The recipient of the Roy and Diana VagelosLeadership 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. This outstanding leader has a keen sense of organization and embodies leadership in all that they endeavor, combining clarity in thought with humility of character. Scholars in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge/Wellcome Trust Scholars Program who demonstrate exceptional leadership are nominated by their peers making this award a particularly special honor to receive. The ceremony to announce the winner was held during the NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop, titled Global Team Science: Bridging Borders from Bench to Bedside at Keble College, the University of Oxford July 26-28, 2022.
This year, the inaugural Roy and Diana Vagelos Leadership Award was bestowed upon Katherine Masih. Katherine Masih is an NIH-Cambridge MD/PhD Scholar in the Class of 2019. Her mentors are Dr. Javed Khan at the National Cancer Institute and Prof. Richard Gilbertson at the University of Cambridge. She is a medical student at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Katherine was nominated for this award by three of her peers. One nominator wrote “Katherine has done a wonderful job as a student leader. She demonstrates the utmost professionalism in how she handles situations and in how she communicates, and she is also very kind and welcoming to all students. She creates a strong sense of community in the program.” Katherine served as the Chair of the Student Leadership Board from 2021-2022, Vice Chair from 2020-2021, and Logistics Director for the Workshop Committee from 2019-2020. She has worked with her peers and the Scholars Program administration and faculty to advance several important initiatives including MD/PhD communication with medical schools, creating an alumni professional mentorship program, serving as an editor of the student handbook, and the reorganization of the Student Leadership Board. Katherine’s research accomplishments are in parallel with her exceptional leadership qualities. In 2021, Katherine was recognized with the Translational Science Award endowed by Dr. Richard and Vera Siegel. This award recognizes advances in the field of medical science that move fundamental discoveries from bench to bedside. Katherine’s work uncovered a novel epigenetic signature that has the potential to be used as a clinical pre-treatment biomarker to predict response to CD19-targeting CAR T-cells in children with leukemia.
The International Biomedical Research Alliance was pleased to share the announcement of the renaming of this award to honor Alliance Emeritus Director Roy Vagelos and his wife, Diana, for their combined accomplishments as visionary leaders in education, science, and industry. Dr. Vagelos’ contributions to biomedical research have transpired over the course of a wide-ranging career where he excelled as an NIH researcher, Chair of Washington University’s Biological Chemistry Department, and Chair and CEO of Merck & Co., – a company recognized as America’s most admired under his leadership. He is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and an Emeritus Director of the International Biomedical Research Alliance.
Diana, a force for good in her own right, is an accomplished philanthropist and community leader. She has worked as a catalyst for improvement in the areas of scholarships, financial aid, the arts, and facilities improvement in higher education. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Barnard College. While they are unable to be on hand at the Gala Dinner for the announcement of the award renamed in their honor, they were humbled to have this award re-named in their honor. Dr. Vagelos commented: “I have tried to help capable people who demonstrate special talents throughout my career. Diana has done similar things since the time she was in high school. We are honored and delighted to be associated with this award.”
Katherine said, “I was incredibly surprised and honored to have been selected for the inaugural Roy and Diana Vagelos Leadership Award. The OxCam Program has gone through significant change and growth during my tenure, and I am grateful to the faculty for being so receptive to and implementing new programs and changes presented by scholars. The progress we’ve accomplished would not be possible without the other brilliant, dedicated, and enthusiastic student leaders I’ve had the pleasure of working with and learning from over the past three years. Thank you to Dr. and Mrs. Vagelos, the OxCam Program, the Alliance, my mentors, Javed and Richard, and fellow scholars for the unwavering support and this honor.”
Katherine is currently writing up her thesis work aimed at understanding interactions between tumors and immune cells in childhood malignancies. After graduating from Cambridge in Spring 2023, she will return to Miami for her final year of medical school and will apply to residencies in pediatrics. She aspires to be a physician-scientist specializing in pediatric oncology, using multi-omic approaches to gain insight into the mechanisms driving these tumors in the laboratory and to translate these discoveries into novel therapeutic strategies for children with cancer.
First awarded in 2016, the International Biomedical Research Alliance’s Innovation Award recognizes novel solutions in biology or medicine and acknowledges discoveries of unusual importance, application, or magnitude that make use of new or unusual methods, paradigms, or approaches to solve important problems in biology or medicine. Once again, this year, the Innovation Award was generously sponsored by BioHealth Innovation Inc. This award was presented to Sooraj Achar, an NIH-Oxford D.Phil. Scholar in the Class of 2020 who is mentored by Dr. Gregoire Altan-Bonnet at the National Cancer Institute (NCI/NIH) and Prof. Mike Dustin at the University of Oxford.
Sooraj combined robotic sampling of mouse and human T cell responses over time with machine learning and modeling to gain insights into how T cells process information derived from the particular antigens to which they are exposed. The analysis showed that patterns of cytokine release carried information about the type of antigen encountered and distinguished six distinct cellular responses rather than the three types usually recognized. The universality of the model should prove useful for quantifying and fine-tuning the strength of antigens for immunotherapies and vaccine development. Thus, robotic platforms combined with machine learning and mathematical modeling provide quantitative tools with which to study high-dimensional biological dynamics and may help to optimize therapeutic strategies. Such understanding is likely to enhance strategies for immunotherapies that rely on altered and designed T cell responses.
This work was published in Science on May 19th, 2022, with Sooraj as the first author. “This study showed how we can use robotics and high dimensional data analysis to reverse engineer how T cells respond to a single type of antigen. I am now examining how a type of T cell used in immunotherapy, named a CAR-T cell, responds when interacting with multiple types of antigen simultaneously, first at a functional level at the NIH, then from a mechanistic level at Oxford. We hope to be able to use the insights we gain from these projects to design more targeted forms of CAR-T based immunotherapy,” remarked Sooraj.
About BioHealth Innovation, Inc.
BioHealth Innovation, Inc., is a regional innovation intermediary which supports the transformation of research projects into new business opportunities in partnership with the region’s rich assets, institutions, and entrepreneurial community. BHI achieves this goal by being a catalytic partner in the economic development ecosystem. Learn more at www.biohealthinnovation.org.
The International Biomedical Research Alliance congratulates the Class of 2020 NIH-Cambridge Ph.D. Scholar Jacob Gordon on being named the 2022 recipient of the Gregory Paul Lenardo Basic Science Award for Discoveries in Cellular and Molecular Biology, endowed by NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program Co-Founder, Dr. Michael Lenardo, in loving memory of his brother, Gregory Paul Lenardo. This award recognizes discoveries of fundamental cellular, molecular, or genetic processes using model systems that advance scientific understanding of biological processes in higher organisms. This award was presented by Dr. Iain Fraser, Deputy Scientific Director of the Scholars Program, at the AnnualNIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop at the University of Oxford. Jacob is mentored by Dr. Robin Stanley of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS/NIH) and Prof. Alan Warren at the University of Cambridge.
Jacob is honored with this award due to his fundamental structural and functional studies on the Rixosome Complex. The Rixosome Complex is a large multi-protein RNA processing assembly that is essential for ribosome synthesis and heterochromatin maintenance. By reconstituting the Rixosome from several model organisms including fungi and humans, Jacob has reshaped our understanding of the assembly and function of this molecular machine. Recently, he solved the first cryo-EM structure of part of the human Rixosome revealing how two members of this protein assembly form a central scaffold to support the Rixosome’s diverse cellular roles. Moreover, Jacob has discovered how the Rixosome is directly recruited to pre-mature ribosome particles and histones through cell-based assays. This work is currently under final consideration for publication in a high-impact journal. His nominator noted that Jacob’s work has broad applications for understanding how RNA processing by the Rixosome mediates both degradation of RNA associated with heterochromatin and essential processing of the pre-ribosomal RNA.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the Alliance, the OxCam program, and my co-mentors Robin and Alan, for their immense support and for providing me the opportunity to receive this award. My Ph.D. research on the Rixosome has been extremely exciting to work on and has left us with more questions than answers (which is certainly a good thing). This protein machine has only recently been discovered and its significance in cellular function and human disease is starting to be of greater interest in the scientific community. That is part of what makes this project exciting to work on as a Ph.D. student. It is truly uncharted territory where our biochemical and structural studies are establishing key features of the Rixosome that will hopefully inform many future studies”. In the Fall of 2022, Jacob will be moving his research location from NIEHS in Durham, NC to the University of Cambridge in the UK. He will be continuing work on the human Rixosome with an emphasis on learning more about how the Rixosome interacts with its biological RNA substrates. Jacob is on track to complete his Ph.D. at Cambridge in 2024.
The Workshop prioritizes rigorous empirical research on the frontiers of biomedical science and medicine. The aim is for Scholars to have an opportunity to share their work through elevator pitches, poster sessions, and oral presentations which concurrently stress the importance of public speaking, networking, and preparing data for a diverse audience. Alongside Scholars’ research talks, keynote speakers and panelists were invited to prepare presentations keeping on the theme of “Global Team Science: Bridging Borders from Bench to Bedside.”
On Day 2 of the NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Workshop, the morning discussion touched upon neuroscience, cancer research, and cell and molecular biology through oral presentations prepared by the Class of 2019. Following these talks, Dr. Jess Wade, an Imperial College Research Fellow investigating spin selective charge transport through chiral systems in the Department of Materials, was invited to give the Science Communication Address. Science Communication is necessary to make scientific research accessible to non-specialist audiences and to build an ecosystem of response to global, societal needs. This is exactly what Dr. Wade does. She tapped into the needs of society – the lack of visibility of women and underrepresented minorities (URM) in STEM – and challenged herself to write one Wikipedia article a day to combat this problem. Wikipedia receives 32 million page views daily and less than 20% of the English-language biographies on Wikipedia are about women, with even fewer about women in STEM. By contributing female and URM profiles, Dr. Wade was determined to fight the negatively impacted narrative of women and URM that diminishes the ability of people like them to see themselves as scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians. This work encourages females, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and people of color to see past social stereotypes and provide role models in STEM. Dr. Wade is committed to improving diversity in science, both online and offline, and has tremendous momentum to ensure representation and equity in retaining, promoting, and honoring women and URM in STEM. During her “Science and Storytelling” presentation, Dr. Wade discussed the platforms available to share science and encouraged the audience to investigate classroom visits, hands-on workshops, offline/online talks, social media, online content, books, TV, podcasts, and radio to bring research beyond the bench. This session showcased how these varied platforms incorporate public engagement in knowledge exchange, teaching, and social responsibility of doctoral students and researchers.
Prior to the Alumni Panel, Dr. Paul Tesar, a Professor and Director of the Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, was invited as the International Biomedical Research Alliance’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient to give the introductory address. Scholars were eager to hear insights as doctoral students to succeed both in the NIH OxCam Program and in life afterward. Dr. Tesar’s talk “19 years after starting the NIH OxCam Program” highlighted how his time in the NIH OxCam Program led to the science that his lab is doing today. He shared his experiences founding a biotech company and provided wisdom and advice for the Scholars as they embark on the journey of becoming the next generation of leaders in biomedical science. The Alumni Panel invited Dr. Sabrina Heman-Ackah, Neurosurgery Resident at Penn Medicine, Dr. Megan Dennis, Assistant Professor at UC Davis, Dr. Andrew Ishizuka, SVP for Translational Research at Vaccitech, Dr. Matt Maciejewski, VP of Data Science at Korro Bio, Inc., and Dr. Jason Mellad, CEO/Co-founder of Start Codon to lead a question-and-answer session with the audience. The Workshop Planning Committee prepared questions based on Scholar feedback, while also encouraging Workshop attendees to ask questions about career paths, life choices, and experiences in medicine, research, biotech, and entrepreneurship.
Workshop Planning Committee co-chair Alex Waldman moderated the final discussion, the Reflections Panel with the NIH OxCam Class of 2018 panelists, John Shannon, Emily Kolyvas, Madeline Epping, and Taylor Farley. Panelists were asked to share their experiences, impart wisdom, and provide mentorship to the new Scholars. With a reputation of being a very honest and open look in the rearview mirror, both the Alumni and Reflections panels draw some of the most interesting questions from current Scholars and this year was no exception.
Following the Panel Discussions, the Champagne Reception in the Liddon Quad encouraged Scholars to assemble for their Class photos, and for the traditional photograph of all Workshop attendees on the grand and sprawling Keble lawn. Scholars, mentors, leadership, as well as Alliance Board Directors, were invited to attend the Gala Reception. Dr. Michael Dustin, the Oxford Director of the NIH OxCam Program, opened the elegant dinner reception with a warm welcome to attendees and invited Alliance Board Director Dr. Kathryn Zoon to give the Welcome Address. Following Dr. Zoon’s speech, Workshop Planning Committee co-chairs Kritika Singh and Alex Waldman moderated the much-anticipated annual science recognition Awards Ceremony. Details on the winners can be found in separate articles on the Alliance website.
Congratulations to Scholars Emily Beltran, Jacob Gordon, and Mario Shammas for being named the first, second, and third place winners of the 2022 Photo Contest Winners for their “My Cool Science” submissions.
The Board of Directors of the International Biomedical Alliance would like to acknowledge the following individuals and organizations whose steadfast support makes a meaningful difference for the next generation of scientists: Arsenal Capital Partners, BioHealth Innovation, Bluestreet Productions, Cleveland Foundation, Emergent BioSolutions, the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, Institute for the Future of Medical Education, Korro Bio, Lasker Foundation, MacroGenics, Michael Lenardo, M.D., National Institutes of Health, London Foundation, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Richard Siegel, M.D. and Vera Siegel, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and WCG. They would also like to extend their gratitude to the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program Leadership Team and Workshop Planning Committee Members, Alex Waldman (Committee Co-Chair), Kritika Singh (Committee Co-Chair), Emily Beltran, Cristie Contreras, Kelsey Lowman, Jocelyne Rivera, Ray Smith, Stephanie Williams, and Mathieu Perez for their hard work and determination that made the 2022 Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop a great success.
Science communication, networking, and outreach are essential for training the next generation of scientists and leaders in biomedical research. Raising public awareness and the public understanding of science is essential for our health and for the scientific enterprise. Providing effective ways to communicate science has vastly changed over the past few years due to the continued constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the advancements in science have been shared virtually, limiting both personal and professional interactions of collaborators. The NIH Oxford Cambridge Scholars (Scholars) have found innovative ways to share their science, both with their peers and the greater scientific community, which was exponentially highlighted at the Annual NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop (Workshop) held every summer. For the first time in three years, the Scholars conducted an in-person Workshop at Keble College, at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The Workshop brought together students, Program leadership, Executive Committee members, faculty, Alliance Board Directors, and mentors from the NIH and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to highlight and share the incredible work the Scholars have done during their time in the Program and invited renowned keynote speakers.
Commencing during the pandemic, the Scholars organized a Workshop Planning Committee to take the reins of developing an international virtual conference. This year was the first year that the Scholars held a student-led Workshop in person. The Workshop Planning Committee created the Global Team Science: Bridging Borders from Bench to Bedside theme to recognize the interdisciplinary, cross-cultural nature of science and to highlight ways to develop convergent solutions to complex problems.
The Workshop was held 26-28 July 2022 and drew international speakers from various fields and areas of expertise with unique perspectives to network with Scholars and invited guests. On the first day of the Workshop, the keynote speaker, Dame Professor Sarah Gilbert, Saïd Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford who led the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, spoke about her experiences working to develop vaccines against emerging pathogens such as influenza, Lassa fever, Nipah, etc. and the crucial role her lab played in pandemic recovery worldwide. In early 2020, only weeks before learning about the new pathogen emerging from China, Dame Gilbert’s team designed a novel vaccine modeled on their concurrent virology work. By March 2020, they were awarded £22 million in funding from the U.K. Government to begin human trials. On March 1, 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine trial resulted in data on real-world efficacy from Public Health England and reported that in the population over 80, hospitalization was reduced by 80% and at least 60% of those in their 60s who received one dose were protected against symptomatic disease. Dame Gilbert continued with the lessons she and her lab learned and discussed future directions.
Dame Gilbert’s presentation was followed by keynote speaker Director General, Vaccine Taskforce Madelaine McTernan whose talk entitled “The Vaccine Taskforce: Bringing together science, industry, and the public sector” introduced the Vaccine Taskforce and outlined their success during the pandemic. Director General McTernan noted that the United Kingdom was the first country to deploy a COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial and the first to deploy both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. Over 87% of the UK population received a full primary course and 69% received their booster/third dose. Director General McTernan noted reasons why they were successful including 1) the portfolio approach to vaccine procurement – securing agreements with multiple promising candidates and multiple vaccine platforms 2) working with suppliers in a different, more collaborative way to identify and quickly solve problems 3) ongoing work to further our understanding of the virus and the effort of vaccines 4) strong partnership between government, academia, clinical experts, scientists, and industry and 5) creating effective processes that support proper oversight and risk assessment, but also facilitate swift decision making. Keynotes Gilbert and McTernan fielded audience questions after their presentations, giving further insights into the incredible work of scientists around the world. Together they worked with clinicians, regulators, manufacturers, and volunteer citizens to produce a highly effective vaccine that was designed, tested, manufactured, and distributed in one year. All these entities worked together to make a vaccine for the world…now that’s global team science!
Following the keynote addresses, the Scholars gathered with Program Leadership for the Student Leadership Board Address and NIH Town Hall and UK Universities Town Hall Meetings Scholars were given the opportunity to ask questions and a platform to share their thoughts and suggestions, with the joint aim of continuing to innovate and continuously improve the student experience in the Program.
The Class of 2019 prepared oral presentations ranging from topics such as machine learning to neurophysiology to developing 3-D, multicellular models to understand diseases. Scholar Mario Shammas took home the gold with his presentation “OMA1 mediates local and global stress responses against protein misfolding in CHCHD10 mitochondrial myopathy.” He shared that CHCHD10 was recently identified as an autosomal dominant cause of Parkinson’s disease, ALS/FTD, and myopathy and shared the development of a novel knock-in mouse to further understand these diseases. Mario found that the inner mitochondrial membrane peptidase OMA1 is essential for neonatal survival conditionally in the setting of inner mitochondrial membrane stress, coordinating local and global stress responses to reshape the mitochondrial network and proteome.
Always a highlight of the Workshop, the Elevator Pitch Team Competition encompasses three teams, consisting of 6-7 first-year students, and is led by coaches consisting of an upperclassman Scholar, Alliance Director, and an OxCam Executive Committee faculty member. The teams are required to execute condensed research talks as part of the Class of 2021 Elevator Pitch Team Competition. These talks are a 90-second pitch that enables the audience to learn about each Scholar, their work, and what they are hoping to accomplish during their time in the Program. For the third year in a row, Dr. Sonja Best’s team, co-led by upperclassman Scholar Alex Waldman and Alliance Director Dr. Matt Maciejewski, were crowned winners of the 2022 Elevator Pitch Team Competition. The Team Who Must Not Be Named took on an iconic theme of Harry Potter and wove in the series details, props included, in their pitches. Winners included Ray Smith, Sandra Mon, Kelsey Lowman, Will Snyder, Zoe Wong, John Hancock, and Jocelyne Rivera.
J. Peter Figueroa, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Public Health, Epidemiology, and HIV/AIDS at theUniversity of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica was the inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion speaker. For over four decades, Dr. Figueroa’s health leadership contributed substantially to public health in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and around the world. Dr. Figueroa’s roles over this time included: Principal Medical Officer – Epidemiology in the Ministry of Health, Chief Medical Officer, Director of the National HIV-STI Program, Scientific Secretary and Chair of the Caribbean Health Research Council, and temporary advisor to WHO on a range of public health topics, earning him numerous recognitions, such as the United Nations Peace Medal for his service as Vice-chair of the National Committee for the commemoration of the International Year of Peace.
As is customary, the centerpiece of the Workshop is listening to and understanding Scholar research projects. The first day of the Workshop concluded with poster presentations by the Class of 2020 ranging from topics like single cell analysis, electrophoresis, cardiometabolic impact, and mouse models of glioblastoma. Scholar Kritika Singh was named the Class of 2020 Poster presentation winner for her poster entitled “Ultrasound activated HPV VLP conjugates for tumor therapy.” Closing out Day 1 of the Workshop, the Scholars set up Class dinners and had the opportunity to meet with their mentors and lab mates.
Leading up to the Annual NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop (Workshop), the Class of 2022 began its new student orientation at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on July 22, 2022. They heard from current Scholars through panel discussions, learned about visas and university support, discussion training and courses, and all the necessary information to embark on their journey as doctoral students. A welcome event at Pinstripes in North Bethesda, MD included an Italian feast and introduction to bocce where the new class met current Scholars, NIH Executive Committee members, and NIH OxCam Program Leadership. Following their U.S. orientation, the new Scholars jetted off to the U.K. to continue their orientation at their affiliated universities.
The University of Cambridge Scholars arrived at Pembroke College on July 24, 2022 and explored the Fitzwilliam Museum with current Scholars. Following their museum visit, the current Scholars organized a BBQ at Darwin Island where the new Scholars had an opportunity to learn how to punt on the River Cam. Despite having novice punting skills, everyone remained dry while having a chance to get to know their classmates and peers, sharing many laughs.
The following morning, the new Scholars met with their supervisors and labs and had lunch at King’s College with NIH OxCam Leadership. Following lunch, there was a historic walking tour that included both science and ghost stories. To round out this experience, the International Biomedical Research Alliance worked with NIH OxCam alum Dr. Jason Mellad to host a mixer at his bar, The LAB.
The concept of The LAB was inspired by two scientists and friends with a dream to create a space for Cambridge’s scientific community and local science enthusiasts to informally discuss science. These friends were Dr. Jason Mellad, a healthcare venture builder CEO and NIH OxCam Class of2004 alum, and cancer biologist professor Dr. Tony Kouzarides. They worked with GP Dr. Peter Niemczuk to set up The LAB. The LAB has become a place to host lab meetings, network, and collaborate, all whilst enjoying science-themed cocktails under portraits of the University of Cambridge’s most famous scientists.
Some 155 kilometers away, the University of Oxford Scholars in the Class of 2022 arrived at Keble College and began their orientation with a tour of the Ashmolean Museum and visited one of Europe’s oldest libraries and main research library at Oxford, the Bodleian Library on their walking tour. The incoming Scholars met with NIH OxCam leadership and current Scholars for punting on the Cherwell River and Prosecco at the Cherwell Boathouse. Enchanting historical views and ancient waterways were witnessed when the Oxford cohort punted their way toward the Thames. Like their classmates at Cambridge, they too shared plenty of laughs. The following day, the current Scholars took a stroll through Oxford with the new Scholars, culminating in a delightful dinner at Branca to welcome them to the university.
