Last week, a group of NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars traveled to Boston for a Career Development and Exploration Initiative. Scholars who were curious about entrepreneurship and thinking about careers outside of academia were invited to attend from October 26-28, 2022. The goal was to visit a range of companies, from incubator spaces to Series A and B biotech to an international pharmaceutical company that became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic.
LabCentral, Kelonia Therapeutics, Korro Bio, Atlas Venture, Pfizer, …what do these places have in common? You may have heard of them before but may not have realized that we have NIH OxCam Program Alumni at each of these locations!
On DAY 1, the Scholars visited Pfizer, which is more than a pharmaceutical company – biotechnology is its foundation and benefiting patients is its goal. Innovation, pharmaceutical development, and the most dedicated team of clinical researchers are how they do it. Former Scholars Program Scientific Director, Dr. Thomas Wynn is now Pfizer’s Vice President, Discovery; Group: Inflammation and Immunology. He shared his perspectives on research at “big pharma” versus academia. Dr. Wynn hosted the group along with Alum Trey Gieseck, Ph.D., the Discovery Group Head, Leukocyte-Tissue Interface (R7) at Pfizer. Elena Spencer gave an overview of research at Pfizer Kendall Square and Dr. Gieseck led a panel discussion with Pfizer colleagues David von Schack, Ph.D., Dave Martin, M.D., Ph.D., Jem Gale, Ph.D., and Katherine Hales, Ph.D. They discussed a range of questions, including discovery to clinical development and Drs. Gieseck and Hales provided a lab tour of Pfizer facilities.
LabCentral is a first-of-its-kind shared laboratory space designed as a launchpad for high-potential life sciences and biotech startups. Alum Stan Wang, M.D., Ph.D. has had not one, but two successful companies launch out of LabCentral. He is currently the Founder and CEO of Thymmune Therapeutics and was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018. He hosted the Scholars for a lab tour and intro to entrepreneurship. Following the visit to LabCentral and Pfizer, the Scholars had dinner with Boston-based Alumni.
On DAY 2, Alum Steven Robinette, Ph.D., a Venture Partner at Atlas Venture hosted the Scholars with his colleague Aimee Raleigh, Ph.D., and introduced them to venture capital. Atlas Venture builds breakthrough biotech companies with remarkable life science entrepreneurs and has over 3 billion USD in assets under management.
Following Atlas Venture, Alum and Alliance Alumni Director Matt Maciejewski, Ph.D. hosted the Scholars at Korro Bio where he is the Vice President and Head of Data Science. Korro Bio was founded to turn extraordinary scientific insights into life-altering new treatments for patients and hit the high notes, completing $116M Series B financing to expand the frontier of genetic medicine through its pipeline of RNA editing programs.
Alum Molly Perkins, Ph.D. is the VP of Research and Co-Founder of Kelonia Therapeutics which launched with a $50 million Series A financing to usher in a new era of genetic medicines for a wide range of diseases in April. She had a candid chat with the Scholars about starting a company, having a family, life during and after NIH OxCam, and answered all of their pressing questions. Before the Scholars headed back to the NIH, they shared a meal with Boston-based Alumni.
Each year, the International Biomedical Research Alliance (Alliance) organizes career development field trips for the students in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars/Wellcome Trust Program. From the Goddard Space Center to MacroGenics Inc., the Alliance provides the Scholars with opportunities to see a broad range of career options and meet with professionals in their fields. They not only hear about career paths and insights, but they are also given the chance to network and discuss their research.
Inspired by former Scholars Program Scientific Director, Dr. Thomas Wynn, the Scholars visited the Cambridge-Boston biopharma cluster for a career development field trip. Dr. Wynn, Vice President, Discovery; Group: Inflammation and Immunology, invited the Scholars to Pfizer KSQ, sharing perspectives of research at “big pharma” versus academia. The Scholars toured the facility, heard from a panel of Pfizer scientists and physicians, and met with alumni Drs. Trey Gieseck and Matt Maciejewski. Pfizer’s Dr. Lori Fitz, Director of Outreach and Technology Platforms, set up an overview of LabCentral, a first-of-its-kind shared laboratory space designed as a launchpad for high-potential life-sciences and biotech startups. The Scholars toured the facility with Luke Wallrich, Senior Manager of Events & Operations, and had small group discussions with LabCentral entrepreneurs, including Dr. Iain Kilty, Dr. Paul Yaworsky, and OxCam alumnus Dr. Stan Wang. “The LabCentral site visit stood out to me the most. I was in awe of the quality of the space and the palpable sense of innovation and talent hanging in the air. I was additionally impressed by LabCentral’s pioneering model for supporting fledgling biotechs (some with only a single person!) and their impressive track record for seeing returns on their investments in the form of successful startups and LabCentral alumni,” stated NIH-Oxford MD/PhD Scholar Lawrence Wang.
Alliance Alumni Director Matt Maciejewski, an Associate Director at Pfizer and head of Data Science in the Inflammation and Immunology Department, organized visits to a range of biotech companies. Following the trips to Pfizer and LabCentral, the Scholars visited Relay Therapeutics, a company that leverages the relationship between protein motion and function, creating opportunities to develop more effective therapies for multiple diseases. Led by Dr. Dipali Patel, the Scholars learned about Relay Therapeutics Portfolio and Platform, had a lab tour with on-site lab scientists, and enjoyed a lunch Q&A panel, including people who have transitioned from academia and higher education to industry.
Following the visit to Relay Therapeutics, the Scholars headed to bluebird bio, where alumna Dr. Molly Perkins, the Director of Oncology R&D, graciously hosted the Scholars. She told her story of transitioning into biotech from a postdoctoral position, as well as sharing that during her time at bluebird bio, it grew to over 800 employees across the U.S. and Europe. The company develops pioneering gene therapies for severe genetic diseases and cancers, and Dr. Perkins is at the forefront of it. “This trip enabled me to see how an idea can grow and become reality in the world of research and medicine. On this trip, we saw companies at LabCentral that were as small as a single person, to early stage startups enabling technology to find new therapeutics at Relay Therapeutics, to companies with several successful clinical trials and rapid growth at bluebird bio. The perspective this trip gave me will help me to enact a vision of turning bench discoveries into new medicines, and I’m grateful for the opportunity we had to take it,” stated NIH-Cambridge MD/PhD Scholar Sean Corcoran.
Since Boston is a global center for both biotech and tech firms, it is no surprise that it is now home to over twenty NIH OxCam alumni. To round out the Scholars experience, alumni were invited to network with the group and share their stories. From their experiences in the program to becoming entrepreneurs, to starting families and sharing adventures, the Scholars were able to hear from alumni and have one-on-one time with them. “The Boston career development field trip represented one of the most impactful experiences in my PhD thus far for it showed me how a physician-scientist can fit into different areas of biotech depending on interests. I was inspired learning the journeys of young alumni of the program that have made the transition from academia to industry. It is always nice to learn what the scholars before us have done and are doing with their degrees. I gained not just career advice from these interactions: I even learned new lab techniques – how to exsanguinate a mouse completely,” stated NIH-Cambridge MD/PhD Scholar Hannah Mason. “I came away from the trip having reaffirmed my desire to one day end up in the biotech space designing and implementing clinical trials: I want to be a part of finish-line science, bringing drugs and therapies to clinic.”
NIH-Cambridge MD/PhD Scholar Mario Shammas commented, “This trip was my first exposure to industry, pharma and biotech companies. I felt as though I was able to see the whole spectrum of company sizes and their stages of development. For me, the most striking thing I learned about was LabCentral and the concept behind it – that you can buy a bench (or even half a bench) and use that for experiments when the company is still in its ‘proof-of-concept’ phase, and to use LabCentral as a springboard to develop into something bigger. It was great to see how small companies like Relay Therapeutics have almost all of their staff focused on the same objective but going at it doing their respective jobs. It was also nice to hear about how bluebird bio was able to grow so rapidly in such a short period of time. We have almost no exposure to industry during our training, and are told very little about it – this trip gave me a much better perspective on what happens in industry, and I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to be part of it.”
The Alliance aims to bring together Scholars of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge/Wellcome Trust Programme with leading academics, entrepreneurs, financiers, policy makers, and practitioners to help solve the problems that are highly relevant to society. Each year, six Scholars are invited to New York City to attend career development field trips leading up to the Lasker Awards.
A visit to Regeneron provided the Scholars with an opportunity to visualize, experience, and discuss careers in industry. The Scholars were introduced to the post-doc program at Regeneron and learned about their exciting projects and collaborations. Each of the Scholars prepared short presentations, which provided the scientists at Regeneron insight into the exciting work being done at the NIH, Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Manchester. After the presentations, the Scholars were invited to have lunch with scientists and were given the opportunity to meet one-on-one with scientists of their choice. “I had a one-on-one with Dr. Andrew Murphy who is the EVP of Research,” explained Scholar Samuel Katz. “I wanted to ask him about some projects he was on and get his feedback on some ideas I’ve been thinking about. It was a very interesting discussion, I completely forgot to eat!” Scholar Daniel Bronder also met with Regeneron scientists over lunch and stated, “I particularly enjoyed meeting Drs. Crawford and Gurer over lunch and gaining more insights on their respective science. It was really cool to read their papers and then sit down with them to have a conversation.”
Following lunch, the Scholars toured Regeneron’s facilities and learned about the technology they use. Scholar Audrey Winkelsas learned that the Regeneron Genetics Center is generating four to five terabytes of data per day and sequencing approximately 10,000-15,000 exomes per week! They viewed robotized laboratories, challenging their thoughts about what science looks like when tasks such as pipetting and plating are automated. These automations create datasets which facilitate bioinformaticians’ pipelines. The Scholars listened in on a very diverse set of scientific talks, including one about a potential treatment for cardiovascular conditions and one on the response to the Ebola virus outbreak. “The trip to Regeneron was an insightful look into what science in industry really was like. It was refreshing to hear from the representatives how the driving force behind their innovation was not profit, but the science. This definitely broke down some of the preconceived notions I had about working in biotech, and everyone we met was very welcoming and seemed very happy to be working there,” stated Scholar Jessica van Loben Sels.
The following day, the Scholars visited Arsenal Capital Partners. The goal of this visit was to provide the Scholars with a bettering understanding of the role of business and specifically private equity investments in the healthcare sector. Scholars gained an understanding of how Arsenal invests in outsourced business service companies that focused on biopharmaceutical research, development and commercialization, and services to providers and payors with an aim towards improving efficiency and reducing costs. “The visit to Arsenal capital provided a unique introduction to the role of private equity in healthcare and biotech, which I had no previous exposure to. It was very interesting to hear the partners discuss the mission of Arsenal capital in improving healthcare and has created for me a newfound curiosity about private equity,” remarked Scholar Andrei Ramirez-Valdez.
The Scholars presented their research to a group of pharmaceutical executives, healthcare investors, and Alliance Board Directors. Scholar Kathleen Bashant-Day stated that “this was an opportunity to pitch our research in a setting that we hadn’t before been exposed to. It was interesting to see how business-minded people approach science and gratifying that they were excited about what we are doing.”
That evening, the Scholars were the guests of honor at a cocktail reception held in the home of Alliance board member Ann W. Jackson. Guests included individuals representing science, business, academia, private industry, philanthropy, the Lasker Foundation, and their 2019 essay contest winners, as well as New York City area alumni and NIH OxCam program faculty.
We gratefully thank Dr. George D. Yancopoulos and his colleagues at Regeneron, Arsenal Capital Partners, and with the supporters of the International Biomedical Research Alliance for their contributions to the experiences and events that provided an invaluable visit to New York for the Scholars.
The International Biomedical Research Alliance recently sponsored eleven scholars in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program to attend a career development field trip at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The inspiration for the visit to investigate careers at the CDC originated with Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the CDC and 2017 Lasker Lessons in Leadership keynote speaker. The two-day comprehensive experience offered meetings, tours, lectures and a Q&A session with experts from different fields of public health, health equity and community health.
On day-one, the scholars met with two Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers. The Scholars learned about their work in Mongolia, China to implement practices to address the rise of anti-microbial resistance in health care settings and at the Boston, Massachusetts health department integrating local data with federal resources. The Scholars found the work of EIS officers intriguing and exciting. Aleksandra Ivovic, a third year PhD student, commented how impressed she was by how many senior level people took time out of their day to explain their work to the scholars, especially in regards to the EIS training program.
The Scholars met with Dr. Anne Schuchat and Dr. Becky Bunnell, who is the Director of the CDC Office of Science. The discussion covered a range of topics including career trajectories, CDC recruitment, the differences between CDC and NIH mandates, the diverse programs they implement, as well as their collaborations with non-profits. Over lunch, the scholars discussed how the CDC is working to eliminate new HIV cases over the next decade. They learned about the ways in which the CDC is using data science to analyze the emergence of new infections. This conversation led to the discussion about increasing the number of data scientist positions and how it would uniquely effect the emergence of new HIV infections and understanding their outcome.
Following lunch, the scholars toured both the Emergency Operations Room and Biotechnology Core Facility labs. “Touring the Emergency Operations Center, the epicenter of the CDC’s strategic response to the 2009 pandemic influenza strain that has been a focus of my research, illuminated the broader societal implications of my work” said first year MD-PhD scholar Matt Múle. Two breakout meetings followed where the scholars were presented with the choice to converse with many experts in different fields at the CDC. These individual meeting rotations encompassed two hours, allowing Scholars insight into injury, EIS, fellowship opportunities, viral pathogen outbreaks, vaccine development, and Immunization to name a few. Lawrence Wang, a second year MD-PhD student felt that the most valuable part of the trip was getting to meet and chat with the subject matter experts from various departments and rotating between them, including the work they do and their day-to-day experiences.
On day-two, the NIH OxCam scholars were invited to attend talks from the Office of Technology, reviewing how developers and engineers work with teams at the CDC to develop tools and software and another about how the CDC executes their role as informers for evidence-based policy changes. Key challenges discussed addressed how the CDC is working to recruit candidates who have personal insights on living in rural communities and how to find solutions based on these experiences and those who face health related issues, like the opioid crisis.
“One of the things I am grateful for includes how the Alliance organizes to show us multiple ways to think about a ‘science’ career and applying your training to think about world challenges” remarked fourth year PhD student Sam Katz. “This visit allowed me to explore new opportunities, learn about careers, and see how my research could be applied at a place like the CDC.”
To close out the CDC experience, the scholars attended an “all hands meeting” with visiting HHS Secretary Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield. Secretary Azar discussed three critical areas of focus for the CDC: reducing the spread of HIV, containing the Ebola crisis in the DRC, and addressing the rise in vaccine skepticism amongst parents in the US. He also discussed the need to monitor the rise of e-cigarette use in teenagers and how it might serve as a jump off point to the consumption of combustible nicotine, such as cigarettes.
“Growing up in Atlanta and now working at another HHS agency, I thought I had an understanding of CDC’s mission and where it stands in terms of US healthcare. In visiting the CDC, however, I became aware of how each institute has a separate role to play in human health. In my mind, CDC represents the big picture for our nation’s health: it must gather the data and identify the problems that then scientists at the NIH use to inform and fund more basic and translational research projects. NIH then must work with the FDA for approval of any healthcare interventions. I see these agencies and institutes within HHS as a Venn Diagram. Each is separate but has overlapping goals to help improve human health” stated Hannah Mason, a second year MD-PhD student.
NIH OxCam faculty member Dr. Sonja Best, Chief, Innate Immunity and Pathogenesis Section at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories, took great care in organizing the visit and was instrumental in working with the CDC and the scholars to develop a visit itinerary to meet their research and career interests. “Thanks to Dr. Sonja Best’s organization, we, as graduate students, are really fortunate to have gotten to meet in small groups with experts in different fields of public health, about health equity and community health” stated first year DPhil student Lauren Weekend.
The Alliance looks forward to supporting more career-driven events and trips, like this CDC visit, to showcase the incredible work being performed in government, academia, industry, and business and to providing the scholars with the resources and accessibility to learn about them.
What brought the NIH OxCam/Wellcome Trust Scholars to New York City this September? With a coveted invite to the Lasker Awards on Friday, September 21st, the Alliance hosted six students for the week leading up to their awards attendance on Friday. This experience started off with educational and social events, focusing on developing and educating them on their career paths. This initiative was created to expose scholars to a variety a career options as well as providing the opportunity to conduct formal presentations on their research. The scholars attending these special events included Megan Ansbro, Brian Caffrey, Justin Demmerle, Joseph McAbee, Juan Pablo Ruiz and Lynda Truong who are all in the final stage of gaining their PhDs, with some returning to medical school shortly to finish their MD. The Alliance organized field trips that focused on academia, industry, investing, and medicine.
We kickstarted the trip on Wednesday, September 19th with a visit to PointState Capital to meet Dr. Kenan Turnacioglu. Dr. Turnacioglu is responsible for portfolio management of healthcare investments at PointState. Dr. Turnacioglu graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in History and Biology, and obtained a PhD from University of Pennsylvania in Cell and Molecular Biology. Thereafter, Dr. Turnacioglu conducted postdoctoral work in pancreatic cancer at Johns Hopkins Medical Center.
During his PhD, Turnacioglu learned important skills which accelerated his career in healthcare investing. These skills included critical thinking and problem solving, as well as collecting and analyzing data. Because there are not many people in investing that hold PhD’s, Dr. Turnacioglu described how it was useful and unique, especially in his own career path. Dr. Turnacioglu provided the scholars with a look at the day-to-day activities of PointState. He also discussed how an internship during the PhD would be extremely valuable and would provide the tools and experience necessary to determine if a career in investing would be right for the scholars. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our next visit was to see Dr. Martin Blaser, who warmly welcomed the scholars to his historic home at the Washington Mews. He spent time getting to know everyone by learning about their background and interests, as well as their research projects. Dr. Blaser is a physician and microbiologist who has published extensively on how changes in the human microbiome impact the development of several of the illnesses that have increased in recent years, including esophageal diseases, obesity, diabetes, and asthma. His work over thirty years focused on particular organisms, including Campylobacter species and Helicobacter pylori, which also are model systems for understanding the interactions of residential bacteria with their human hosts. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy for Arts and Sciences. He holds twenty-five U.S. patents relating to his research and has authored over 530 original articles.
Dr. Blaser’s career path excited the scholars and they were fascinated by the journey and decisions he made which led him to where he is today. The majority of time the scholars spent with Dr. Blaser focused on antibiotic resistance, discussing which socioeconomic groups where most are affected and why, along with how he is trying to combat this soon-to-be epidemic. The scholars learned about the importance of microbial diversity and how society is slowly losing the microbiome because of antibiotics. The scholars also loved discussing Dr. Blaser’s book Missing Microbes. They were able to get their book copies signed and could not be more excited to read it when they returned home. Following our educational events, the scholars then attended dinner at Gallow Green and saw Sleep No More, an interactive play based on Macbeth at the McKittrick Hotel.After a walk through Washington Square Park, the group found themselves at the New York Genome Center (NYGC). Alliance Director Emeritus Dr. Harold Varmus (also a Lasker and Nobel Laureate) invited the scholars to tour the NYGC. Dr. Nicolas Robine, a member of the faculty who works on their cancer initiative, showed the scholars the laboratories and brought them to see the high-tech sequencers to learn about how they sequence high throughput human data. They learned about how the NYGC was founded and how it functions as a collaboration between major institutions in New York City and Long Island. Bright and early the next morning, the scholars visited Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to learn about biomedical research careers in industry. The day at Regeneron included an overview of the company, tour of the facilities, scientific presentations by their staff scientists and presentations made by the scholars about their research projects. NIH Gates-Cambridge Scholar Joseph McAbee said, “I really enjoyed the tour of Regeneron and hearing from some of the leaders from various departments and learning about what they are working on and so indirectly learning about career opportunities.”
NIH Gates-Cambridge Scholar Megan Ansbro said, “At Regeneron I thought it was very nice that they encouraged post-docs who matched some of our research interests to join us for the day. I also enjoyed learning about their post-doc program – which sounds unique and very cool! And finally, I liked learning about all of the genome projects they’re doing at the Regeneron Genetics Center.” NIH Wellcome Trust Scholar Brian Caffrey also commented on how much he enjoyed getting a feel for the work they did and how they “streamlined the velocimouse system,” which he found to be very cool! Later that evening, the Scholars were the guests of honor at a cocktail reception held in the home of Alliance board member Ann W. Jackson. Guests included individuals representing science, business, academia, private industry, philanthropy, and the Lasker Foundation and their 2018 essay contest winners, as well as New York City area alumni of the NIH OxCam program.
We gratefully thank Dr. Turnacioglu, Dr. Blaser, Dr. Varmus, Dr. Robine and staff at the New York Genome Center, Dr. Yancopoulos and his colleagues at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, along with the supporters of the International Biomedical Research Alliance for their contributions to the experiences and events that provided an invaluable visit to New York for the Scholars.
Once again this September, the International Biomedical Research Alliance was fortunate enough to host six students in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program for a visit to the New York area to meet with science icons.
The trip began on Wednesday, September 21st with a meeting at the newly-opened (August 2016) Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center at Columbia University Medical Center with P. Roy Vagelos, M.D. Dr. Vagelos is the Chairman of the Board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and the retired Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Merck & Co., as well as Board Member Emeritus of the Alliance.
In a conference room within the 14-story glass tower with sweeping views of the Hudson River, Dr. Vagelos related the story of his career – from his humble beginnings and early ambitions to help care for people, to his research at the NIH, in academia, and finally to his rise at Merck, all the while putting humanity at the forefront of his work. Dr. Vagelos played a pivotal role in 1987 in committing Merck to donate Mectizan – as much as needed for as long as need – with the goal to help in eliminating river blindness. Today, the Mectizan Donation Program is the longest-running, disease-specific drug donation program of its kind and has been foundational in the growth of a number of other drug donation programs. The program reaches more than 250 million people in affected areas annually, with more than 2 billion treatments donated since 1987. NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholar Huayu Ding noted, “I was most impressed by Dr. Vagelos, both in meeting him in person as well as in hearing stories about him from people at Regeneron. He had a clear vision of how science and drug discovery should be carried out and strong principles about how to run a company to help people. In addition, he had an excellent sense of humor.”
The following morning, the scholars traveled to Tarrytown, New York for a day-long visit to the campus of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. George Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D. Founding Scientist, President of Regeneron Laboratories and Chief Scientific Officer, has enthusiastically welcomed NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars to his company each September. The visit included an overview of the company, tour of the facilities, scientific presentations by Regeneron scientists as well as presentations made by the scholars on their research projects. NIH OxCam Scholar Joanna Cross commented, “As someone who has only been involved in academic research, it was helpful to have first-hand experience [visiting] with a bio-tech company. The profit side of industry has previously made me apprehensive about leaving academia, but I was impressed that Regeneron is still mainly science-driven. The equipment available, especially in the genetics section, was amazing.” Scholar Keval Patel remarked, “The opportunity to visit Regeneron was my first exposure to a pharmaceutical company. One thing I noticed during my visit was how proud each person we interacted with was with the work they were conducting. Dr. Yancopoulos is a great role model for many of us starting our biomedical science careers, and it was inspiring to see his enthusiasm for science, even at this stage in his career, during our presentations.”
Later that evening, the Scholars were the guests of honor at a cocktail reception held in the home of Alliance board member Ann W. Jackson. Guests included individuals representing science, business, academia, private industry, philanthropy, the Lasker Foundation, and New York City area alumni of the program.
The following morning, the group attended the Breakfast at Lasker – an intimate gathering of the 2016 Lasker laureates, the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars, the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars, winners of the 2016 Lasker Essay Contest, and representatives of the Alliance. Moderated by Jordan Gutterman, M.D., the breakfast was a roundtable discussion where the young scientists freely posed questions to the winners in order to gain sage career and life advice. Recommendations from the laureates were constructive and priceless.
Bruce Albert (University of California, San Francisco), winner of the 2016 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science, reminded the young trainees that the “people at this table do not ask small questions – go for big problems” as they were urged to continue to conduct their research in the face of what may often seem to be a litany of failures. “It was reassuring to hear that the Lasker winners also ran into many obstacles on their road to discovery, and their stories reiterated the point that perseverance and good science will eventually lead to success,” noted Scholar Ding.
William G. Kaelin, Jr. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School), co-winner of the 2016 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his work in oxygen sensing, offered practical advice and emphasized the need for more young scientists to involve themselves in research-related social media discussions in order to advance science communication. He noted that “cancer is like having 9/11 every other day,” and the urgency and importance of research needs to be communicated to the public through all means. The laureates echoed the notion that students should not shy away from being the spokespeople for science.
Referring to the three co-winners of the 2016 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager of the University of Heidelberg, Charles M. Rice, of the Rockefeller University, and Michael J. Sofia, formerly at Pharmasset; now at Arbutus Biopharma), Scholar Patel expressed that “It was amazing to meet with the people responsible for the discovery and development of the cure to a disease [Hepatitis C] that, until my second year of medical school, was a lifelong condition for those infected. As a PhD student, it was inspiring to meet successful scientists who had to overcome years of negative results with incredible persistence to make a profound discovery.”
The Scholars raised questions about interviewing for positions where they may be lacking in a specific skill. You “must learn new things on the industry side to be effective at what you do,” urged Sofia. The laureates described techniques as being “enabling but transient.” Scholar Cross added, “After listening to the Lasker winners, it inspired me to be bolder as I move forward in my career. It is both scary and exciting to leave graduate studies and decide what path I want my career to take, especially if the area lies outside my prior experience. However, the advice from the winners was to not be put off by unknown techniques but to be brave and show what I can do.”
On the topic of both the advantages and challenges of global collaborations, the laureates agreed that these collaborations are imperative and are becoming easier to manage. One of the strengths of the NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships and the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program that the Scholars freely articulate is that negotiating their dual-mentored collaborative projects on both sides of the Atlantic better prepares them for a dynamic research career in a way that few programs can claim. Scholar Cross observed how welcome the Scholars were made to feel: “Everyone was willing to share their experiences and advice and one of the P.I.s approached me to ask my opinion on a discovery his lab had made. This experience reinforced my belief that collaboration is of the utmost importance and I was grateful for the opportunity to attend.”
The breakfast was followed by the 2016 Lasker Awards luncheon in which Dr. Claire Pomeroy, in her opening remarks, acknowledged the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program alongside the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars. Sean Carroll, Vice President of Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of molecular biology, genetics, and medical genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, delivered his keynote address entitled “Seeking Thrills Through Science.” For full descriptive information on the 2016 Lasker Award winners, video viewing of award overviews, and expectance speeches, please visit http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/.
In summing up the meetings and events hosted by Dr. Vagelos, the Alliance, Regeneron, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, and the Alliance, Scholar Andrew Breglio commented, “I can’t thank everyone enough for an incredible trip to the Lasker Awards. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet, converse with, and learn from so many influential figures in the world of science and medicine. I think those few days help me gained some clarity in regards to my career trajectory.”
on Friday. This experience started off with educational and social events, focusing on developing and educating them on their career paths. This initiative was created to expose scholars to a variety a career options as well as providing the opportunity to conduct formal presentations on their research. The scholars attending these special events included Megan Ansbro, Brian Caffrey, Justin Demmerle, Joseph McAbee, Juan Pablo Ruiz and Lynda Truong who are all in the final stage of gaining their PhDs, with some returning to medical school shortly to finish their MD. The Alliance organized field trips that focused on academia, industry, investing, and medicine.
Once again this September, the International Biomedical Research Alliance was fortunate enough to host six students in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program for a visit to the New York area to meet with science icons.