Receiving a highly sought academic award from the National Institutes of Health brought out more than pride in Wayne State University School of Medicine doctoral candidate Ivory Dean.
"My biggest emotion was humility," Dean said. "I feel humbled by this award, because this award is not given haphazardly."
The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Service Award, or F31, is granted by the National Cancer Institute for individual predoctoral fellowships to promote diversity in health-related research. The three-year award includes $37,021 per year for stipend and tuition. Candidates must convey the importance of their proposed research and show previous grades and accomplishments outstanding enough to be considered for the award, she said. Letters of support from school officials are also required.
The Hattiesburg, Miss., native moved to Detroit to attend the Cancer Biology Graduate Program at the School of Medicine and Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. Dean, in her fifth and final of the doctoral program, is among the first generation in her immediate and extended family to attend college.
Getting here took plenty of perseverance, a trait of which Dean has plenty.
She graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. "While I was attending Xavier University of Louisiana, my senior year was disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. I think part of receiving this award is showing that one can move past tragedy to accomplish their goals. I didn't let that moment in my life stop me from pursuing my goals," she said.
Coming to Detroit meant discontinuing her attendance in The University of Mississippi Medical Center's Biomedical Sciences graduate program. For Dean, though, the change was a necessary step toward her ultimate goal: working in academia as an independent scientist.
"I was impressed by the program's level of interest and dedication toward its students. I was also impressed by the level of cancer research that is conducted at Karmanos," she said. "I am interested in cancer research because I would like to dedicate my career to something important."
Her project, "Extracellular Maspin acts as a Regulator of the Tumor Microenvironment," focuses on the tumor suppressive activity of maspin when it is secreted.
Maspin is mammary serine protease inhibitor, also known as serpin B5, and is a protein that, when expressed, suppresses the ability of cancer cells to invade and metastasize other tissues.
"I am interested in understanding the regulatory differences of secreted maspin between normal cells and tumor cells. I chose my research project because I wanted to study tumor suppression and potential therapeutic /diagnostic potential of a tumor suppressor protein," she said.
Dean's mentor, Shijie Sheng, Ph.D., is professor of Pathology and Oncology and leader of the Tumor and Microenvironment Program at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.
Dr. Sheng's lab focuses on prostate cancer as a research model. "However, the research can extend to other cancer models, such as breast and lung cancer," Dean said.
She previously received the Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award (T32-CA009531) from September 2010 to August 2011.
Dean's interest in science began in high school, thanks to an outstanding Chemistry teacher. "I took my first Chemistry course in high school. The teacher made it so interesting and understandable. Ever since then, I have been interested in the sciences," she said.
Outside the lab, Dean spends her time mentoring elementary students in Detroit, tutoring high school students in Biology and volunteering with Africans in Medicine, a School of Medicine student organization. She has organized community outreach activities for the group and assisted with its medical mission to Haiti after the country's devastating earthquake in 2010. She also volunteered for two summers as non-medical personnel.