American Cytogenomics Conference Announces 2024 Award Recipients
Recognizing Exceptional Contributions to the Field of Cytogenomics
Recognizing Exceptional Contributions to the Field of Cytogenomics
The American Cytogenomics Conference (ACC) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2024 awards, honoring individuals whose exemplary work has advanced the science, practice, and education of cytogenomics. These awards were presented during the 48th ACC meeting, held June 2-5, 2024 in Norfolk, VA. The ACC is grateful to these awardees for their dedication to advancing knowledge, mentoring the next generation of scientists, and promoting excellence in cytogenomic practice.
Nyla Heerema has been awarded the Distinguished Cytogeneticist Award for her sustained scientific contributions and leadership in the field of cytogenetics.
Nyla Heerema first came to cytogenetics in 1978. She went to high school in Hull, Iowa, a town of 1200, with a class of 15. She ventured to Central College in Pella, Iowa, a small liberal arts college, where she majored in chemistry and math. Graduate school at the University of Iowa followed that. It was there she was introduced to genetics, through a transforming course in human genetics, and research on “The influence of the Y Chromosome on X Chromosome Non-disjunction in Drosophila melanogaster” — a CYTOGENETICS project, although without actually looking at chromosomes. A move to St. Petersburg, FL, gave her the opportunity to work on Neurospora at Florida Presbyterian College when her husband, Doug, took a teaching position there. Then came a hiatus while raising a family.
In 1978, she took a post-doctoral opportunity to learn human cytogenetics under the mentorship of Catherine Palmer. Dr. Palmer was an excellent mentor and a hard taskmaster. Nyla learned all aspects of clinical human cytogenetics thoroughly. She and Dr. Palmer took the first American Board of Genetics qualification Exams in 1982 in Chicago. Nyla stayed at Indiana University working her way from Research Associate to Professor. While at Indiana, she was fortunate to be awarded a Sabbatical with Dr. Lorna Secker Walker at the Royal Free Hospital in London. That gave her the opportunity to learn and use FISH. At Indiana, she was Assistant then Associate Cytogenetics Director until 1996 when Dr. Palmer retired, and Nyla became Director of the Laboratory. Over the years, Dr. Palmer and she gradually separated responsibilities, Dr. Palmer responsible for constitutional and Nyla for cancer cytogenetics.Meanwhile, in 1982 Nyla was fortunate to become involved with the Children’s Cancer Study Group (CCSG) cytogenetics, then led by Dr. Diane Arthur. In 1997, Diane resigned and Nyla became Chair of CCSG Cytogenetics. In 2000, the CCSG and the Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) merged and became the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Dr. Andrew Carroll and Nyla shared chairmanship of Cytogenetics in that group. During that time, they instituted the COG Workshops, and the COG started requiring cytogenetics for their acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) clinical trials. To make these excellent studies, for a laboratory to participate, the COG Cytogenetics Committee instituted Laboratory Approval.
After a stint at the Wayne Hughes Institute in St. Paul, MN, in 2000, Nyla became director of the Cytogenetics lab at The Ohio State University. She continued her work with COG, and started working extensively with Dr. John Byrd on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). It was very interesting and productive work, learning how to use CpG deoxynucleotides to stimulate the CLL cells and working with other investigators on drug development, especially ibrutinib. She also worked on multiple myeloma, a pioneer in using CD138+ Magnetic Separation of the myeloma cells, resulting in much better FISH results. She also reviews for the Alliance and for the BEAT AML studies.
On a personal level, she was married to Doug for 60 years. They have 3 children, 6 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild. She lives in Pella, Iowa, with one of her sons. She loves to travel, walk, read and knit. She is currently the Chair of Building and Grounds at her church — a new research project!
Sue Ann Berend received the Outstanding Service Award in recognition of her outstanding commitment and service to the cytogenomics community.
Sue Ann did her undergraduate studies in Biology at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, and remained there for her M.S. in Biology under the direction of Dr. Fred Stangl. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics at Texas A&M University under the direction of Dr. Ira Greenbaum, where she worked on the inheritance of fragile sites in deer mice, as well as studying chromosomal rearrangements in different populations of lemmings from Northwest Territories, Canada.
It was during her Ph.D. studies that she attended and presented at her first ACC meeting in 1994 at the Wintergreen Resort in Virginia. She has attended every single ACC meeting since that first one, and received several ACC student travel awards.
After obtaining her Ph.D., she moved a little further south to Houston and pursued post-doctoral studies at Baylor College of Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Lisa Shaffer. She and Dr. Shaffer hosted the ACC meeting in Galveston in 2000, and together they presented the first ACC Distinguished Cytogeneticist Award to Dr. TC Hsu.
In 1999, she successfully completed the ABMG post-doctoral training program at Baylor College of Medicine, and obtained her ABMG certification in clinical cytogenetics. She remained there for some time as an associate director of the Kleberg Cytogenetics Laboratory. In 2001, she took a director position at Genzyme Genetics in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She, Dr. Laurel Estabrooks, and Dr. Kathleen Rao hosted the 2002 ACC meeting in Santa Fe. She continued to work at Genzyme Genetics in Santa Fe until Fall of 2005; she then made the move to the Genzyme Genetics facility in Tampa, FL.
In 2011, she branched out on her own and started her clinical consulting company, Xact Genetics, LLC. She currently resides in Joy, Texas and maintains a CLIA-certified clinical consulting lab at her farm home. When the ACC was incorporated in 2005, Sue Ann was asked to serve as the first secretary/treasurer, and she served in that role for 13 years until turning it over to another in 2018. In addition to working as a clinical consultant, Sue Ann also teaches Clinical Cytogenetics for the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program at the University of Arkansas every spring semester. On the farm in Joy, she raises registered red angus and black angus cattle, as well as exotics including registered fallow deer, axis deer, and blackbuck antelope, and one little aoudad named Rose.