Nahant doctor searches for cure for pancreatic cancer

Growing up in Nahant, Dr. Lindsey Baker collected dead birds to study their skeletons. Today, she is a warrior on the front line in the fight to eliminate one of the deadliest cancers.Baker works in the Dr. David Tuveson laboratory in New York’s Cold Spring Harbor research center finding ways to fight and eliminate pancreatic cancer.”Pancreatic cancer has a very high mortality rate with less than 6 percent of patients alive in five years. It’s a nasty cancer,” she said.The 31-year-old daughter of local real estate company owner Don Baker has found a way to learn extremely detailed information about a patient’s pancreatic tumor. She is sharing this find with researchers around the world hoping a global focus on the disease will match tumor types with the precise medicines needed to destroy them.Baker can trace her interest in medicine to the birth of her 28-year-old sister, Jennifer. Don Baker remembers the maternity ward nurse inviting 3-year-old Lindsey to follow her around and asked the toddler at the end of the brief tour if she would like to be a nurse.”?No. Doctor,'” Don Baker recalled his eldest daughter saying.The Baker daughters bypassed toy ovens and cooking sets and headed straight for the kitchen at the age of 6 to prepare dinners under late mother, Julie’s, guidance. When the hospital drama, “ER,” debuted in 1994, Lindsey sat in front of the family’s television watching the operating room scenes.”My mother walked by and said all that blood was disgusting, but I was fascinated,” she said.Her bird skeleton studies prompted Baker to think about what it would be like to be a woman scientist working in a laboratory.Baker was Swampscott High School’s Class of 2001 valedictorian. She graduated Harvard University summa cum laude in 2005 and earned her doctorate degree at Rockefeller University in 2012. Her research on tumor cells outside the body could accelerate improvements in how doctors pick drugs to fight cancers.”What is most rewarding is teaching scientists our applications all over the country and the world,” she said.Jennifer Baker said her older sister shared her friends, her adventures and her love for science with her at an early age. They still share “Sue” as a nickname.”I don’t know if I would be where I am if she didn’t sort of raise me,” she said.