Early in his research career, Michael Wansaw worked for a laboratory that was conducting clinical trials involving Alzheimer’s patients and an experimental drug. He never dreamed that some day he himself would be part of a clinical trial, for a new type of leukemia treatment.

Fortunately for Michael, the drug, Rituxan, seems to have effectively stopped his rare form of leukemia; his last bone marrow biopsy showed “no traces” of the illness that had sidelined Michael last summer, weeks after becoming a new father. What’s more, the treatment only took a couple of months, and had such minimal side effects that Michael was able to catch up on his dissertation quickly enough to graduate on time.

Michael completed his bachelors in general psychology at R-N and then worked in a private company that was running clinical trials involving Alzheimer’s treatments. That job, along with a summer course on the principles of psychobiology, got Michael interested in how drugs exert their effects in the brain and ultimately on behavior. He began his graduate studies in 1997, and five years ago began working as a research assistant with Dr. Joan Morrell, who is investigating the biological bases of maternal behavior.

Along the way, Michael the researcher inadvertently discovered he also loves being Michael the teacher. He took part in a fellowship program that sent him into a Newark seventh-grade class, and also taught an R-N summer course in physiological psychology. Although he has accepted a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s McLean Hospital, where he will do research into drug abuse, the thought of somehow also teaching -- somewhere, sometime -- hasn’t left his mind.

Having survived both the usual tough demands of completing a doctorate, combined with the added challenges of leukemia, Michael can offer some first-hand advice to other students: “Never give up. Things are bound to get better. Be insistent, consistent and persistent. But never give up.”

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