Ready to unlock stem cell mysteries
The NanoCollege and blue cowboy boots are two of this researcher's passions
By Paul Grondahl
Published 6:45 pm, Monday, March 25, 2013
Janet Paluh, associate professor of nanobioscience, points to cells on her computer screen in a lab at the College for Nanoscale Science on Thursday Dec. 20, 2012 in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)
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Embryonic stem cell researcher Janet Paluh is an ex-California surfer girl who worked in the pits for a stock car rally race team and owns a head-turning shoe collection.
The associate professor of nanobioscience at theCollege of Nanoscale Science and Engineeringfavors two-tone electric blue cowboy boots in the lab.
She changes the oil, does tune-ups and makes small engine repairs on her 1985 Saab 900 Turbo with 400,000 miles. She also works on her winter car, a 2002 Saab 9.5 Aero.
She brings to her work aspects of her mother (a former fashion model in New York City) and late father (a West Point graduate, Vietnam War veteran and lieutenant colonel).
What attracted Paluh to the NanoCollege at the University at Albany in 2006 after stints at Berkeley, Stanford and RPI was the opportunity to teach undergraduates and conduct research using cutting-edge technology in a world-class facility.
"Any researcher would die to be in this setting. It's like working in a toy store with every toy available," she said.
She grows 1,000 human pluripotent stem cells in a 200-micron thermoset plastic holder to the size of an orchid seed. She and her students seed the cells and grow and tweak them through nanoengineering so they can study how the cells interact and transform into complex 3-D cell structures. "The beauty of what we can do here is not just view pluripotent stem cells, but manipulate them and make complex 3-D cell structures for tissues and organ engineering," Paluh said.
With the help of a $1 million NYSTEM state grant to derive and study new human pluripotent stem cell lines, her research may one day provide the tools and point the way to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer and developmental diseases.
The same lab equipment, remarkably precise and quite expensive, is used by other nanobioscience researchers. That sharing of resources creates random productive collaborations that yield unexpected insights across various areas of research.
"It sounds perhaps corny, but we're all thinking five, 10 or 20 years ahead and asking how what we're doing can benefit mankind," she said.
An Atlanta native who moved frequently with her five siblings, Paluh lived on military bases, including Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Army tanks served as her jungle gyms. She was a precocious tomboy who was gifted at math and science. Her dad taught her how to play chess at a young age, and she got so good that she could checkmate generals by the time she was a teenager.
She also grew up with horses and thought of pursuing veterinary medicine at Purdue University, but a course in genetic engineering as a junior changed her career path.
"I had an amazing teacher who got me excited about the power of recombinant DNA," she said.
Paluh does her deepest thinking in the solitude of hiking, long-distance running and cycling.
The daily interaction with her students also feeds her creativity.
"Undergraduates ask very basic, almost naive questions that can be brilliant," she said. "My students help me from thinking too narrowly about nanobioscience and invite unexpected possibilities."
At times, Paluh feels homesick for her years in California's Bay Area, where she did her doctoral and postdoctoral work.
She spent a lot of time in San Francisco and shopped in the boutiques along bohemian Haight Street. The electric blue cowboy boots are an homage to Haight Street, as well as her mother's advice.
"A well-dressed woman," she often said, "is well-heeled."
Living among free spirits was also beneficial to her research.
"San Francisco helped me become a non-traditional thinker," she said. "I decided that I never wanted to run with the pack."
pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl
Vitals
Janet Paluh, 53, of Malta.
Bachelor and master degrees in biochemistry, Purdue University. Ph.D. in cancer biology, Stanford University; and postdoctoral fellow University of California at Berkeley.
Single, no children.
Free time: Hiking, cycling, running in summer; skiing and snowboarding in winter.
To view a video of Janet Paluh, go to http://timesunion.com.
