From time to time, individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program are singled out to receive special recognition with the “Director’s Award.” Honorees have been selected based on their dedication to the mission of cultivating the next generation of scientists and their selfless service to the International Biomedical Research Alliance and the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program.
The ceremony to honor the winners was held during the NIH Global Doctoral Partnerships Research Workshop Gala Dinner celebrated at Keble College, at the University of Oxford.
Professor Menna Clatworthy was honored for her contributions as the longest-standing Director of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program at the University of Cambridge.
Dr. Clatworthy completed her professional training in nephrology and undertook a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, investigating the role of antibodies and Fcƴ receptors in autoimmunity and defense against infection.
She was awarded the British Renal Association Raine Award and the Medical Research Society Young Investigator Award for this work. She subsequently obtained a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship which included an 18-month post-doctoral post at the National Institutes of Health, in Dr. Ron Germain’s laboratory. This work focused on the use of two-photon intravital imaging to examine dynamic behavior of immune cells.
Dr. Clatworthy currently works as a University Lecturer in Transplantation Medicine and divides her time between research, teaching, and clinical practice in transplantation and nephrology. Her laboratory is based within the Department of Medicine wing of the new MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Her group has determined how immune cells derived from the gut are able to defend the meninges lining the brain from microbial invasion and infection. And they have shown how a single molecule within the gut directs the immune response toward wound healing or bacterial defense. When unbalanced, the result can be inflammatory bowel disease.
A cellular immunologist and renal physician in the University’s Department of Medicine, Dr. Clatworthy studied immune cells in peripheral blood, nasal, and lung tissues during the Covid-19 pandemic to explore how the immune system responds to the SARS-CoV2 virus and how this might contribute to pathology. Her group contributed to a collaborative study in which 800,000 immune cells were analyzed to investigate how immune responses differ between asymptomatic cases and people with severe Covid-19. This work was recognized by the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) who named Dr. Clatworthy as one of their 2022 members.
Dr. Clatworthy has published more than 50 papers, including in journals such as Nature Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Cell. Her clinical interests are in transplantation, in particular the effects of B cells and antibodies on the allograft and the use of novel immunosuppressants to target this axis. She has also authored or co-authored several educational textbooks in nephrology and transplantation. In addition to serving as the NIH Cambridge Director, Dr. Clatworthy has mentored several OxCam Scholars in her laboratory. In 2012, she received the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program Outstanding Mentor Award.