Elizabeth McNally: Taking on Inherited Cardiovascular Disorders

Abstract

Elizabeth McNally's love of the research laboratory first bloomed as an undergraduate. While working a summer job in the genetics laboratory of Leslie Leinwand at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, McNally worked on the quest to find genes that cause muscle disease. The impact was so profound that it has shaped the focus of her career ever since. If one looks at the home page of the McNally laboratory based at the University of Chicago, it says simply, “We study the genetics of heart and muscle disease.” Now a board-certified cardiologist, McNally is an expert in the genetics of rare, inherited cardiovascular disorders and muscle diseases like muscular dystrophy. Q. What do you find most compelling about your biomedical research work in these inherited disorders? EM: It probably comes down to those 5 really great days I have enjoyed in research over the last 25 years! I describe these as the exquisite moments when I looked at something and instantly knew it to be true. I had an idea, reviewed experimental test results of that idea, and knew immediately that the idea was correct. These moments are so good that they sustain me and keep me going. In fact, I'm just about ready for another one. All joking aside, this means that I'm obviously a believer in perseverance, persistence, and hard work. I think most scientists are. We are remarkably good at failure. In fact, we don't know what failure means. That is the nature of experimentation. You have an idea, do an experiment that doesn't come out quite the way you thought, and you adjust. You take steps backwards on the way to taking steps forward, but it is still the process of moving …