"It's the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
'Til we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle of life"

This is the lyric of the famous theme in The Lion King (1994). It resonates our own life experience , no wonder the song is well beloved. Sometimes I hope we would feel the same in our research career.

In 2004, I was preparing Ph.D. defense and urgently looking for a postdoc position. I was so tired of signaling pathway study, whose ambiguity looked like a Schrodinger's cat for me. I wanted to switch to mouse cancer models for the next stage of my research career, so I chatted with a good friend who was a postdoc in Gigi Lozano's laboratory.  She told me, if that's really my plan, I needed to talk to Terry Van Dyke. Both Gigi and Terry have been postdoc overlapped for tow years (1985-86) in the laboratory of Arnold Levine, who discovered p53.  Gigi was famous of discovering the function of p53 as a transcriptional factor (1991), and Terry was a pioneer in cancer mouse model by using SV40 antigens to disrupt p53 and Rb function (1985). They knew each other very well, and my friend said that Terry was a wonderful PI, so sincerely gave her recommendation.

After a few months, I was invited for an interview for a postdoc position in UNC Chapple Hill, where Terry's laboratory was located. I wanted to visit her but did not make an appointment in advance. After the interview, I went to knock the door of her office. Her lab staffs told me that she was out of town. I felt a big pity yet could blame no one but myself. 

In 2005, George W. Bush began the second term of the U.S. president, while I started my postdoc research in National Cancer Institute, NIH, under the supervision of Dr. Glenn Merlino, who was well known for modeling UV-induced melanoma in genetically engineered mice.  Bush Jr. announced the restriction on federal funding to several research fields, especially  studies using embryonic stem cells. That was the first time that federal government attempted to intervene scientific research in modern history, so many scientists were irritated.  Singaporean government caught the opportunities to found a new research institute with abundant funding, inviting renown scientists all over the world to join.  The director of Mouse Cancer Genetics Program (MCGP) therefore quit and moved to Singapore. When I joined NCI, the position was still vacant.

One day in 2008, Glenn told me: "NCI hires a new MCGP Director from UNC.  We are going to collaborate with her group." We scheduled a meeting to discuss the working plans with her. On the day of meeting, the door of conference room was pushed open. It's Terry walking in. She wore a chic short blond hair and classy pink jacket, smiling to us. Glenn and I had a short but extensive discussion with her. After the meeting, I approached her, explaining how I learned her name from Gigi's postdoc, how she convinced me to look for postdoc position in her lab, and how I got to UNC but missed her because of my stupidity. I concluded, "So, now you open the door that I knocked four years ago; nice to meet you." She smiled politely, must think meeting with a over-enthusiastic trainee.

Nevertheless, I started to work with staffs of the new department that Terry founded, Center for Advanced Preclinical Research (CAPR) in NCI-Frederick. Terry recruited all the top experts in mouse studies to fulfill her goal making CAPR "the Cancer Center of Mice". I learned all my knowledge in modeling cancer using genetically engineered mice from Terry and her people. One of an important melanoma models was created because of the suggestion made by the mouse manager, Theresa. In the heavy snow days, the technician Alan still came to facility to treat the mice, so none of the doses was missing. 

After eight dynamic years, in 2015, Terry suddenly announced her retirement from NCI. In those eight years, we created more than 10 mouse melanoma models, run many preclinical studies, and I was fully converted into a "mouse modeler".  It was an incredible era in my career to work with so many dedicating and enthusiastic people.  I could not thank Terry more for teaching me so much in biology and mouse genetics. However, every party has to end, I guess. I kept working with people in CAPR for more preclinical studies until Glenn retired and I switched to Cancer Data Science Laboratory in 2024. I still use mouse for my work, just a different type.

Following the new administration starting in 2025, CAPR was eliminated from NCI. I recalled what happened in 2005, and awed how true Mark Twain's quote is, "History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes."