Director's Letter

Dr. Lenardo November 17, 2005



Dear Friends and Colleagues,

With the academic year well underway on both sides of the Atlantic, I would like to extend my greetings with a Director's newsletter. The year has been replete with exciting new developments and I am delighted to bring you up-to-date with events in the programs. Some highlights of the year, described in detail below, include:

  • The Class of 2005 includes 14 outstanding Scholars from all over the USA with average GPA 3.9 (out of 4.0). The class was inducted at a dinner honoring the outgoing President of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Bruce Alberts, and Professor Emeritus Dr. Alexander G. Bearn, a special friend and advisor. Special guest Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health, honored the students in a talk on research training.
  • The first two Rhodes Scholars, Eugene Schenderov and Julia James, entered the Oxford program to obtain D.Phil. degrees in biomedical research in the historic new alliance with the Rhodes Scholarships - the first affiliation of any type in the over 100 year history of the Rhodes Trust.
  • This year marked the second group of Marshall Scholars - Ms. Ambika Bumb and Ms. Bhooma Avaramuthan - who entered the program as part of the NIH-Marshall agreement.
  • The program applauds with great pride its first two graduates - Advanced Scholars Jonathan Roiser (Cambridge) and Elizabeth Tunbridge-Gillott (Oxford) who obtained their doctorates in the past year.
  • Congratulations to the "International Biomedical Research Alliance", which has been incorporated as a tax exempt charitable organization in Washington D.C. with Ms. Ileane Rosenthal as President and Mr. Stephen McLean as Chairman of the Board. Their mission is to promote and support the NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholars program.
  • We also applaud the efforts of Mr. Stephen Barclay of London to establish a supportive effort in London as well as many other friends and colleagues.
  • Please save the dates: June 22, 2006 - the date of the Scholars-Mentors Colloquium and celebratory dinner that will be held at Keble College, Oxford; and, tentatively, June 29, 2006, the date the Scholars Induction will take place at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda.

We completed orientation in September of the new Class of 2005 Scholars. It is a remarkable group of 14 very talented American science students. These are: Bhooma Aravamuthan, Christina Bodner, Ethan Buch, Ambika Bumb, Kristina Cook, Samuel Day, Katherine Graef, John Holmes, Mahim Jain, Julia James, Morgan Mandigo, Jennifer Schymick, Eugene Shenderov, and Molly Perkins. This is the fifth class of Scholars bringing the total to 50. The process was highly competitive with about 15 applicants for each Scholar position. The qualifications of these young people are exceptional. For example, the average grade point average (GPA) is 3.9 out of 4.0 (by comparison, the average GPA for the best U.S. medical schools is 3.8 or less). The students also had achieved very high standardized test scores and turned down spots in the most prominent U.S. graduate programs. Most importantly, each of the Scholars had substantial laboratory research experience and accomplishments. Thus, by these indicators, our students comprise a very elite group. While this is a welcome testimony to the attractiveness of our program to top students, it also carries a big responsibility. It almost took my breath away as Director to see all the students in the program in one room as they met this past summer during the colloquium with Dr. Bruce Alberts. It was extremely exciting to see the Scholars interact with each other and pose questions to one of the leading figures in U.S. biomedical research. So many talented students with interests spanning the entire spectrum of biomedical research areas reinforced in my mind our important obligation to provide an innovative and exceptional education in biomedical research. As I have articulated in the past, our chief goal is to train researchers who will be leaders in the scientific disciplines of the future.

Among the Scholars in the incoming class are two pioneers. Eugene Schenderov and Julia James are forging our new relationship with the Rhodes Trust to enable Rhodes Scholars to earn doctorates in biomedical research in the NIH - Oxford program. We appreciate greatly the contribution of Elliot Gerson, the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust for his role in the conception and execution of this exciting new program. We also thank Professor John Bell, Dr. Rod Eddington and the other Rhodes Trustees for their leadership in bringing this to fruition. I would like to especially acknowledge the vision and leadership of Sir Colin Lucas, the new Warden of Rhodes House, for pledging support for any Scholar, regardless of country of origin, to participate in this program on an equal footing with the U.S. Rhodes Scholars. This overcomes significant hurdles at the NIH and for this, we are extremely grateful.

The upper year classes of Scholars have had many successes in their work at the cutting edge of a variety of scientific disciplines. One highlight this year is the publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of an important paper by Oxford Scholar Paul Tesar on a new approach to deriving embryonic stem cells. Paul had the unique distinction of being the sole author on this publication because his mentors felt that he had originated and carried out the research for his discovery on his own. This remarkable honor is quite rare for a second-year graduate student and has resulted in invitations from all around the world to Paul to present his work at research meetings and symposia. We enthusiastically applaud Paul's accomplishment. Others who had contributions to the literature include Jean Lee on the immunology of HIV, Eric Freundt on cellular regulation, Cassin Kimmel on angiogenesis, Sara Angelman on the epidemiology of obesity, Alicia Lee on cancer research, Stephen Huffaker on the molecular biology of Schizophrenia, and Jon Roiser on drug abuse and effects on the brain. These projects have great promise for new treatments and cures of important diseases and we extend our congratulations to these students for their success.

This year in June, for the first time, we held the Scholars-Mentors Colloquium at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. It was the first occasion that we had all of the NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholars together on the NIH campus and Heather Zawalick, Caroline Duffy and Dr. Mary Delong deserve special thanks for helping to organize the many events. We are also very grateful to Marc and Lisa Abrams for hosting a wonderful reception for the Scholarship. The Scholars and their Mentors participated in a one-day colloquium in which the Scholars presented their work. We were all impressed with the tremendous research accomplishments in the past year. We were fortunate to have Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Research Council of Great Britain for a special guest lecture. He spoke to the students about the importance of communicating scientific discoveries and processes to the general public. This was a particularly valuable message because so much of the financial support for scientific enterprises in the United States and the United Kingdom depends on strong and consistent awareness and approval by the general public. The International Biomedical Research Alliance sponsored the Evening of Honors in which we paid tribute to Dr. Bruce Alberts, the outgoing President of the National Academy of Sciences and Dr. Alec Bearn, a distinguished Professor of Genetic Medicine and a friend and adviser to the Scholarships. We honored Dr. Stephen Kennedy, Dr. Ronald Schwartz, and Dr. Philip Murphy for key contributions to the Scholarships. The Scholars were also treated to a special talk by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health on their role in the biomedical research enterprise. One of the highlights of the celebrations, was a special dinner in honor of the scholarships hosted by Sir David Manning, the British ambassador to the United States at the Ambassador's residence in Washington, DC. A number of special guests and faculty enjoyed an interesting discussion over dinner about "Pharmacogenomics" a new field of study on the impact of the Human Genome Project and genetic advances on pharmaceutical development, led by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

We would like to extend our congratulations to Ms. Ileane Rosenthal, the President, and Mr. Stephen McLean, the Chairman of the Board, of the new International Biomedical Research Alliance, which was recently incorporated and granted tax exempt status in Washington, DC. This organization is devoted to promoting and supporting the activities of Scholars in the NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholarships. In particular, they are focused on developing the students as intellectual leaders. This past summer, the Alliance held a fascinating discussion between the Scholars and Mr. Jack Jacobs, a retired army officer and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, on the nature of leadership. The Alliance has been working closely with the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences at NIH to greatly enhance the Scholar's program. The hope is to attract leaders in many areas of life to interact with the Scholars to broaden the students' perspective on the interface of science and society.

There are several important goals for the next few months. Plans are already underway for the 4th Annual Scholars-Mentors Colloquium which will be held at Keble College at Oxford on June 22, 2005 and all are cordially invited to attend. The academic program is being planned by Ms Sarah Noujaim and Dr. Stephen Kennedy the Oxford Director of the NIH-Oxford Scholars program. We look forward to this event with great excitement and anticipation. We aspire to increase the number of British and European Union students participating in the program to establish a genuine academic exchange and we are currently in discussions with the Wellcome Trust on such an endeavor. We hope to continue to maintain a Scholars' residence near the NIH campus, which has been generously supported for the past two years by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences. At present, its future is uncertain and we are looking for ways to maintain or replace this valuable resource. We just received approval for a novel Medical Scientist Training Program in which the Scholars can participate in combined M.D./Ph.D. training. This would provide support to Scholars for medical training as well as scientific training aimed at facilitating the development of physician researchers to advance new vaccines, treatments, and cures.

In closing, I would also like to extend a special personal thank-you to Mr. Charley Ellis one of the world's most accomplished authors and experts on securities investments. Among his many talents is a deep understanding of academic institutions from his experience on the Boards of Yale University and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. At several important junctures, he has offered valuable advice and vision to our efforts. Also, I would like to note with sadness the passing of Dr. Julius Axelrod, NIH Nobel laureate and a distinguished pharmacologist, who was last year's Guest of Honor at the Scholars Induction Dinner and held an inspiring discussion with our Scholars about his career research. It is important for me to point out that the programs are directed by a team of distinguished faculty including Drs. Heinz Arnheiter, Harris Bernstein, Daniel Douek, Wayne Drevets, Pierre Henkart, Stephen Kennedy, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Chris McBain, Philip Murphy, Ronald Schwartz, James Sellers, Richard Siegel, Ken Smith, Richard Youle, and Thomas Waldmann - all of whom I would like to thank for their generous efforts on behalf of Scholars. Finally, I would encourage you to check out the unofficial web sites put together by the NIH students at Oxford and Cambridge. I think they capture some of the excitement and talent of our Scholars and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Please enjoy a happy and healthy holiday season and I look forward to writing again soon.

With best regards,


Michael Lenardo, M.D.
Programs Director