Karin (Klettke) Neuman: Passion for science leads to cancer research career

 

Last updated 7/18/2013 at Noon



For Karin (Klettke) Neuman, it was the challenge of science classes that created the determination and passion to keep delving deeper into the field of science.

A 1999 graduate of Ritzville High School and the daughter of Margaret Ringwood and Jerry Klettke, Karin began experimenting and researching during her junior and senior years at RHS. It was this experimentation that eventually led her to a career in research.

Karin, who now resides in Bath, Michigan, began her career in the research field while attending Washington State University. After graduating from WSU with a microbiology degree, Karin’s expertise and knowledge of her field gained the attention of two researchers, Kevin Walker and Rodney Kurdo, and Karin began assisting them with research regarding the drug Taxol.

Paclitaxel, sold under the trademark Taxol, is a drug typically used in cancer chemotherapy. The drug is typically used to treat patients who have head, neck, lung, breast and ovarian cancer.

“I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go into plant molecular biology or not,” Karin explained about her career decision. “Microbiology really interested me. That an organism could bring somebody down really interested me.”

While working with Kurdo and being a part of his research team, Karin was assigned a project and worked with other researchers. It was this project that helped her to gain a passion for the molecular biosynthetic aspect of research and helped her gain more experience in the molecular biology field.

Karin also worked with Walker, who assigned her a team of researchers to lead. The experience of instructing other researchers and complying data gave Karin a new outlook on the research field and helped her solidify her decision to continue her career with research.

Taxol is a major cancer-fighting drug, Karin explained, and it is expensive because of the complexity of creating the drug. Taxol is derived from a yew tree, and the tree takes a long time to grow, Karin continued, and if the bark is stripped from the tree, the tree dies.

During Karin’s time as a researcher for Walker, it was her job to determine if there was a method for growing the necessary substance in a laboratory.

“We had to determine if you could make Taxol from synthetic materials rather than from nature,” Karin summarized.

Karin followed Walker to Michigan after he became a professor at Michigan State University and offered her a position working in his lab. Karin figured if the job didn’t work out, she could always return to Washington and find a job in her home state. But her research proved successful and she went on to publish multiple papers with Walker regarding Taxol enzymes.

During her time as a cancer researcher, Karin received unwanted news. Her mother, Margaret, was diagnosed with breast cancer and the diagnosis helped Karin realize the importance of her research.

“My mom was diagnosed with cancer and it kind of hit home when I realized I was working on something that was helping people,” Karin explained.

Karin’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago and underwent a mastectomy in hopes of preventing the spread of the disease. Unfortunately, the disease spread to her lymph nodes and into her brain, resulting in her death three years ago.

About five years ago, Karin made the decision to return to school and began taking classes in order to move closer to earning her PhD. After spending about a year taking a variety of courses, Karin began working as a medical technologist in a lab at Sparrow Hospital.

“We do all sorts of testing; we don’t specficially work with patients,” Karin said. “We have many cancer patients that come to the hospital that we help diagnose by doing blood differentials, and doing bone marrow tests for patients suspected to have different forms of cancer. It’s not just cancer; it’s all types of patients.”

Karin currently works in the lab for seven days, and then has seven days off. She spends her week off of work with her husband of five years, Ryan Neuman, and their two and a half year old daughter Madelyn.

Karin explained Michigan is equally as beautiful as Washington and the family spends much of their time outdoors, camping and hiking. Karin also continues to play softball and volleyball, two sports she succeeded at while a student at RHS.

While Karin does not have the opportunity to travel home more than once or twice a year, she is grateful she was raised in the Ritzville community and believes being raised in a small town was important in her development as a researcher.

“There were lots of teachers and people who were influential from the area,” Karin said about Ritzville. “I think it was nice growing up in a small town, and that’s what we’re in right now. We thought it would be best for our kids. Everybody is involved and everybody kind of influences you in one direction or another.”

For Karin, she hopes more students from small towns like Ritzville continue to pursue their dreams and explore career paths. Her experience throughout high school and college created a strong understanding and passion for the field she works in, and she hopes other young science enthusiasts follow the same path she did.

“I hope that more people go into research, and a good science program is important,” Karin said. “Definitely to get into an internship with another professor. It kind of opened my eyes to what is actually going on out there and aspects you can dive into.”

 

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