How did her sister become so sick so fast?

Joan Brugge. Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer Health How did her sister become so sick so fast? Joan Brugge’s decadeslong professional fight against cancer began when she tried to make sense of a tragedy Anna Lamb Harvard Staff Writer September 14, 2026 6 min read A series focused on the personal side of Harvard research and teaching. Joan Brugge was on track to graduate from Northwestern University in a few years and launch into a career teaching math when a single phone call changed the direction of her life. “I was a sophomore and I got this call from my parents, sobbing, asking could I please come home because my sister was going to be operated on,” Brugge said. It turned out that...