Meet Our Chair, Dr. Xuemei Huang
UPG Faculty SPOTLIGHT: Xuemei Huang, MD, PhD
Hailing from a working-class family in rural Beijing, People’s republic of China, Dr. Huang overcame numerous obstacles to obtain a medical degree during a time when higher education was only recently reemerging after the Cultural Revolution. The first in her family to attend high school and college, Dr. Huang has spent more than 20 years working tirelessly to build programs, mentor students and colleagues, and foster world-class patient care systems as a clinical faculty and a scientist in United States. Her efforts have significantly advanced translational research on neurodegeneration relating to aging and diseases.
The founding director of Penn State College of Medicine’s Translational Brain Research Center and the first recipient of the Society of Toxicology’s Translational/Bridging Travel Award, Dr. Huang looks forward to bringing her experience in scientific discovery, building teams, and mentoring talented clinicians and scientists to help nurture and grow the neurology services here at UVAH and UPG.
We recently sat down with Dr. Huang for a brief Q&A in honor of Women in Medicine Month, and I invite you to enjoy the read.
UPG: Thanks for sitting down with us, Dr. Huang. To start, can you give some insight into your early years, and talk about what led you to pursue a career in medicine?
Dr. Huang: Sure. I was born and raised in China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution; it was a time when science and reasoning had been driven away, and along with them, the intellectual class (including my older sister). The whole society became agriculturally driven, and education suffered greatly. Luckily, the Mao era ended when I was in middle school, and his successor, Deng Xiaoping, began to re-emphasize education and also open China’s doors to the western world. It was against this backdrop that I began my schooling. I was the first in my family to go to high school, or to college. I was very fortunate to have wonderful mentors in middle school, and high school. My math teacher (Mr. Zhou) saw potential in me, since I would often finish tests much faster than anyone else. He actually visited my home, and told my parents that I was special. He gave me extra work, and I was one of five students, in a class of nearly 800 kids from our neighborhood, who attended college. I have often remembered those times, and how much it changed my life. I wonder what happened to these teachers (like Mr. Zhou and Mr. Wan). I was young and self-centered, and never got a chance to truly thank them for the path that they put me on.
UPG: How did you become interested in medicine, and particularly your specialty?
Dr. Huang: Well, I was only sixteen when I started medical school in Beijing. Initially, I was enthralled by math – I liked chemistry and physics, but I really dreamed of being a mathematician and competing on the Chinese Olympic Math Team. But we lived in rural Beijing, and my parents didn’t understand how math would do good for people. Being a doctor was something tangible, so they wanted me to pursue medicine. Frankly, I hated the first two years of medical school. It was all memorization without much reasoning. But then I took a program that allowed medical students to spend time in basic science labs. I was assigned to a neuroscientist studying pain control, and I began to fall in love with science, and doing experiments. At 17, I vowed to go to graduate school after obtaining my medical degree, and I eventually came to the United States to pursue my PhD at Purdue University. There, I began to thrive intellectually, but without realizing it, I also fell in love with the openness of western society.
At that time, it was tumultuous back in China. There was a series of protests and demonstrations that culminated with a government crackdown on demonstrators and, in 1989, the Tiananmen Square incident. As a result, and perhaps as a way of sending a message to the Chinese regime, U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed the Chinese student protection law, effectively giving all of us “Green Cards.” This was a springboard into my feeling forever indebted to America. It also reminded me of the special teachers, back in China, who had opened the doors to the new path I was traveling. Even all of these years later, it is still emotional to think how many of my contemporaries may have gone to jail, or were otherwise struggling in China, while I was able to pursue my dreams here.
UPG: You obtained your medical degree at Beijing Medical University. Were there differences between a medical education in China and one in the United States?
Dr. Huang: There were huge differences. When I came to the U.S. in 1988, I discovered everything that had been taught to me in China was perceived to be wrong here! The culture was completely different, and I was stunted, socially and educationally. But I was lucky to come when I was so young, and still maturing, in an environment that could accommodate my thirst for new knowledge. By the time I was 29, I had earned my medical and doctoral degrees. I also started to connect the dots between basic science and the human impact of medicine. I began to apply for residency programs, and was eventually taken under the wing of another mentor (Dr. William Kaehny) at the University of Colorado. He single-handedly secured a spot for me as an Intern in Transitional Internal Medicine through the University of Washington’s program based in Boise Idaho. He informed them that I was a “diamond in the rough,” although I don’t think they knew how “rough” I actually was. Although I was an excellent student with a keen curious mind, and solid medical knowledge, the language barrier was immense. It took me a long time to pick up even everyday medical jargon. My initial medical performance evaluation actually rated me as the worst intern! But 12 months later, I was more proficient in English and had learned all of the acronyms. Then I was told I was the “most improved intern …. in history!” I could feel that perception of me had changed, because some residents actually were coming to me for help and advice!
UPG: What do you find most rewarding about medicine, and your field in particular?
Dr. Huang: The most rewarding aspect of the work that I do is being an ambassador of science, effectively a bridge between scientists and patients. I’m coming to Charlottesville from central Pennsylvania. My patients wanted to know why they had Parkinson’s disease, or when was the cure coming. They deserved to have the science explained to them from a realistic framework. This created a connection; and my patients, along with their families and friends, also became my partners during the process. They volunteered to participate in research and even were willing to donate their time, data, tissues and organs under our stewardship after death. They understood that without their participation, meaningful scientific progress would grind to a halt. Even though we could not promise that new knowledge would help them, we pledged that their engagement and sacrifice were crucial to reaching the end goal of helping others. Our scientific team worked tirelessly, and rigorously so as to not betray their trust. We shared the goal of the gift of longer life and better health for people suffering from degenerative diseases.
I particularly remember the time right after the 2016 presidential election when the country was so polarized (not unlike today). One weekend I was sitting in my home office beginning to work on several postmortem brain pathology reports when I had the realization that the brains in my possession weren’t Republican brains or Democrat brains, they were human brains. These people had trusted me with their final and ultimate gift to science, and I couldn’t let them die in vain.
It was soon after that that I began work on our first brain pathology research paper. That research spawned many years of grants for the Penn State College of Medicine’s Translational Brain Research Center (“TBRC”) that I had founded to bridge the gap between the clinical and basic scientists. The TBRC has banked more than 60 brains now. This is crucial because we had the clinical histories of these people, and the ability to study their brains in detail, was a powerful way to “connect the dots.” This led to hundreds of research papers and more than $30M in grants for our center, but the real payoff is paying forward with banked data and tissue.
I am especially pleased that some of my efforts have contributed to a new generation of treatment for Parkinson’s disease that should be available within the next year. One of my patients, who I called “big cheese” jokingly because of many his leadership roles and titles, made his wife promise to pass his brain and “big cheese” title to me after his death. The new “big cheese” sign is the most important memorabilia in my UVA office. I wish that Mr. Zhou and Mr. Wan and Dr. Kaehny were alive to know how they helped make the world a little bit better by helping one poor student.
UPG: What advice would you give to aspiring medical professionals, and particularly women?
Dr. Huang: If I can do it, anyone can! I also have a personal story I’d like to share. Some years ago when I was named a Penn State University Distinguished Professor, it didn’t seem a big deal to me. Then I was approached and congratulated in the parking lot by one of my medical assistants. Without thinking, I responded “For what?” “The professorship,” she responded. She then said something that bowled me over: “Before you came to the Hershey Medical Center, I didn’t believe that someone like you could exist.” She went on to share that she had been in, and escaped, an abusive marriage. She then started her journey in the field of medicine for which I was an inspiration. I ended up writing letters of recommendation for her, and she eventually graduated from nursing school and now is the charge nurse in our clinic. If I can inspire women in positions like that, it is all worth it.
UPG: That’s a very powerful answer, Dr. Huang, to conclude a very powerful and moving interview. It has been an absolute privilege to sit down with you, and on behalf of all of UVA Health and UPG, it is an honor to work alongside you; you are a true pioneer for women in life, medicine, and leadership.