Mentoring. A word we often hear throughout our career, but what does it really mean? We can begin to answer this question by probing the origins of the word ‘mentor.’
I was amazed to discover that the term traces back to the 8th Century BC when Athena disguises herself as Odysseus’ good friend, Mentor, in Homer’s Odyssey. Athena, as Mentor, then continues to encourage and guide Odysseus’ son, Telemachus.
This seems to reflect the meaning we place on mentoring today; to encourage and guide the mentee in order to nurture their development. However, as mentoring has an enormous impact on the mentee’s career trajectory, it is essential to understand what makes a great mentor.
As this dual mentorship was both an advantage and a challenge, the structure of the NIH Ox-Cam program provides an excellent opportunity to delve into the depths of mentoring. Therefore, I interviewed both mentors and mentees to discover the secrets of their success.
A mentor and mentee: the first meeting
When a mentor and mentee first meet, their needs and objectives are unknown to the other. So how should a mentor approach this situation? I put this question to experienced mentor Dr Hans Ackerman.
He told me that he doesn’t judge a person by their qualifications but instead seeks to understand their strengths and limitations to support them when and where they need it most. For example, some of his mentees benefited from close and frequent attention, while others, such as former NIH Ox-Cam Scholar Matthew Alkaitis, performed best when given more autonomy.
By letting Matthew initiate our meetings and set the agenda, we would focus on the challenges that were most important to him. He wasn’t looking to me for answers, but rather he valued the process of identifying a problem and engaging with me to articulate the solutions he wanted to try next.
Dr Hans Ackerman
The mentee’s responsibility
On the other side of the spectrum, it is critical to look within yourself to understand what motivates you as the mentee. Although this insight allows thoughtful reflection into the best career decision, it is often challenging and does not always happen on your own. Current Ox-Cam Scholar, Mario Shammas, told me about his experience before joining the program.
Undecided about his future career, he often discussed his educational and personal views with a post-doctoral fellow about the advantages and limitations of different PhD programs. This outside input helped him to decide which career path was best, which resulted in him joining the NIH Ox-Cam program under the mentorship of Dr Derek Narendra and Prof Patrick Chinnery.
It just goes to show, you don’t have to do everything alone!
Multiple mentors: good or bad?
Dual mentoring can be challenging at the best of times, so it requires a special effort to expand it to an international level. As an alumnus of the program, Dr Narendra had personal experience of this from his degree.
I asked how this knowledge helped him to understand both the complexities and benefits involved. He explained that one of his supervisors was a well-known expert in the field, which was valuable in obtaining collaborations and scientific knowledge, but daily contact was limited. Therefore, he often relied on his second supervisor for everyday mentoring.
While balancing the advice of even two mentors can be tricky, I was amazed to discover that one of my other interviewees, Dr Ambika Bumb, former CEO and founder of Bikanta, ended up with four official mentors! However, she found having multiple mentors was actually a boost for her PhD.
Each mentor was from a different scientific field, which benefited my thesis project. They contributed resources and approaches from their respective expertise and institutes, which allowed me to develop technology and tests applications in a manner that was the definition of interdisciplinary science.
Dr Ambika Bumb
However, this experience enhanced her skills far beyond bench science. It enabled her to take control of her project and lead both a cross-disciplinary and multi-country team, learning skills of effective collaboration and project management. Quite the achievement! Nevertheless, this was only possible as her mentors respected her views and fostered an environment of independence. Now a mentor herself, Dr Bumb, remembers her training and focuses on listening to her mentees to support them as their goals develop.
Like any good recipe, success comes from balancing key ingredients. Gaining familiarity with multiple mentoring strategies is a distinct advantage for the mentee as it enables them to discover which strategy they prefer – knowledge that can only be obtained through experience. However, success can only be achieved when the mentoring partnership is respected by all involved.
It is also important to remember that dual mentoring does not have to be from two principal investigators or professors. Mentoring comes in all shapes and sizes, whether it’s from a post-doc in your lab, a previous colleague, or a friend from the lab next door.
Mentoring during COVID-19
Mentoring can be challenging when you have daily interaction, but what happens when contact is limited? The COVID-19 pandemic altered many mentoring strategies, and Ox-Cam Scholar Charles Phillips-Hart recalled how the situation required quick thinking on both the mentee’s and mentor’s side.
We wanted to ensure optimal levels of productivity, so we shifted our focus to writing and preparation for virtual conferences. I use Slack to communicate findings, and my supervisor can provide critical feedback within 24 hours, if not minutes.
Charles Phillips-Hart
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced this need, communication is vital for effective mentoring in all situations. With continually improving technology, this can be via instant messaging services, like Slack, or through virtual platforms, such as Zoom. The critical factor is feeling comfortable expressing opinions and receiving feedback over any medium.
Read our article on Virtual Conferences to read about the benefits and limitations of attending conferences virtually
Mentoring awards
While feedback can be tough, it is critical at every career stage, whether you are just starting out or an experienced researcher. Rewarding exceptional mentoring is an essential task, and multiple mentoring awards have been established. In 2006, the Annual Nature Award for Mentoring in Science was bestowed upon Professor Andrew McMichael, mentor of NIH Ox-Cam alumna and Rhodes Scholar Dr Julia James.
I will never forget the time that Professor McMichael donned a lab coat to help me troubleshoot an experiment. He was a fantastic mentor and very approachable despite his many accolades.
What most impressed me about Professor McMichael’s approach was how he individualized mentoring; those who needed more support would be guided, and those who were quite independent were given room to explore.
Dr Julia James
So, how do you become a great mentor?
From Homer’s Odyssey to the present day, mentoring is an integral part of all our lives. But what is it that makes a great mentor? Throughout the interviews, one piece of advice kept appearing: that mentoring isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy.
It takes understanding and respect on both sides of the equation to recognize what strategy works best. And this responsibility isn’t placed on a single person’s shoulders. Both the mentor and mentee need to work together to communicate their views.
As a mentor, you can have a considerable influence over your mentee’s development, whether you are a PI, colleague, or friend. And, while great power does come with great responsibility, the interviews showed that mentees who had great mentors became great mentors themselves. It really is a circle of life.
Getting sick with the mosquito-borne Zika virus makes people more vulnerable to developing dengue disease later on, and to suffering from more severe symptoms when they do get sick from dengue, finds a new study published in the journal Science. “The key thing that our study establishes is that prior Zika infection does significantly increase your risk of both symptomatic and more severe forms of dengue disease,” said study first author Dr. Leah Katzelnick. “That finding raises the questions: Could a vaccine only targeted at Zika actually put people at increased risk of more severe dengue disease? And how can you design a Zika vaccine that only induces good antibodies that protect you against Zika, but doesn’t induce these other, potentially enhancing antibodies that are harmful against disease?” Read more here.
Dr. Katzelnick conducted her doctoral research on antigenic variation among dengue viruses at the University of Cambridge and the National Institutes of Health as an NIH OxCam Scholar and Gates Cambridge Scholar. After finishing her PhD in 2016, she conducted her postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Florida on determinants of dengue and Zika disease, spending a year in Ecuador and Nicaragua to work closely with the research teams conducting longitudinal cohort studies.
As of September 2020, Dr. Leah Katzelnick was named an Earl Stadtman tenure-track investigator and NIH Distinguished Scholar in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases in NIAID at NIH. She is Chief of the new Viral Epidemiology and Immunity Unit, which uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate immunological protection against and susceptibility to emerging and reemerging viral diseases with the goal of informing how vaccines can be effectively and safely licensed and introduced through vaccination programs. Her group is looking for postdocs and PhD students — if you are interested, please learn more at:
Inspired by the Grand Rounds model and a student-organized element since the inception of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program, regularly scheduled clinical case conferences have been a staple for students in the Scholars Program.
Originating at Johns Hopkins Medical School in the late 19th century, Grand Rounds provided a new way of teaching young clinicians from the bedside. This exercise consisted of a review of a patient’s medical problems and treatment plan, with the patient present and participating in the conversation. Baffling and unique cases were often highlighted. Over the years, the original methodology has given way to new approaches. The challenges of 2020 presented yet another hurdle for student organizers, however the series, sponsored by the Cozzi Family, carried on. Despite the shuttering of laboratories at the NIH and around the world, Chad Phillips-Hart, NIH- Oxford Scholar in the MD/PhD program, managed to keep the conferences running, scheduling and executing a majority of the monthly Cozzi Family Clinical Case Conferences as planned. “Organizing the Cozzi Family Clinical Case Conferences has been such a fun, interactive medium to open the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars community to cutting-edge clinicians engaged in exceptional research. Although we do miss our in-person events, each and every speaker, both local and abroad, has been so gracious and willing to help us transition to an online platform due to the COVID19 pandemic. Each speaker brings to light key clinical pearls we will take into our future careers” explained Chad.
Scholar Olive Jung led the first ever Scholar-Mentor Cozzi Family Clinical Case Conference. Dr. Grisel J. Lopez and Dr. Ellen Sidransky joined Olive to present a case of a young patient with Gaucher disease and walk the students through the typical differential diagnostic work up of the patient’s condition. Chad led the next Scholar-Mentor Cozzi Family Clinical Case Conference with his clinical mentors, Dr. Ramya Ramaswami and Dr. Kate Lurain, who are both physicians in the HIV/AIDS Malignancy Branch at the NIH. In addition to Scholar-Mentor presentations, , the Scholars heard from alumnus Dr. Aaron Neal, who is an International Health Scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Neal guided students through international, collaborative clinical trials being conducted in the face of epidemics, from the Ebola epidemic in 2014 to the current SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Furthermore, Dr. Neal concomitantly provided a career-based discussion on how his pathway through the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program has led him to be a scientist in the Collaborative Clinical Research Branch, and help foster international collaborative efforts in mitigating and preventing pandemics.
Scholars also held Cozzi Family Clinical Case Conferences with Dr. Christina Annunziata, Senior Investigator at the Women’s Malignancies Branch of the National Cancer Institute/Center for Cancer Research at the NIH, Dr. Tom Mou, a general surgical resident at the University of California San Diego, Dr. David Stagliano, Lieutenant Colonel, Army, Division Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Director, Transitional Year Internship Program, National Capital Consortium, and Dr. Nirali Shah, NIH Lasker Clinical Research Scholar, NIH Distinguished Scholar in the Head, Hematologic Malignancies Section of the National Cancer Institute. In the coming months, Scholars will hear from Drs. John Dekker and Sean Agbar-Enoh, who are both NIH Lasker Clinical Research Scholars.
The Cozzi Family Clinical Case Conferences are open to all students in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. Students and speakers are also encouraged to invite members of their laboratories to attend the talks.
Mosquitoes – responsible for transmitting malaria, Zika, dengue, West Nile, chikungunya, yellow fever – are mankind’s most successful serial killers. Whilst at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the NIH, NIH Oxford-Cambridge Program Scholar Dr. Gianmarco Raddi created the first cell atlas of mosquito immune cells and discovered new types of mosquito immune cells, including a rare cell type that could be involved in limiting malaria infection. Dr. Raddi and colleagues also identified molecular pathways implicated in controlling the malaria parasite. Their results – published in Science – are the most comprehensive transcriptomic study of a whole invertebrate organism immune system to-date and represent an important advance in the fight to eradicate malaria. The new knowledge will prove useful in developing vector control strategies not only for malaria, but also Zika and Dengue, as well as to further more fundamental immunological understanding in model systems such as Drosophila.
“We have carried out the first ever large-scale survey of the mosquito immune system, and using single cell sequencing technology we found immune cell types and cell states that had never been seen before. One of these cell types – the megacytes – appear to turn on anti-malarial defences. This is the first time a cell type has been associated to malaria infection control: it is a very exciting discovery” said Dr. Raddi.
NIAID: An Anopheles gambiae mosquito, one of the mosquito species which the study examined.
Looking to the future, Dr. Raddi aims to combine academic research with clinical medicine and journalism, with particular attention to acute medicine, global health and infectious diseases. As the public’s response to the coronavirus outbreak demonstrates, science and medicine are often not enough. Even the most effective medications or public health responses can be blunted by panic and scientific illiteracy. Doctors and scientists need to engage the public with both logos – that comes easy – and pathos. Dr. Raddi’s holy grail? A regular column, and the professional leverage to engage the wider public and help stem the tide of anti-scientific thought.
The International Biomedical Research Alliance introduced two new recognition awards to honor Scholars in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge/Wellcome Trust Scholars Program who demonstrate exceptional community service and leadership. These awardees were nominated by their peers to be recognized for their exceptional leadership and service, not only to the Scholars Program, but also to the greater community. It is always an honor to be recognized, but especially notable when the recognition comes from peers who have a unique and focused view of the awardee and their efforts. The ceremony to honor the winners was held during the 2020 NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop June 15th-18th.
The recipient of the International Biomedical Alliance Leadership Award is a role model for their peers and possesses the ability to inspire others to be better and do better by encouraging creativity, cooperation, promoting respect for others, emphasizing collaboration, demonstrating initiative, and adapting to new and changing needs and circumstances. The outstanding Leader has a keen sense of organization and embodies leadership in all that they endeavor, combining clarity in thought with humility in character. The recipient of this award is Hannah Mason. Hannah is a fourth year NIH-Cambridge Scholar pursuing her PhD in the laboratories of Dr. Dorian McGavern at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD and Prof. Ole Paulsen at the University of Cambridge in the UK. She studies how the brain’s immune system responds to and is shaped by repetitive head injury and degenerative processes. After Hannah completes her PhD, she will attend medical school at Emory University.
The recipient of the Building a Better Community Through Service Award honors an individual who continuously places significant importance on the well-being of their community. Committed to social responsibility, they invest their time and talent to elevate and inspire others and, in doing so, uplift the community as a whole. The recipient of this award is Lauren Wedekind. Lauren is a third year NIH-Oxford Scholar pursuing her PhD in the laboratories of Dr. Robert Hanson at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Phoenix, AZ and Prof. Mark McCarthy and Dr. Anubha Mahajan at the University of Oxford in the UK. She investigates how genetic and environmental diversity jointly influence cardiometabolic disease etiology, to ultimately shape prevention and treatment strategies.
“I am continually in awe of the passion and perseverance of this year’s awardees,” said Katie Stagliano, PhD, Executive Director, NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. “As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, our tight-knit community supports each other at home and abroad. Lauren and Hannah’s inspirational leadership and service gives me hope of a brighter future in science, health care, and our communities.”
