When Kelly Klump worked as a peer counselor for her high school, she frequently worked with girls with eating disorders — many of whom were her friends.
Though Klump, an associate professor, said there wasn’t just one incident that made her want to go into health research, this was one of the first.
She now studies the genetics of eating disorders at MSU, using twins to understand how genetic and environmental factors can contribute to disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
“We have them fill out questionnaires asking about personalities, disorders, anxiety, depression and so on,” she said. “We get saliva samples for extracting DNA and we use those to measure hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, cortisol.”
Klump fell in love with the topic, she said, because of how understudied it is.
“I think eating disorders are disorders that are very much misunderstood,” Klump said. “They are commonly believed to be caused by societal pressures to be thin. Even though that plays a role, there’s a very strong biological and genetical component that has gone unrecognized.”
Despite most of her family’s being teachers, Klump said she never thought she’d be following in their footsteps.
“When I went into this profession I was pursuing a career in research,” she said. “I had never taught a course before coming to MSU, but I realized I really enjoyed teaching, and that was a pleasant surprise.”
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