Catherine Makarewich: Collaboration of Diligence and Luck.

Abstract

It was an inherited love of science and a bit of gut instinct that led Cat Makarewich on the path to study cardiovascular science. She attended the University of Pennsylvania for her BA and postbaccalaureate and Temple University School of Medicine for her PhD. Currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Olson laboratory at UT Southwestern in Dallas, she has helped to discover the biological function of several novel micropeptides in the heart and in skeletal muscle.1–3 Throughout her life and career, she has proven true the words of a former coach that “the harder you work the luckier you get.” My love for science and medicine was definitely inherited. My Dad was a park ranger in Connecticut—we actually lived in a state park and were exposed to nature and the outdoors early on which stemmed my interest in biology. My brother also followed the science route and became an orthopedic surgeon while my twin sister, a guidance counselor, is much like our mother who is an elementary school teacher. Our parents made sure that we enjoyed learning and understood the importance of working hard. I was a pretty strong student academically and also wanted to play basketball in college. I was recruited by most of the Ivy League schools and ultimately chose the University of Pennsylvania based on a gut instinct—it …