Jennifer van Eyk
The Power List 2020 – North America
Professor of Cardiology and Pathology, Erika Glazer Endowed Chair in Women’s Heart Health, and Director of the Advanced Clinical Biosystems Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Reason for pursuing analytical science: My motivation stems from the need to precisely quantify the great complexity of the biology and proteins that define each person’s health status. This endeavor is centered on the acknowledgment that proteins are remarkable, biology is remarkable, and our ability to (potentially) intercede in disease is remarkable. Thus, we need exquisite quantification of the breadth of proteome diversity.
Future of the field: The adoption of telehealth with the use of self-administered blood sampling devices (imagine clinical samples collected by anyone, anywhere, and anytime) will increase, as will quantitative proteomic technologies for the continuous assessment of health status. I anticipate an overall movement towards equity in health assessment.
Advice to younger self: To rejoice in both the small and large successes of yourself and those around you. As an example, we had a gong – and later a ship bell – in our lab, which we rang to celebrate events like a troublesome experiment working or a paper being accepted.
