“My mom was an engineer by training but developed her career in oncology research and then eventually moved into leading neuroscience research, so from an early age I was exposed to what a career in science could look like,” White said. “Not only that, but I was also able to see what the life of an empowered female scientist looked like. I remember always being encouraged to run experiments in our kitchen or backyard. I would ask what would happen if I did this. Mom would say, ‘Let’s test it.’ She would not just tell me what would happen. We had to run the experiment.”
By cultivating that scientific curiosity in her daughter, it gave Emily the building blocks she would need years later. This love of science and curiosity worked into her everyday life.
“The scientific process was something that I was encouraged to have fun with,” White said. “I came up with a hypothesis and was encouraged to design a way to test it. Then before the testing began, Mom always asked, ‘What do you ultimately think the outcome will be?’ I feel very lucky to have that type of influence.”
It was a joke in White’s family that she always knew what she wanted to do.
“In some ways, it was true,” White said. “From a very young age, I was very clear. I wanted to be a scientist. In middle school, when we first started learning about diseases like cancer in science class, it was fascinating to me. Our bodies are meant to generate new cells from building blocks, but when this malfunctions, that is how cancerous cells develop. At that point, I knew I wanted to research that concept.”
When White was in high school, she was fortunate there was a genetics course offered. Through the teacher’s excellent instruction, she first found a fascination for the subject.
“We learned the origin of a lot of diseases in that class,” White said. “It also included what I was interested in — cancer research. Often it can be traced back to genetics, such as understanding that basic process of DNA to RNA to protein, and where that can go awry really gives you a broad understanding of not only cancer disease states, but other diseases as well.”
After that course, White decided to study genetics, as she felt it was an excellent training ground for what she ultimately wanted to do. She also had an opportunity to volunteer at Riley Hospital for Children in the hematology/oncology unit. Through her experiences with Riley and hard work in high school, she was awarded a science scholarship at Purdue University. When she started to apply for medical schools, she decided that IU School of Medicine was the best fit for her.
“When I began assessing MD/PhD programs, I looked at the mentors and then the culture,” White said. “It was important to me that the setting was collaborative. Were scientists working with each other as a team to deliver cutting-edge science? Were students given the time and space to do the research that they wanted to do, and did they have the resources they needed? I determined that Indiana University was the place that brought all this together.”
Throughout her educational journey, Emily had several great mentors along the way. But when it came to seeing what possibilities were out there for her, she returned to her mom’s influence.
“My mom has been there the entire journey, and she has been an incredible mentor, because she showed me what was possible,” White said. “Seeing her adaptability, and then the resilience she showed, shaped how I looked at things. She wasn’t always sure of how she was going to accomplish something, but she was going to figure it out. My mom is the biggest influence in my life.”
Through all these experiences and the influence of her first mentor, Emily’s research goals began to take shape. Knowing that the standard of care treatment options for many pediatric cancers are often ineffective and incredibly toxic, she decided to do research that would help build the next generation of therapies to be more precise and minimize long-term damage to growing patients.
White's PhD work focused on a pediatric cancer called neurofibromatosis type 1, or NF1. Her research mentors were Wade Clapp, MD, and Steven Rhodes, MD, PhD.
“In this cancer, there is a subset of patients that experience what we call the malignant progression of benign tumors,” White explained. “My goal was to harness a specific population of T cells to see if we can prevent or slow the progression of the benign tumors to malignant tumors.”
Now that she has finished the PhD phase of her degree, White looks forward to rejoining the MD portion.
“My priority in returning to medical school initially is to quickly pick the medical knowledge back up and start where I left off in terms of prioritizing patient care,” White said. “The one thing I have missed most in the PhD phase is interacting and communicating with patients. Being in the hospital working with patients and helping them build their own healthcare plans is such a rewarding experience.”
Before White makes that jump, she will have one last task — receiving the Pao-lo Yu Award, given by the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics for outstanding academic performance.
“This is very meaningful to me,” she said. “To be recognized with this award in memory of Dr. Pao-lo Yu is such an honor, and I appreciate the recognition of hard work on both the academic and research fronts during my PhD. It is also very special to share this with Grace (Wang). We have been together on this journey, both focused on cancer research, ultimately submitting F-30s that were funded, and supporting one another over many years.”
The award ceremony will be held April 8 at 2 p.m. in IB 317 at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library on the IU Indianapolis campus. Anyone who would like to attend or know more about the Pao-lo Yu Award ceremony is encouraged to email Kelly Veneziano.
