Their stories are all different — the daughter of farmers in rural China, the first scientist in a family of English professors, the child from a small town in Italy who never stopped asking “Why?”
But one thing unites them: They left behind family and friends, their familiar cultures, and often their native languages to join a research lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
MSK research labs, with more than 550 postdoctoral researchers, give early-career scientists an opportunity to pursue additional training and research after earning their PhD. Seventy-six percent of MSK postdocs are international and hail from more than 60 countries — from Finland to Pakistan, Canada to Costa Rica. For many, this will be the final leg of a decades-long journey to launch a career in science.
The diversity at MSK is more than just a diversity of background and language and culture, it’s a diversity of thought and perspective — which strengthens our ability to make scientific discoveries, says Joan Massagué, PhD, MSK’s Chief Scientific Officer and Director of the Sloan Kettering Institute, who is a native of Barcelona, Spain.
“Scientists come from all over the world to train at MSK,” says Dr. Massagué, who holds the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair. “And when they leave, the training and mentorship they received here become part of the scientific discovery happening around the globe.”
Competition for academic jobs is extremely high, with only about 1 in 5 postdocs eventually landing a tenure-track position. MSK’s placement is much higher than that average — more than 40% of departing MSK postdocs secured an academic or clinical faculty position in the U.S. or abroad within five years of leaving MSK. Many others go on to take positions in industry, government, or at a nonprofit.
“While the world continues to be divided in many ways, science is one of the great unifiers,” Dr. Massagué adds.
Sukrit Singh, PhD — India and Singapore
Computational and Systems Biology Program
Though Sukrit Singh is the first scientist in his family, he says that growing up surrounded by writers and academics also gave him a deep appreciation for the written word.
“Through them, I learned the importance of written communication with the public, as well as within research,” he says.
An early interest in science and “tinkering around with things” ultimately led him from a childhood spent in New Delhi and Singapore to Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and a doctorate in biophysics — which uses physics, chemistry, and math to understand biological systems.
This combined passion for biomedical research, computation, and science communication followed him to MSK, where he joined the lab of computational biologist John Chodera, PhD, in 2021.
Today Dr. Singh’s research focuses on the physical basis of cancer therapy resistance — combining laboratory experiments and computational analysis to better understand why some cancers can overcome our best treatments.
“Ultimately, I hope to pave a path toward physics-based precision medicine, where we use physics and artificial intelligence to better match the mutations in a patient’s tumor with the therapies tailored specifically to them,” he says. Dr. Singh aspires to launch an independent lab, where his group would continue tackling vital cancer research questions.
Elena Spina, PharmD, PhD — Italy
Cancer Biology and Genetics Program
A curious child growing up in Campana, a small town in Calabria in southern Italy, Elena Spina always wanted to know why things were the way they were — and was never entirely satisfied with the answers she received.
“No one in my family was a scientist, so pursuing a career in science felt unfamiliar — but I didn’t let that stop me,” she says. “And growing up in a small town doesn’t give you many professional opportunities, so I knew I had to leave home to pursue my dreams and career, which meant living far away from my parents and sister and childhood friends for many years.”
She initially studied to become a pharmacist at the University of Calabria and then went on to earn a PhD in translational medicine, which aims to bridge the gap between laboratory discoveries and patient care.
“I wanted to understand what actually drives disease, how it evolves, and how we can truly intervene effectively,” Dr. Spina says.
She compares her journey to MSK to a “train ride through the unknown.” Her scientific passion and persistence took her from Italy to the U.K. to New York City. All the while, Dr. Spina was immersing herself in multiple scientific disciplines, including cancer biology, stem cell biology, and developmental biology.
“My research began with trying to understand why some breast cancer patients become resistant to therapy — which led me to study cancer stem cells, known for their ability to self-renew, a property that underlies both tumor relapse and drug resistance,” she says. “This sparked my interest in how normal tissues transform into cancer and in understanding how the processes that are essential for normal development are hijacked by cancer cells.”
At MSK, Dr. Spina is a member of the Massagué Lab, where her research focuses on uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms that allow tumors to spread to other organs.
She, too, aspires to lead her own lab. “My goal is to create a lab environment where young scientists feel empowered to think independently, to be excited about discovery, and to be the best version of themselves — the same way my mentors have inspired me,” Dr. Spina says.
Xiuzhen ‘Suzanne’ Chen, PhD — China
Cancer Biology and Genetics Program
A life spent pursing scientific research was almost unimaginable to Xiuzhen Chen, who grew up in a farming family in LanXi, in rural east-central China.
“I was the first woman in my village to go to university,” she says. “I was interested in science, but I did not know this was what I wanted to pursue as a career until I tried alternative paths and learned what I did not like to do.”
After college, she used her undergraduate and master’s degrees in biology to secure a job at a top pharmaceutical company, which allowed her to help support her family financially. But she soon found the repetitive nature of the work made her miserable.
“One year earlier, the job was my dream, but when I finally flew to Switzerland to begin my doctoral studies, it felt like an escape,” Dr. Chen says.
After earning a PhD in biochemistry and cell biology from ETH Zurich, she joined the lab of MSK molecular and cell biologist Christine Mayr, MD, PhD.
Here, Dr. Chen’s research has focused on messenger RNA (mRNA) — which are best known for their role as a temporary copy of a gene’s instructions, carried from a cell’s nucleus to ribosomes in the cytoplasm, where proteins get made.
“I am working to discover what else mRNAs do beyond this well-known protein-coding function,” she says.
In 2024, Dr. Chen was the lead author of a paper in the premier biology journal Cell that unveiled a previously unknown role for mRNAs — one that is pivotal for cellular signaling and organization. The discovery sheds new light on foundational cellular processes and on the molecular basis of developmental diseases like fragile X syndrome.
She recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Biology at New York University, where she plans to continue to work on fundamental questions that deepen the human understanding of health and disease.
Dr. Massagué holds the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair.