IN PROFILE: Bonnie Deroo

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By Katherina Dehaas
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Travelling biochemist putting down roots
 
 
Bonnie Deroo's ambition to conduct research and work closely with students has been achieved with her new position in the Department of Biochemistry.
 
Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, London and North Carolina: Bonnie Deroo's career path has been less than linear. On the move for the last 10 years, she recently found herself back in London at The University of Western Ontario.
 
Deroo is a new professor in the department of biochemistry at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. Within the year she'll be mentoring graduate students and teaching in the department.
 
Deroo, with a doctorate in biochemistry, has worked in her fair share of laboratories already.
 
As an undergrad in biochemistry at the University of Waterloo, she was part of a co-op program that accounted for a lot of her travelling.
 
“You get a lot of lab experience that way and you kind of get to find out what you like and what you don't like, so for me it was good," she said.
 
And what she liked was research: so much that she pursued it at a graduate level.
 
A master's degree brought her to London, not far from where she grew up in Chatham, Ont. And though she also received her PhD from the University of Western Ontario, she went all the way to North Carolina to finish it. She completed her lab work at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Triangle Park, N.C., after her supervisor moved his lab there.
 
But after 10 years of travel, Deroo is back in London - and she's happy to be here. “And now to be a professor at the University of Western Ontario - it's very exciting," she said. 
 
But she didn't come alone. Deroo's career brought her more than an excuse to travel the country. She met her husband, also a scientist, as an undergraduate student in biochemistry. Since then the couple has been together through a lot of moves, including the move to Western.
 
Throughout her career, two things have motivated Deroo: her ambition to work with students and a desire to research what interests her. “I love research but I also love mentoring and working with students in the lab. It always seemed like the place for me," she said.
 
As a new professor at Western she has gained the opportunity to do both.
 
She looks forward to working with graduate students and says she enjoys the multi-year, one-on-one relationship with grad students her role as a professor will allow.
 
As a mentor, Deroo comes highly recommended, says Katherine Hamilton, a former student and colleague at NIEHS in North Carolina.
 
“She was my first and main mentor. Most of my basic lab knowledge came from her. I could talk to her about anything. Her everyday mentorship was just wonderful."
 
“She's definitely dedicated to her research and willing to take the time to teach students - which not everyone will," added Hamilton.
 
In London she is developing the Deroo Lab which specializes in the study of estrogen and how it is involved in fertility and cancer.
 
But before Deroo can take on any graduate students she has to get settled.  “You spend a lot of your first year trying to get your funding and in the meantime get your lab equipment and supplies to a point where someone could come in and start doing experiments," she said.
 
These will be priorities in the coming year, so it's no wonder that she divides her time pretty evenly between two places: the lab and her office, just down the hall.
 
Deroo, 38, seems right at home behind her desk in the Children's Health Research Institute. Based on the décor, you'd never guess that she's “the new kid on the block," she said.
 
Artwork, a comfortable chair and laboratory artifacts make the room welcoming while branding it as the space of an academic. Not a bad place to pass the time as she works to secure funding for her research so she can begin to work with students.
 
But first things first, she says. “You can't take on grad students until you've got funding."  
 
Background
Born: Chatham Ont., 1969
Department: Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Education: University of Waterloo, Honours Co-op Program, Biochemistry; MA & PhD, Biochemistry, University of Western Ontario
Enjoys: Outdoor adventure, hiking and canoeing
New lab: the Deroo lab, operating at the Children's Health Research Institute in London
New hobby: shopping on eBay for lab equipment Webpage: www.deroo.org   
 
The writer is a graduate student studying journalism. 

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