“My passion for what I do saved my life.”
Meet Ke Dong, a biology professor at Duke University. She’s a lover of nature, a great cook, and a Lupus survivor. About 20-25 years ago, she developed Lupus during her research years at Michigan State University. Her time with this autoimmune disease was not kind. “The Lupus brought depression,” she said.
Fortunately, she was surrounded by amazing peers and her passion: research. Dong’s research focuses on ion channels and their reaction to various toxins and stimuli. These ion channels are incredibly important to the physiology of insects because of their impact on neuronal activity.
However, her passion didn’t develop from thin air. Dong grew up on a college campus in southeastern China. With both parents leading careers as professors — her father in history and her mother in biochemistry — she had the amazing opportunity to develop her passions early in childhood.
Growing up, she “had never been afraid of insects” as her mother’s work focused on the development of an increased production rate of silk in silkworms. However, it was the incidents in the area around her that sparked her passion. People in the area were often poisoned from the consumption of insecticides from the rice they were growing. This piqued her interest in toxicology as she was curious about how these insecticides were toxic to the townspeople.
Combining her fearlessness in the face of insects and her interest in toxicology, Dong has found the best of both worlds.
Dong also loves to dabble in the culinary worlds of a diverse range of cultures. As she travels from country to country, she brings with her the memorable flavors of each dish she tastes. Once arriving back home, she immediately purchases cookbooks from those countries to add to her rolodex of culinary skills. As she reads each recipe on her nightstand, she dreams of ways to introduce various flavors and techniques into her dishes. A creative cook, she has no time for following measurements. Her kitchen is her sandbox and allows her to dance with each flavor in her pot, adding less sugar but a little more salt.
Dong has been through ups and downs in her life, but there’s nothing that’s going to stop her from her passion: research.
