From Bank Teller To Head Of Biochemistry

Before she became a top researcher on prostate cancer progression, before she earned a named professorship and a cascade of awards, before Dean Richard Linton hired her as one of CALS’ newest visionary department heads, Melanie Simpson felt trapped.

In her mid-20s, she was a bank teller. She lacked a college degree. And she had never heard of biochemistry.

“I was a mom with three kids and I needed to help support my family, but I knew I was stagnating,” Simpson says. “I needed to be a happy person so I could teach my children how to be happy.”

But how to get there? Simpson found a few clues: She’d been gifted in math and science since grade school. The skills that made her an excellent (though bored) bank teller pointed to a detail-oriented profession. And she longed for a field that provided lifelong intellectual stimulation.

That’s when she found biochemistry.

“It was like solving a series of puzzles,” Simpson recalls. “The fascinating questions never stopped coming. How could I not fall in love with it?”

So Simpson enrolled in the University of Minnesota. Between classes, she’d dash across campus to where her youngest was in daycare, nurse her baby, then sprint to her next class.

“Focusing on the end goal got me through,” Simpson says. “If I got overwhelmed, I called my mom and had a meltdown until it was out of my system, then got back to work.”

Simpson earned her bachelor’s in biochemistry, then her doctorate in biochemistry, molecular biology and biophysics. After that, her list of achievements fills dozens of resume pages.

As a leader, she’s known for building interdisciplinary teams – like the time she spearheaded a complex biosystems Ph.D. program at the University of Nebraska, or when she led that school’s participation in a multi-institution NIH grant to establish a clinical/translational research network mentoring early career researchers.

In her own research, Simpson discovered a new biomarker for identifying cancer patients who are less likely to respond to hormone deprivation treatments and thus might benefit from altered treatment decisions.

“Biochemistry made me realize that I didn’t have to pigeonhole myself into a particular discipline,” Simpson says. “There’s a place for someone who thinks like me.”