When Antentor Hinton Jr., was growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, he didn’t know he could become a scientist.
In his sophomore year of college he got a phone call in 2007 that would change his life – and his career trajectory – forever.
His best childhood friend, Cameron Underwood — a football star and popular student who had taken Hinton, a self-proclaimed “nerd,” under his wing during challenging school years — had died suddenly in his sleep. Underwood, who was just 18, “was extremely healthy,” and played football in college, said Hinton. Underwood died from neuroblastoma, a tumor that maladapted, said Hinton.
Afterward, Hinton said, “I wanted to do research to be able to design drugs that really could help.”
The next step was finding a community of researchers and mentors that could help him succeed — a challenge in a field where just 9% of the STEM field — science, technology, engineering and math — is Black. He was mentored by Dr. E. Dale Abel, an endocrinologist who showed him that a Black man “could head his own division and be excellent.” Hinson went on to get his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine.
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