Focus Paramount to Success
Say Yes Until You Can Say No, Says NCATS’s Ryu
Women’s History Month
One more spotlight, this one on an NIH research fellow, concludes our salute to Women’s History Month. Look for more coverage of NIH’s talented and inspiring women throughout the year.
When Dr. Seungmi Ryu of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) was just starting her scientific career, she said “yes” to every opportunity.
“It’s important to expose yourself to as much as possible,” said Ryu, a research fellow in the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory of NCATS’s Division of Preclinical Innovation. “Innovation occurs at the intersection of academic disciplines, culture and ideas.”
The more she learned, however, the more she realized she didn’t know. Soon, there came a time when she had to say “no” if she was to focus on a specific research area.
“There will always be questions to answer out there in the world,” she said. “In science, you’ll fail a lot. If you want a deeper understanding, you must focus. It’s really important.”
That’s what led Ryu to NCATS, where she develops 3-D models representing the central and peripheral nervous systems of human pluripotent stem cells using bioengineering techniques such as organoid and tissue bioprinting.
Last year, Ryu received the Women’s Science Advisors (WSA) Scholar Award for “outstanding scientific research performed by intramural postdoctoral fellows.” A panel of WSA institute representatives selected her from a pool of all female fellows.
Her award-winning research focused on building ‘brain-in-a-dish’ models called organoids to study potential therapeutics for Friedreich ataxia, a rare disease that damages parts of the nervous system involved in balance and movement.
Around the time she received the award, she recently had returned from maternity leave.
“I had this imposter syndrome,” Ryu recalled. “I kept thinking, ‘Do I deserve to be here? Should I stay home with my newborn?’ I felt like I wasn’t a good enough scientist or mother. When I got the award, I felt supported by the senior women scientists on the committee. I knew I could keep going if I believed in myself.”
Young scientists who want to pursue research and start a family still face challenges, she noted. In 2019, a study published in Nature found that 23 percent of men and 43 percent of women leave the lab for good when they have children. When new parents leave the scientific workforce, it reinforces the perception that dedicated professionals are not expected to have a personal life.
Slowly, the landscape is changing. Recently, NIH fellows organized into a union, the first fellow union ever within the U.S. federal government. NIH Fellows United-UAW comprises more than 5,000 early-career fellows including postbaccalaureate, predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers and clinical fellows.
As a child, “I was a science girl,” Ryu explained. “I liked physics and chemistry, but I loved biology.” In college, she studied chemical and biological engineering. She pursued a career in research because she could be at the forefront of discovery. She received her Ph.D. in stem-cell based tissue engineering from Seoul National University in Korea.
Upon graduation, Ryu received a scholarship from the National Research Foundation of Korea to pursue research abroad. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in a biophotonics laboratory at Harvard Medical School.
Ryu first came to NCATS in 2018 to be closer to her husband, who had a postdoctoral fellowship in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University. She first learned about NIH after searching for stem cell jobs in Maryland.
“I was really lucky,” she concluded. “After I came here, I wondered how did I end up here? This is a great opportunity.”