love research so much, why don't you just use both of your passions and combine them into a career?’ I didn’t know other options other than either PhD or MD, so that's when I first realized, I could pursue both and earn both degrees to combining my interest.”
Wang first became interested in genetics as an undergraduate, after taking a class on human genetics. She was fascinated by what she learned, eventually deciding she wanted to investigate cancer’s link to genetics. Clinical shadowing helped Wang narrow her research focus even further.
“During my undergraduate career, I was able to shadow several medical oncologists who were treating patients with different solid tumors,” Wang expounded. “One physician I shadowed was seeing many patients with breast cancer, including some being triple-negative. During those patient interactions, I found myself thinking, the other breast cancer subtypes often have druggable targets that can be used to control the tumor, but triple-negative disease has far fewer options beyond chemotherapy, with or without surgery. That experience shaped my goal of expanding treatment options for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.”
Once Wang started her PhD at the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, she quickly found that identifying the genetic angle was a little more challenging.
“My research is related to genetics but not exactly following the traditional genetics route," Wang explained. “We are pretty much looking at the cancer genome and the genetic alterations in cancer, especially the solid tumors, and how that guides our drug discovery and therapeutic strategy. So, it sort of fit into the realm of the overall genetics picture, but it also gave me the flexibility to explore the other part of so-called cancer biology and cancer genomics.”
She eventually settled on identifying proteins in the body that can be targeted by therapies, and therefore aid in the treatment of triple negative breast cancer.
“Patients with triple-negative breast cancer can harbor distinct genetic amplifications and other genomic alterations that may be therapeutically targetable and could potentially be leveraged to enhance tumor immunogenicity, thereby improving responsiveness to immunotherapy,” Wang stated. “Once we find that target, we are able to combine it with the other available Immunotherapy strategies on the market to treat the triple negative breast cancer patients with advanced diseases and metastases.”
Wang’s life didn't slow down while pursuing her PhD. She got married and had a daughter — Irene.
“Pursuing a degree or bettering your education should not get in the way of you living your life,” Wang stated. “Your life goes on no matter what. Your experiments could fail for the next two years. You have no publications. You have to struggle through a lot of false results, bad data, but life goes on. It doesn't take a pause. So don't put your life on hold while you are pursuing your degree or while you are in the midst of doing your PhD. Because at the end, when you look back at your entire PhD, you would be like, ‘I am glad I did it.’ I want everybody to know that no matter how hard it is, you also have the sweet moments along the way to think about. Like having a baby, getting married, or maybe starting a new dating life, beginning a new hobby. You should never give up on those things. Getting a degree and having a normal life shouldn't interfere with one another.”
Wang eventually not only completed her degree — she was also one of two Pao-lo Yu Award winners, a recognition given to the top graduate or graduates in genetics each year. She shared the award with fellow MD/PhD student Emily White.
“It was a shocker,” Wang exclaimed. “I didn't expect to win this award. I knew of it because I knew Ishara (Moulana), who won the award two years ago. I was thrilled to learn that the department recognized my academic excellence. It was an honor to share the award with Emily for the year.”
Another stand out moment during her time at IU School of Medicine happened right before her daughter was born — her dissertation defense.
“Defending my dissertation was really rewarding,” Wang reminisced. “I think this is the cherry on top of the ice cream. It closed my PhD chapter on a very good note. I'm beyond thankful for Dr. Opyrchal’s mentorship and support throughout my PhD. He has been an exceptional mentor, not only for my professional development but also for my personal growth and life in general.”
Looking forward, Wang is excited to return to the MD program and complete up her goals.
“I think it's a great story to tell my kids: 'Hey, it's probably going to be hard. Eventually, you are going to meet great mentors in your life who can see your path better than you can, and they will guide you through everything.'”
