Mary Kay H. Pflum

Mary Kay H. Pflum, Ph.D.

Professor, A Paul and Carol C. Schaap Endowed Chair

Director, Chemistry Biology Interface T32 Training Program

Scientific Member, Karmanos Cancer Institute

Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University

Background

B.A. Chemistry, Carleton College, 1992
Ph.D. Bioorganic Chemistry, Yale University, 1999
NIH Post-doctoral Fellow in Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 2001

Dr. Pflum received a B.A. degree from Carleton College working with Jerry Mohrig in physical organic chemistry. In Ph.D. training at Yale University with Alanna Schepartz, she worked on several bioorganic projects focusing on phosphoproteins and transcription factors.  In an NIH post-doctoral position at Harvard University with Stuart Schreiber, she worked on chemical biology and cell biology projects focusing on histone deacetylase proteins. Dr. Pflum joined the faculty at Wayne State University in 2001 with a research program at the interface of Chemistry and Biology focusing on two cancer-related proteins: kinase and histone deacetylase enzymes. The multi-disciplinary research in her laboratory combined the fields of organic synthesis, biochemistry, enzymology, molecular biology, analytical chemistry, and cell biology.

Mentor Statement

My highest goal as a mentor is to instill each trainee with the skills and confidence to successfully move into professional careers after graduate school. With great pride, I have seen my former trainees move on to successful careers in industry, academics, and management, working in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, grants administration, teaching, and even the agricultural industry. How do students in one lab successfully move to such varied and accomplished positions? The heart of the training experience in the Pflum lab lies in the multi-disciplinary skill emphasis through multi-layered mentorship. The training is multi-disciplinary by including a variety of technical skills at the chemistry-biology interface. The training is also multi-layered by emphasizing independence, respect, communication, professionalism, and productivity.

As illustrative examples of training and mentorship in the Pflum lab, each trainee oversees one or more independent projects that require a combination of skills in two or more of the following areas: organic synthesis, biochemistry, enzymology, molecular biology, cell biology, and proteomics. Each trainee is paired with one or more graduate student mentor(s) to provide peer-to-peer training and feedback in the laboratory. Through peer mentorship, trainees learn the critical skills of collaboration, communication, and positive interactions with colleagues.

In addition to peer mentorship, I meet with students weekly or biweekly to provide the individualized attention each student needs to become an independent scientist. For first-year graduate students, these “individual” meetings involve designing experiments, analyzing data, and troubleshooting, which will build the skills at an early career stage. For advanced-year graduate students and postdocs, these individual meetings blend data analysis with strategy discussions about publications and future project directions. Importantly, these meetings also give me the rewarding opportunity to get to know each student as an individual with their varied backgrounds and aspirations to customize their training experience. Individual meetings form the foundation of all mentorship in my lab by enabling customized discussions based on the needs and strengths of each student and their research goals. Likewise, the customized conversations during these individual meetings ensure that the trainee grows to become an experienced and independent scientist ready for the job market.

To add additional layers of mentorship, I meet biweekly with groups of trainees who are working on similar projects to foster a sense of community and common purpose. These “subgroup” meetings often lead to creative problem solving with the various perspectives of trainees at all levels. In addition, all lab personnel meet weekly as a group to discuss lab business and learn about ongoing research either in our lab or in the chemical biology research community. In addition to building our lab culture, these “group” meetings provide trainees with opportunities to build oral communication skills, provide feedback on all projects ongoing in the lab, and learn about contemporary research. The goal of these various individual and group meetings is to build technical, analytical, and communication skills.

As is the case with many fields, it is the new and provoking ideas of early career stage scientists that often drive a field to overcome scientific challenges. My ultimate success is not just training a student in multi-disciplinary science but also teaching the student how to apply that understanding more broadly to their field of interest or their lives in general.

Positions and Honors

  • 2023, A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Endowed Chair in Chemistry, Wayne State University
  • 2019, Charles H. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty
  • 2014, Permanent Member of the NIH SBCB study section, National Institutes of Health
  • 2012, Co-chair of the Bioorganic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference, Andover, NH
  • 2010, Career Development Chair, Wayne State University
  • 2008, Scientific Member, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
  • 2008, President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Wayne State University
  • 2007, Teaching award, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Wayne State University
  • 2002, Research Innovation Award, Research Corporation, Wayne State University
  • 1999, Post-doctoral Fellowship, National Institute of Health, Harvard University
  • 1996, Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Lucille E. Dox Fellowship, Yale University
  • 1996, Pre-doctoral Fellowship, American Chemical Society, Yale University

Research funding

  • National Institutes of Health (R35GM131821, R01GM079529, and R01GM067657)
  • National Science Foundation (CHE-130649)
  • View publications