Research and Roaming the World is Work-Life Balance for this CHOP Scientist

Dr. Leyuan Ma finds a work-life balance in research and roaming the world. Seen here enjoying the underwater view in Bohol, Philippine.

By Nancy McCann

After giving a talk in Kuopio, Finland on biomaterials and vaccine development for immunotherapy of cancer, Leyuan Ma, PhD, took a detour to Paris and then London before crossing the pond back to Philadelphia. Dr. Ma, the leader of the Ma Laboratory for Immune Engineering at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has traveled to 30 countries, and seeing every country in the world is one of his life's goals.

With 165 left to go at today's count and wanderlust a-plenty, Dr. Ma won't be running out of new places to see for quite a while.

"People always ask me, 'How do you have a work-life balance with your schedule?'" said Dr. Ma, who is also an assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "I tell them it's not a balancing act between two distinct parts of my life, but a melding of both into one. I work when I travel, and I travel when I work. That's balanced for me."

As an immune engineer, Dr. Ma's goal is to create solutions for unmet clinical needs. His lab strives to decode the molecular and cellular crosstalk between immune cells and their microenvironment in normal and pathological conditions, such as tumors, and leverage these crosstalk mechanisms to develop novel and robust therapeutics to treat immunological diseases.

He meets colleagues worldwide in their local labs where he'll stop by and "chat for hours" about their work.

"It's another way for me to reach out, to have those connections," Dr. Ma said. "This will help open up a lot of opportunities."

Fulfilling a Childhood Dream

Dr. Ma's curiosity of the world began when he was a child living in a small village in North China where his mother instilled in him a love for reading. He traveled to faraway and fantastical places through the pages of books and later via movies. The real world would have to wait though, as traveling abroad was challenging for Dr. Ma at that time due to government restrictions. Instead, he took advantage of seeing the sites in his native country from South China to his favorite city, Shanghai.

But once he graduated from college and headed east to Boston for his graduate work in molecular, cell, and cancer biology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, the world became this scientist's oyster.

Camping under the night sky in Maine’s Acadia National Park, complete with the Milky Way and a shooting star.

"That's when I realized I finally had the freedom to travel around," Dr. Ma said.

He saw as much of North America as his visa and studies would allow. With a love of nature, he trekked to American national parks like Acadia, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon. Big cities were also on his must-see list, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Miami, Dallas, and Houston.

"Massachusetts is my favorite," Dr. Ma said. "It has the ocean, mountains, and four seasons. In New England you get all the colorful fall foliage, and a lovely spring too. The summer isn't too hot, and in the winter there's plenty of snow for skiing. I don't mind digging my car out because I just love the snow."

Castillo de Kukulcán pyramid in Chichén Itzá, Mexico.

In Canada he's been to Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. And in Mexico he visited Cancun, Tulum, and Chichén Itzá to see the pyramids.

"That's the location I really wanted to see," he said. "The only downside is I wasn't able to climb the pyramids because that's the year climbing was restricted — but it was still impressive."

Not to be left off his travel itinerary is Europe, where Switzerland is his favorite country because of its natural beauty.

Évian-les-Bains, France is home to the source of the famous spring water.

"I love hiking, skiing, and being near water," he said. "Sitting by a lake relaxes me, and the air is so fresh there. I took a ferry across Lake Geneva to the small French town Évian-les-Bains, just to enjoy the famous spring water. Why not?"

If it's a social life he's after, then Paris calls his name. He finds French people interesting and is studying their language so he can go back to Paris and tease his local friends in their own language.

As for Asia, Shanghai is still his favorite, but he also likes Tokyo and Japan. The food is so fresh, and the cost of living is so low, he said. As for the Philippines, that's his go-to spot for scuba diving.

To be conquered next: the Southern Hemisphere.

"The more I travel, I realize I'm experiencing things differently from what I read or watched on the big screen as a child," Dr. Ma said. "You can feel the culture of a country when you're physically there and looking at its nature. When you see the mountains and rivers in China, you feel poetic peace. The U.S. is wild. You see that wildness in the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. As for Switzerland, it's a classy kind of nature — almost dreamlike or some kind of wonderland."

Travel also helps Dr. Ma relax, and that's when he gets ideas for his research.

"When I read a paper on a flight or during travel, I understand it better, in a more refreshing way," Dr. Ma said.