Nyla Heerema first came to cytogenetics in 1978 - probably before many of you were born! A little history here. She went to high school in Hull, Iowa, a town of 1200, with a class of 15. She ventured to Central College in Pella, Iowa, a small liberal arts college, where she majored in chemistry and math. Graduate school at the University of Iowa followed that. It was there she was introduced to genetics, through a transforming course in human genetics, and research on “The influence of the Y Chromosome on X Chromosome Non-disjunction in Drosophila melanogaster” - a CYTOGENETICS project, although without actually looking at chromosomes. A move to St. Petersburg, FL, gave her the opportunity to work on Neurospora at Florida Presbyterian College when her husband, Doug, took a teaching position there. Then came a hiatus while raising a family.
In 1978, she took a post-doctoral opportunity to learn human cytogenetics under the mentorship of Catherine Palmer. Dr. Palmer was an excellent mentor and a hard taskmaster. Nyla learned all aspects of clinical human cytogenetics thoroughly. She and Dr. Palmer took the first American Board of Genetics qualification Exams in 1982 in Chicago. Nyla stayed at Indiana University working her way from Research Associate to Professor. While at Indiana, she was fortunate to be awarded a Sabbatical with Dr. Lorna Secker Walker at the Royal Free Hospital in London. That gave her the opportunity to learn and use FISH. At Indiana, she was Assistant then Associate Cytogenetics Director until 1996 when Dr. Palmer retired, and Nyla became Director of the Laboratory. Over the years, Dr. Palmer and she gradually separated responsibilities, Dr. Palmer responsible for constitutional and Nyla for cancer cytogenetics.
Meanwhile, in 1982 Nyla was fortunate to become involved with the Children’s Cancer Study Group (CCSG) cytogenetics, then led by Dr. Diane Arthur. In 1997, Diane resigned and Nyla became Chair of CCSG Cytogenetics. In 2000, the CCSG and the Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) merged and became the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Dr. Andrew Carroll and Nyla shared chairmanship of Cytogenetics in that group. During that time, they instituted the COG Workshops, and the COG started requiring cytogenetics for their acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) clinical trials. To make these excellent studies, for a laboratory to participate, the COG Cytogenetics Committee instituted Laboratory Approval.
After a stint at the Wayne Hughes Institute in St. Paul, MN, in 2000, Nyla became director of the Cytogenetics lab at The Ohio State University. She continued her work with COG, and started working extensively with Dr. John Byrd on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). It was very interesting and productive work, learning how to use CpG deoxynucleotides to stimulate the CLL cells and working with other investigators on drug development, especially ibrutinib. She also worked on multiple myeloma, a pioneer in using CD138+ Magnetic Separation of the myeloma cells, resulting in much better FISH results. She also reviews for the Alliance and for the BEAT AML studies.
A look at her Curriculum Vitae shows the following stats:
Membership in Professional Societies: 19
Grants: 59
Journals for which she reviewed: 38
Grant Reviews: Many, many, including membership on the National Cancer Institute Review Group, Subcommittee H, and many international reviews
Invited Presentations: 117
Teaching: Lots, including mentoring
Journal Publications: 371 + many submitted
Abstracts: 475
On a personal level, she was married to Doug for 60 years! They have 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. She lives in Pella, Iowa, with one of her sons. She loves to travel, walk, read and knit. She is currently the Chair of Building and Grounds at her church — a new research project!
Awards