A Scientist's Life: 10 Things Salk's Beverly Emerson Has Done

From Sign On San Diego: A Scientist's Life: 10 Things Salk's Beverly Emerson Has Done
Meet Beverly Emerson, a biochemist in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute in La Jolla.

Beverly Emerson, biochemist, the Salk Institute — Salk Institute Emerson studies the behavior of genes, notably how they are turned on and off. She’s earned wide acclaim for her work on p53, a protein that suppresses tumors. The protein, say Salk officials, involves a gene that may play a role in more than half of all cancers.

The journey that brought her to the Salk has been filled with humor and insight, which became obvious when we asked her to list ten things that she’s done or experienced that give us a sense of the life and times of Beverly Emerson.

I was born on my father’s 50th birthday, the last of the litter for him and the first and only for my mother.

My dad was an amateur boxer and an excellent marksman. He taught me to shoot and to be his sparring partner. I inherited his weaponry and boxing trunks.

My mom was an optimist who loved to gamble. She took me out of school for about a month each year to accompany her on road trips to Nevada. She was very lucky and would station me outside of casinos to wait for her, with a stack of comic books for entertainment and a Shirley Temple to drink. Mom would check on me periodically and bring all of her silver dollar jackpots in plastic containers for me to guard. I was very serious about my guard duties and thought about becoming a banker (but, curiously, not a gambler.)

I was an entrepreneurial child and started several businesses: an ice cream stand, a newspaper, a magazine, an import/export company and a detective agency. My mom would set me up in each enterprise and was usually my only customer. She was very encouraging.

During college, I worked as a carhop (no roller skates) at Shoney’s Big Boy and later as a waitress at a steak house. I wasn’t very good, but I meant well. On my worst day, I made 97 cents in tips. Once, there was a shoot-out in the restaurant. Everyone scattered, and I hid in the kitchen behind our formidable chef, Cookie, a retired Marine.

Originally inspired by "It’s a Small World" at Disneyland and Cost-Plus stores, I was very interested in other cultures from a young age. I have traveled extensively and lived in Switzerland and Scotland for one year each.

I was intrigued by the approach to food and eating described in the book, "French Women Don’t Get Fat." Like many Americans, I can easily wolf down a meal in five minutes when pressed and I always carry an emergency burrito when traveling. But I learned that by making a small effort to prepare each meal using a variety of high quality ingredients and some touch of presentation (a cloth napkin, real silverware, a flower), you are actually doing yourself a kindness, which reduces stress and changes your relationship to food.

I am increasingly concerned about the welfare of animals, especially the dire conditions under which factory farm-raised animals are kept. I collected several hundred signatures to put Proposition 2, the Humane Farming Initiative, on the California ballot, which now sets an important example for the nation.

As a scientist, I approach my research with great optimism, thinking that solving any difficult problem is possible. I have learned, as in life, to be able to see the possibilities in shades of gray and to work in small persistent steps toward a clear answer. If I had required black-and-white proof of my eventual success or been unable to work through uncertainties, I wouldn’t have gotten very far.

As a biochemist, I also have come to believe that a better approach to treating cancer may be to view rogue cells not as individuals that must be killed (since they become drug-resistant) but as cells that must be re-integrated within their tissue community to reduce their stressed survivor behavior. Interestingly, this breakdown of the social contract has parallels in human societies