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March 2011

in

Barbara Jung, MD

  • Assistant Professor, Gastroenterology
  • Colon cancer researcher and clinician
  • Enjoys swimming and cooking
  • click here to view pdf

**Read about Northwestern's new High Risk Colorectacl Cancer Clinic and Dr. Jung's involvement**

"Education and mentoring is a passion of mine, and I credit my mentors, especially John Carethers, now at Michigan, for being such an inspiring role model."

What is the most enticing aspect of Internal Medicine?

Internal medicine to me is like detective work. I enjoy integrating data, grouping it by importance and coming up with a plan. This is a great specialty for people who like to ask questions and are not afraid of continued challenges. You will not stop learning throughout your entire career.

Why did you pick GI as a career?

When applying to fellowship during internship year (as a PSTP resident), I was split between hematology-oncology and gastroenterology, given my research interest in colon cancer. Eventually I decided on GI because of its mix of problems -- it simply never gets boring! During my fellowship, I joined Dr. Carethers’ laboratory at UCSD, continuing my work on colon cancer, with an emphasis on growth factor signaling, which only reassured me that I had made the right choice.

Also, I have always felt that in general, gastroenterolgists seem very happy. I feel very lucky to be able to align my clinical work with my research questions by focusing on high risk colon cancer patients in clinic and endoscopy and taking cues to questions we need to address in the lab.

Where can we find you after hours?

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is very important to me. While there are days where there may be a couple of balls too many up in the air, I believe good time management is key and it makes striking that balance possible. I love spending time with my family, doing sports, going to museums, concerts, or the theater. You can also find me cooking or just doing nothing!

 

I was born in Portland, OR but grew up in Munich, Germany. When I applied for residency in Germany, my potentially future program director suggested I take time off to do a post-doc. I went to San Diego, working on colon cancer gene expression, and ended up pursuing the PTSP track and GI fellowship at UCSD. Following fellowship, I stayed on as junior faculty for 4 years prior to moving to Chicago last year.