On the brink of finding a cure: young biologist banks her career on cancer research

Black Enterprise, Feb, 1996 by Robin White Goode

Professor Jill Bargonetti is the youngest biologist on the faculty of Hunter College in New York, but age isn't the only thing that sets the 33-year-old scientist apart from her peers. She has also been described as on the brink of a medical science breakthrough.

In 1990, while a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, Bargonetti discovered a correlation between a specific gene's ability to bind to DNA and its ability to suppress tumors. When healthy, the p53 gene's protein puts the brakes on cell growth. But when the gene is not healthy, or mutated, its protein does the exact opposite, encouraging tumor cells to multiply out of control.

The biologist's cutting-edge research has garnered her a three-year grant of $300,000 from the American Cancer Society, and a four-year career development award of $200,000 from the Department of Defense to focus her research on breast cancer. These grants will help further her research of the DNA-binding properties of p53 on human chromosomes. Working with grad students, Bargonetti will observe how normal p53 and mutant p53 bind to a variety of DNA sites at different times in the cell's life cycle.

"By learning how normal and mutant p53 interact with DNA," Bargonetti says, "we may be able to target cancer drugs to the precise locations needed to prevent or reverse tumor cell growth."

Bargonetti's interest in science was piqued in high school, and she earned an M.S. in molecular biology in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1990, both from New York University. Out of 3,288 scientists who received Ph.D.s in biology that year, she was one of 41 blacks. But it was her four-year postdoctoral work at Columbia that was a rich experience for the scientist. "You learn how to set up a lab, how to ask the right questions, and you bring your own ideas to the research."

What may have been most important, though, was developing her ability to devise "beautiful" questions. "A lot of science is creative thought. You must keep that creative mind-set so you don't get stuck in rutted thinking." It was Bargonetti's ability to ask an original question about p53 that led to her discovery. "My colleagues were all looking at how p53 inhibits the ability of a tumor virus protein (T-antigen) to initiate DNA replication," Bargonetti recalls. "But, because of an unexpected result I got from an experiment, it seemed more logical to ask: What does T-antigen do to p53? The viral protein actually inhibits p53's ability to bind to DNA."

Making important discoveries and publishing papers about your findings are crucial to developing an academic science career. Bargonetti published a paper in the medical journal Cell during her first "postdoc" year. She has published papers in Nature and Genes and Development as well, among other journals. "It's also helpful to have a mentor who's willing to let you take risks. You need someone who will help you ask the questions, help you do the experiments, but not tell you what to do."

Bargonetti left Columbia and started teaching at Hunter shortly afterwards, in September 1994.

Now she's running her own lab, a 1,000-sq.-ft. space with an expansive view of Park Avenue, that includes an Elutriation System, highly sophisticated scientific equipment that separates cells according to size.

"It's like running a small business," says the professor, whose base salary is close to $46,000. Before she accepted the assistant professorship at Hunter, she had to negotiate the start-up funds she would get from the college. "There was no existing lab here. I had to order everything, from tubes to the laminator hood."

The professor, who graduated in 1985 from the State University of New York at Purchase with a B.A. in biology, started college as a dance major but eventually chose a career in science because she found it more satisfying. Satisfying for her and perhaps life-changing for the rest of us. Bargonetti's research has meaningful implications for the early detection and treatment of cancer. Yet, Bargonetti says, "My research is cutting edge, but it's not close enough. Sometimes I feel powerless because I've seen so many people die; it also makes me work very hard to hopefully get some answers."