Alumni Spotlight on Candace Tingen, PhD

Candace Tingen, PhD, is a CRS alum who completed her PhD in the lab of Dr. Teresa Woodruff. She is currently Branch Chief of the Gynecologic Health and Disease Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a part of the National Institutes of Health.  

Thesis mentor: Teresa Woodruff, PhD

Thesis title: Establishment of the follicle pool of puberty: roles of non-apoptotic follicle atresia and stromal cell-supported growth and development 

What is your connection to the CRS community (mentor and position) and what is your current position? 

I earned my doctorate at Northwestern while in CRS with Dr. Teresa Woodruff in 2011. I'm currently Branch Chief of the Gynecologic Health and Disease Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a part of the National Institutes of Health. 

Could you describe your current research/studies? 

I am no longer in the lab conducting research (thank goodness, haha). I have what we used to call an “alternative career”, but today we would simply call a non-academic scientific position. Doing science myself in the lab or competing for grants and funding was not what thrilled my soul; what thrilled my soul was thinking about science, thinking about what the field of female reproductive biology and women needed, and trying to do my small piece to get us there. What I do at NIH now supports those goals. In my role as branch chief, I oversee the entirety of NICHD's funding with regards to gynecologic health, including grants on endometriosis, uterine fibroids, pelvic floor disorders, gynecologic pain, menstrual health, and other gynecologic health and disease issues. I lead our team that not only monitors all our existing funding in the area but also advises NIH on what the priorities for the future should be, and then creates the RFAs, NOFOs, consensus meetings, or other initiatives to address those identified gaps and opportunities. 

What aspect(s) of CRS did you find most valuable?  

Without a doubt, most valuable to me was the flexibility CRS gave me to integrate my basic biological research with an interest in policy and advocacy. I publish papers on primordial follicle atresia and prepubertal follicular growth, however I was also able to publish policy pieces in science and nature on the need to include women in biomedical research and the utility of parthenote research. That breadth of expertise and demonstrated interest was undoubtedly key to my securing the AAAS science and technology policy fellowship that was my entre into NIH. Without that openness of CRS to my individual interests, I do not think I would have the position that I have today.  

What has been the most valuable aspect to your training as a reproductive scientist in CRS? 

Funnily enough, I consider myself an ovarian biologist by training (there was a time of my life in grad school where I was counting follicles manually every day and would dream about primordial follicles nightly), however my current job is almost completely focused on uterine biology. So, I can't necessarily say that the specific scientific granularity that I learned is what helped me the most. I did learn, though, what makes for good science. What's a good control versus what's the best control? What's that one pivotal experiment that could support the model I'm proposing? When is a paper massaging the data too much? Am I using a technique because it's cool or because it's necessary? Knowing the answers to these types of questions, even if not precisely within the expertise of my doctoral training, helps me every day to evaluate the scientific portfolio within my branch. It helps me to understand if grants are living up to their scientific potential and are being appropriate stewards of taxpayer funds. 

What would you recommend to junior scientists in order for them succeed in their scientific careers?​ 

If you're a square, don't try to fit yourself into a circle hole. I would have been miserable as a professor/and that track because it doesn't fit who I am or what I like to do. There are a 1,000,000 different ways to use the skills and the expertise that you gain from your CRS training: you can go into patent law, you can go into pharma, you could be a lobbyist on the Hill, you could work for a nonprofit, you can work in 20 different agencies of the federal government or the state government, you can be a teacher, you can be a sales rep, you can be in administration, the list goes on and on. So do a ton of informational interviews, find out what people love about their jobs (and what they don't), and be open to the possibilities that fit you best. There is no one way to succeed as a PhD or reproductive biologist.  

What do you think will be the next big contribution in the reproductive biology field?  

My favorite soapbox at the moment is the diagnostic potential of menstrual effluent. I am absolutely obsessed with the idea that this woman-collected and woman-owned biosample that has been scapegoated throughout human history as dirty and impure could hold the key to at home screening and diagnosis of a slew of different health conditions. To me, analysis of our menstrual blood could completely revolutionize the health care system for women, who are often ignored, dismissed, or condescended to by that system. 

Do you have any notable stories from your time in CRS? 

The one I have to share is the story I always tell people who want to understand what it's like to work for Teresa Woodruff. When I was a graduate student I came into the lab one morning to find a paper about the Dickey Wicker amendment (that outlaws federal funding for human embryo or parthenogenetic research), with just a post it note that said, “CT, we have to change this law.” With that, part of my graduate school work was suddenly devoted to informing and advocating for the need to be able to use human parthenotes in federally funded research. There is no better training in flexibility and confidence in your ability to change the world than training under TK Woodruff!