Judy S. Crabtree
Research Fellow, National Institutes of Health
Washington, D.C.
What is your most memorable science fair experience?
In high school, my entry for the Oklahoma State Science Fair was a suggestion for a new three-dimensional naming system for our stars and constellations. I created a constellation by suspending beads from fishing line, which revealed common constellations when viewed from the bottom, but was unrecognizable when viewed from the side. On my way to the fair, the fishing line became tangled into a huge wad of beads. It took hours to unwind them all!
In junior high and high school, I had great science teachers who made learning genetics fun and exciting. I remember making a human DNA replication in the school hallway. Two of my favorite teachers encouraged me to follow science as a career. I studied chemistry in college and was asked to work in a professor's laboratory as an intern. This internship led to a part-time job, which then inspired me to earn a Ph.D. All the while, the work I did was directly related to patient health and genes that, when messed up, cause disease.
I never wanted to be a physician and work directly with patients, but I wanted to make a difference in people's lives—so I work on human diseases in the laboratory instead of in a doctor's office. Knowing that my research eventually helps people feel better and perhaps, in the future, be cured of genetic disease is the motivation that keeps me going.
My proudest achievement to date was helping to find the gene for a tumor-causing disease called multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 1. This discovery will hopefully be a huge step toward the treatment of this disease, which strikes 1 in every 10,000 Americans.
Web Links
To learn more about my research, visit the Web site:
