Dr. Paul Tesar, Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, was awarded the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award which recognizes achievements of an exceptional nature in scientific and medical inquiry, professional practice, and enhancing the lives of others both personally and professionally. This Award is not given in recognition of a single remarkable achievement but is reserved for an NIH-OxCam alumni who has attained and maintained extraordinary impact throughout their career in their chosen fields of endeavor and in their service to society at large. This Award, created in 2020, was bestowed upon Dr. Tesar at the 2021 NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop July 13-15, 2021.
Dr. Tesar completed his DPhil in 2007 from the University of Oxford. Under the tutelage of Professor Sir Richard Gardner and Dr. Ron McKay and published a landmark paper in Nature describing the discovery of a new type of pluripotent stem cell, epiblast stem cells. This work stands among the most recognized in all of stem cell biology and earned Paul some of the highest graduate student accolades, including the Beddington Medal from the British Society for Developmental Biology and the Harold M. Weintraub Award from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Tesar returned home to join the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine faculty in 2010 as an Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation Scholar. He is currently a Professor and Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics at CWRU School of Medicine in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. His laboratory has pioneered new regenerative approaches to treat nervous system disorders including multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, pediatric leukodystrophies, cerebral palsy, and brain cancer. Dr. Tesar’s scientific achievements have been recognized with a number of prestigious awards including being named a Robertson Investigator of the New York Stem Cell Foundation in 2011. One of only four international awardees, the honor recognizes and supports scientists leading their generation in stem cell research.
Additionally, Dr. Tesar received the International Society for Stem Cell Research Outstanding Young Investigator Award in 2015, the New York Stem Foundation – Robertson Stem Cell Prize in 2017, and the Diekhoff Award for Graduate Student Mentoring in 2018. In 2019, Paul was recognized as one of Crain’s Cleveland Business’ “Forty Under 40” and named a “Homegrown Hero” in Academic Research by Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer. He recently earned the National Institutes of Health honor for outstanding mentorship, the 2021 Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship. He was recognized yet again for his innate mentoring style, which is an “amalgamation of lessons learned from his own scientific mentors, and, notably, from years of participation on competitive sports teams.”
Dr. Tesar was nominated by fellow NIH OxCam Alumni Dr. Justin Lathia. “It is my utmost pleasure to nominate Dr. Tesar as he continues to be on the forefront of his field, not only innovating, but also remaining committed to excellence in all he does. He is a great teacher, mentor, and colleague and truly exemplifies what it is to be a scientist,” remarked Dr. Lathia.
Dr. Tesar co-founded a Cleveland-based biotechnology company, Convelo Therapeutics, now partnered with Genentech, to advance new therapies from the laboratory into clinical testing to better the lives of patients and their families.
The International Biomedical Research Alliance’s Outstanding Recent Graduate Award was created to recognizethe noteworthy and distinctive achievements of an individual who has graduated from the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program within the last two years. The honoree embodies the values of scientific innovation and collaboration leading to seminal biomedical discoveries at an early stage in their career. The 2021 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award was bestowed upon Zachary (Zach) Fitzpatrick during the 2021 NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop July 13-15, 2021.
Zach is currently a Senior Scientist at Spark Therapeutics, a Philadelphia-based gene therapy company dedicated to harnessing the therapeutic potential of viral vector-mediated gene transfer to treat debilitating hereditary diseases. He is drawing on his background in gene therapy development and neuroimmunology to help support the development of gene transfer-based biologics for central nervous system disorders.
His work, published in Nature in the autumn of last year, described a previously unappreciated link between the gut and meningeal humoral immunity, showing that IgA+ B cells and plasma cells are educated in the intestine but re-locate to the wall of the dural venous sinuses, providing a defensive shield at this internal barrier that is critical to prevent the spread of pathogens from the blood into the brain. “It was a huge finding to see such a similarity between IgA clones in the gut and the brain,” said Zach during an interview with Gates Cambridge, adding that it could unlock new routes for understanding neuroinflammatory pathways and their role in diseases like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s where research has already shown a link to the gut.
Zach was nominated by his UK mentor and NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program Director at the University of Cambridge, Prof. Menna Clatworthy. Prof. Clatworthy noted that “Altogether, Zach’s work makes a remarkable contribution to this field, and I feel recognition with these awards would be entirely appropriate.”
“It’s an absolute honor to have received the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award from the International Biomedical Research Alliance, I’m extremely grateful to have received support from the OxCam program to pursue graduate studies at two world-class research institutions – the University of Cambridge and the NIH – and from my mentors and peers,” Zach stated.
A graduate of the Louisiana State University, Zach will receive his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2021 as a Gates Cambridge Scholar in the prestigious NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program under Dr. Dorian McGavern (NIH/NINDS) and Prof. Menna Clatworthy (University of Cambridge). Zach hopes to develop immunomodulatory and gene-based therapies to counter neurodegenerative diseases.
Beginning in 2020, The International Biomedical Research Alliance introduced two 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 awardees and their efforts. The ceremony to honor the winners was held during the 2021 NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop, titled Celebrating Science: Looking Back and Looking Forward, virtually from July 13-15, 2021.
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 Yasemin Cole. Yasemin is an NIH Gates Cambridge M.D./Ph.D. Scholar in the Class of 2021, whose mentors are Dr. Zhengping Zhuang at the National Cancer Institute and Dr. Eamonn Maher at the University of Cambridge.
Yasemin has been involved in multiple leadership positions in the midst of a pandemic, which brought many challenges to the transition to graduate school. Concurrently, she worked closely with NIH OxCam Program Leadership and fellow NIH OxCam Scholar Neha Wali to help implement an F30 grant writing Bootcamp workshop and has worked tirelessly as the Chair of the Workshop Planning Committee to organize the Workshop. Yasemin constantly encourages creativity and collaboration as Chair of the Workshop Planning Committee and demonstrates exceptional organizational skills as she juggles multiple moving parts to ensure things run smoothly. She is a role model for her peers and someone admired by her classmates for her many strengths.
“By focusing on hereditary paraganglioma pheochromocytomas cancer syndromes, I study the intersection of cancer genetics, embryology, and metabolism. Over the past year, I led the organization of the 2021 Global Doctoral Partnerships Program Workshop which was successfully attended by over 200 NIH OxCam Scholars, Alumni, Principal Investigators, and distinguished guests. It’s been an honor to be recognized for my effort to bring together the OxCam community during these difficult times,” stated Yasemin. After Yasemin completes her Ph.D., she will continue her medical studies at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
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 Kritika Singh. Kritika is an NIH-Rhodes DPhil Scholar in the Class of 2020, whose mentors are Dr. John Schiller at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Eleanor Stride, and Dr. Udo Oppermann at the University of Oxford, and Dr. Ralph Mazitschek at Harvard University.
As a first-year student, Kritika has navigated the transition to NIH OxCam amid a pandemic with grace and has established a strong camaraderie not only with classmates in her year but with upper-year NIH OxCam Scholars as well. As the class of 2020 Representative, and even before she was officially a member of the Student Leadership Board in that capacity, Kritika constantly took the initiative to create virtual social events for the Class of 2020 and has always been open and willing to facilitate events that bring the community closer together. She also serves in multiple roles within NIH OxCam and outside of the Program. As a result, Kritika clearly demonstrates her passion to serve the greater community and promote well-being in many different roles, as she is always willing to lend an ear for students to talk to about whatever is going well or isn’t going well in their lives. Her thoughtfulness, work ethic, and genuine personality make her deserving of the Building a Better Community Through Service Award.
“I am conducting my DPhil at the intersection of bioengineering, chemical biology, and immuno-oncology and am focusing on developing therapies that can be widely adopted in high- and low-resource settings. Apart from research, I am actively involved in community building activities such as being the 2020 Representative to the Student Leadership Board, the Co-Chair for the Career Development Seminar Series, the Student Rep on the Lasker Lessons in Leadership Committee, and on the Workshop Planning Committee. I am also the Board Director of Operations for the Rhodes Trust and Gates Cambridge Trust Global Scholars Symposium and was previously the Welfare Officer for Magdalen College at the University of Oxford. After my DPhil, I plan to go to medical school and pursue a career at the intersection of biomedical research, clinical practice, and global health policy,” shared Kritika.
“Yasemin and Kritika are exemplary Scholars whose outstanding leadership and service have helped improve the OxCam student experience and NIH community overall,” remarked Kristi Porter, Ph.D., Managing Director and Director of Recruitment, NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program. “I am continually amazed by their extraordinary talent and dedication and commend them for their remarkable contributions.”
The Dr. Richard and Vera Siegel Translational Award was generously endowed by NIH M.D./Ph.D. Partnership Program co-founder, Dr. Richard Siegel and his wife, Vera. First awarded in 2016, this annual award recognizes advances in the field of medical science that move fundamental discoveries from the bench to the bedside. The recipient of the Translational Award this year was 2019 NIH-Cambridge M.D./Ph.D. Scholar Katherine Masih. Katherine is mentored by Dr. Javed Khan at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Professor Richard Gilbertson at the University of Cambridge.
Katherine’s main project involves investigating the tumor intrinsic mechanisms of resistance cell therapy to CART targeting CD19 in childhood leukemia using clinical samples. Through this research she has discovered that 1) Responders to CART cells have T cells with increased fitness in the bone marrow, and 2) The leukemia cells in the resistant tumors are more stem-like, have increased proliferation capacity, increased plasticity, and preexisting clones with alternative splicing of CD19 that may lead to resistance under CART selection pressure. Katherine is also working on multiple projects exploring the tumor immune microenvironment of pediatric solid tumors using highly multiplexed imaging techniques on over 700 patient tumor samples.
Katherine’s nomination included the following quote from her nominator: “Katherine is intelligent and quick to pick up concepts and apply them to her research. She has learned how to code and handles high-dimensional data analyses with ease. She reads and presents complex research articles and her verbal and writing skills are outstanding. I have seen her give impressive presentations nationally and internationally (currently virtual). In summary, in all the over 20 years I have been a PI at the NIH, Katherine is one of the best and ranks in the top 1%”
“I was completely surprised and honored to have my work be recognized by the Siegel Translational Award in Medical Sciences. The possibility of unraveling the biology of these deadly diseases to improve the lives of children with cancer is the driving force behind my research. I am so thankful to both Dr. Khan and Prof. Gilbertson for continually supporting me personally and my growth as a scientist, to OxCam for the opportunity, and Dr. and Mrs. Siegel for endowing this award.”
Katherine recently moved to Cambridge and is studying the dynamics of the tumor immune microenvironment in pediatric brain tumors. She will spend the final two years of her Ph.D. in the UK, before returning to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for her final year of medical school and apply to residencies in pediatrics. Katherine hopes to be a physician-scientist in pediatric oncology, translating laboratory discoveries to improve outcomes for children with childhood cancer.
The Gregory Paul Lenardo Basic Science Award was graciously endowed by NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program co-founder, Dr. Michael Lenardo, in loving memory of his brother. First awarded in 2016, this annual award recognizes discoveries of fundamental cellular, molecular, or genetic processes using model systems that advance scientific understanding of biological processes in higher organisms. This year at the virtual Annual NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop, the recipient of the Gregory Paul Lenardo Basic Science Award was 2016 NIH-Oxford DPhil ScholarJoseph Roney. Joseph is mentored by Dr. Zu-Hang Sheng at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and Professor Frances Platt at the University of Oxford.
Joseph revealed a novel pathological mechanism underlying axonal dystrophy of Niemann-Pick Type C1 disease (NPC1), a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder characterized by the accumulation of cholesterol in endo-lysosomes. This work was recently published in Developmental Cell and a second paper has been accepted in Autophagy, with Joseph as the first author.
His nominator shared “Joseph is an outstanding young scientist with an impressive scope of knowledge and unique multidisciplinary expertise. His reputation is best exemplified by his role as an invited speaker in international symposiums such as ASCB and EMBO societies. For all of these reasons and more, Joseph is truly deserving of recognition by the Alliance with the Gregory Paul Lenardo Basic Science Award for Discoveries in Cellular and Molecular Biology for his outstanding contributions to the emerging research field and pathological mechanisms underlying axonal dystrophy of NPC1 disease.”
“I am very grateful and honored to receive the Gregory Paul Lenardo Basic Science Award this year and hope that this will help shine some light on NPC disease. Thank you to my mentors and colleagues for their generous support and guidance throughout my time in the program and to the Program Leadership and International Biomedical Research Alliance for their continued support, with special thanks to Dr. Lenardo for endowing this award,” stated Joseph.
Joseph completed his DPhil in May of this year and started a short-term postdoc in his NIH lab, as he looks into other opportunities that will help advance our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and contribute to drug discovery efforts in this area.
