- Email: [email protected]
Getting things done—in the lab and beyond
Comment
opportunities should be seized with both hands. The Academy’s Spring Meeting for Clinician Scientists in Training is a great opportunity to interact with investigators across a wide range of disciplines and to extend your network in a way that will benefit your future career.
Robert Lechler Academy of Medical Sciences, London W1B 1QH, UK; and University College London, London, UK [email protected]. Prof Sir Robert Lechler is President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and VicePrincipal (Health), King’s College London, London, UK.
Academy of Medical Sciences
Getting things done—in the lab and beyond
Academy of Medical Sciences
Sir Mark Walport
Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld Published Online February 25, 2016
2
Dr Geoff Watts has been talking to the Spring Meeting’s two keynote speakers, Sir Mark Walport, Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government, London, UK, and Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld, Group Leader, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Cambridge, UK, winner of the 2015 Foulkes Foundation Medal. One of the keynote speakers at this year’s Spring Meeting for Clinician Scientists in Training is Sir Mark Walport, former Director of the Wellcome Trust and now the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. The other speaker is Nitzan Rosenfeld, Head of the Laboratory of Circulating DNA and Molecular Diagnostics at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Walport has long been involved in helping to fashion a supportive framework for biomedical research; as an active research worker Rosenfeld is, indirectly, among the beneficiaries of such a framework. A policy man and a practitioner— each contributing to the achievements of biomedical science in the UK. Walport took up the Chief Scientific Adviser post in 2013 and now advises not just on policy in biomedicine but throughout the whole of science, technology, and engineering. In the earlier part of his career he too was focussed, like Rosenfeld, not on the big picture but on the particular. In his case it was immunology. With a medical degree from Cambridge, Walport began specialising in rheumatology before consolidating his research skills with a PhD supervised by Prof Peter Lachman, a scientific mentor who also taught him, he says, that “careers can’t be planned”. With or without planning he joined the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, becoming a professor of medicine and, by the time he moved to the Wellcome Trust in 2003, Chairman of the Division of Medicine of Imperial College, London. Taking on the directorship of the Trust reflected his emerging taste for leadership, a taste developed during his time
at Hammersmith. He had discovered that he enjoyed getting things done. “I’d sort of begun to categorise the world into two halves. There were people who got together and whinged, and then there are others who felt that if they wanted something sorted out they’d better do it themselves.” First hand experience of research is crucial in directing a body like the Wellcome Trust, says Walport. “It’s very difficult to be fair and humane in running a grant funding agency if you’ve never yourself applied for grants and, from time to time, been rejected. And the experience of having been a participant in the research process was absolutely critical.” This familiarity also played into another of his objectives: to promote biomedical research more generally and foster circumstances in which it can flourish. While the starting point of UK-based funding agencies is naturally enough to nurture home-grown talent, science is nothing if not international. Rosenfeld is one of countless foreign-born scientists who have thrived in the UK during recent decades. Born in Israel he studied physics at Technion in Haifa, but decided by his second year to move towards biology. He has what he describes as “an affinity for more tangible things”. By that he means that whereas much cutting edge work in physics is directed at the very large (astrophysics) or the very small (particle physics), he feels more at home in the middle range: something the size of a cell. More specifically, in his case, a cancer cell. While working on cell lines as part of his PhD Rosenfeld realised, to his disappointment, how little he knew of practical value to the health of his father, at that time suffering from lung cancer. “This drove me to do more applied things.” Looking beyond the academic world he joined an Israeli biotech company, Rosetta Genomics, and worked on microRNA-based molecular diagnostics. Although he became the company’s Head www.thelancet.com
Comment
of Computational Biology he still felt an urge to explore topics outside his remit. “I wanted the flexibility to explore new ideas, but with an emphasis on them being of a practical nature.” Returning to the academic world in 2009 he moved to the UK to become a junior group leader with the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. He had been attracted by Cancer Research UK’s emphasis on translation and by its close links with Cambridge University. His new focus became the detection and measurement of the tumour DNA that can be found in the circulatory systems of cancer patients. By increasing the sensitivity of their methods he and his colleagues have been able to work on tiny amounts of material from patients at ever earlier stages of the illness. “We’re now able to differentiate even single DNA molecules that have a mutation compared to the wild type.” In 2014 Rosenfeld became the cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer of Inivata Ltd, a company spun out of Cancer Research UK to exploit the circulating DNA work. The aim is to develop a less invasive alternative to conventional biopsy that can be repeated more often, and so allow the progress of tumours to be tracked more thoroughly, not least in relation to other events such as changes of treatment. Although he still spends the greater part of his time in research, he is also involved
with getting the technology to the market place. In this sense he has the best of both worlds. “Or the worst of both”, he says—but with a wry laugh. He is managing to cope with the many demands of launching a new company. “It’s a pretty demanding time in my life, but I like being in lots of different activities.” Asked if the present UK Government, and its recent predecessors, have truly grasped the economic value of a thriving scientific community, Walport is in no doubt that they have. This is not, of course, to suggest that scientists are now content with their slice of the UK national budget, or ever will be. Rosenberg moreover suspects that his commercialisation might have proceeded more rapidly in, for example, the USA than it has in Cambridge. On the other hand, he adds, speed in these matters is not necessarily an unalloyed good. So, Walport can be more than content with Rosenfeld’s overall verdict—that, all in all, Britain has proved to be an enabling environment in which to carry his project forward. Geoff Watts Academy of Medical Sciences, London W1B 1QH, UK [email protected] Dr Geoff Watts is a medical writer and broadcaster, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
The changing funding environment for clinical academics A career in clinical academia has never been more exciting. Medical science is advancing at an extraordinary pace, driven by the increasingly rapid translation of discovery science into new prevention, diagnostic, and treatment strategies. Advances in so-called omic technologies and bioinformatics are providing data and new knowledge at an astonishing rate and, in this new technological age, collaboration between clinicians and biologists with engineers, mathematicians, and physical and computing scientists is becoming increasingly common and important. Similarly, a renewed focus on disease prevention and public health has led to increasing interactions between clinical, behavioural, and social scientists. Clinical academics are crucial to ensuring that these technological advances and collaborations address the remaining health challenges and produce health and www.thelancet.com
wealth gains that reap the benefit of the unprecedented investment in biomedical science made over the past decade. Since its founding in 2006, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) alone has provided an extra £1 billion per year for health-related research, more than doubling the amount of taxpayers’ money previously directed towards medical research largely via the Medical Research Council (MRC). An increasing proportion of MRC funding is being devoted to experimental studies in human participants, to generate new understanding of human disease mechanisms, to support the identification of new therapeutic targets, and to establish proof of concept for new diagnostics and therapies. Clearly, clinical academics are essential in delivering these new translational programmes. Past difficulties arising from the lack of a clear and recognised career pathway for clinical academics have
Published Online February 25, 2016
3
opportunities should be seized with both hands. The Academy’s Spring Meeting for Clinician Scientists in Training is a great opportunity to interact with investigators across a wide range of disciplines and to extend your network in a way that will benefit your future career.
Robert Lechler Academy of Medical Sciences, London W1B 1QH, UK; and University College London, London, UK [email protected]. Prof Sir Robert Lechler is President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and VicePrincipal (Health), King’s College London, London, UK.
Academy of Medical Sciences
Getting things done—in the lab and beyond
Academy of Medical Sciences
Sir Mark Walport
Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld Published Online February 25, 2016
2
Dr Geoff Watts has been talking to the Spring Meeting’s two keynote speakers, Sir Mark Walport, Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government, London, UK, and Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld, Group Leader, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Cambridge, UK, winner of the 2015 Foulkes Foundation Medal. One of the keynote speakers at this year’s Spring Meeting for Clinician Scientists in Training is Sir Mark Walport, former Director of the Wellcome Trust and now the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. The other speaker is Nitzan Rosenfeld, Head of the Laboratory of Circulating DNA and Molecular Diagnostics at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Walport has long been involved in helping to fashion a supportive framework for biomedical research; as an active research worker Rosenfeld is, indirectly, among the beneficiaries of such a framework. A policy man and a practitioner— each contributing to the achievements of biomedical science in the UK. Walport took up the Chief Scientific Adviser post in 2013 and now advises not just on policy in biomedicine but throughout the whole of science, technology, and engineering. In the earlier part of his career he too was focussed, like Rosenfeld, not on the big picture but on the particular. In his case it was immunology. With a medical degree from Cambridge, Walport began specialising in rheumatology before consolidating his research skills with a PhD supervised by Prof Peter Lachman, a scientific mentor who also taught him, he says, that “careers can’t be planned”. With or without planning he joined the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, becoming a professor of medicine and, by the time he moved to the Wellcome Trust in 2003, Chairman of the Division of Medicine of Imperial College, London. Taking on the directorship of the Trust reflected his emerging taste for leadership, a taste developed during his time
at Hammersmith. He had discovered that he enjoyed getting things done. “I’d sort of begun to categorise the world into two halves. There were people who got together and whinged, and then there are others who felt that if they wanted something sorted out they’d better do it themselves.” First hand experience of research is crucial in directing a body like the Wellcome Trust, says Walport. “It’s very difficult to be fair and humane in running a grant funding agency if you’ve never yourself applied for grants and, from time to time, been rejected. And the experience of having been a participant in the research process was absolutely critical.” This familiarity also played into another of his objectives: to promote biomedical research more generally and foster circumstances in which it can flourish. While the starting point of UK-based funding agencies is naturally enough to nurture home-grown talent, science is nothing if not international. Rosenfeld is one of countless foreign-born scientists who have thrived in the UK during recent decades. Born in Israel he studied physics at Technion in Haifa, but decided by his second year to move towards biology. He has what he describes as “an affinity for more tangible things”. By that he means that whereas much cutting edge work in physics is directed at the very large (astrophysics) or the very small (particle physics), he feels more at home in the middle range: something the size of a cell. More specifically, in his case, a cancer cell. While working on cell lines as part of his PhD Rosenfeld realised, to his disappointment, how little he knew of practical value to the health of his father, at that time suffering from lung cancer. “This drove me to do more applied things.” Looking beyond the academic world he joined an Israeli biotech company, Rosetta Genomics, and worked on microRNA-based molecular diagnostics. Although he became the company’s Head www.thelancet.com
Comment
of Computational Biology he still felt an urge to explore topics outside his remit. “I wanted the flexibility to explore new ideas, but with an emphasis on them being of a practical nature.” Returning to the academic world in 2009 he moved to the UK to become a junior group leader with the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. He had been attracted by Cancer Research UK’s emphasis on translation and by its close links with Cambridge University. His new focus became the detection and measurement of the tumour DNA that can be found in the circulatory systems of cancer patients. By increasing the sensitivity of their methods he and his colleagues have been able to work on tiny amounts of material from patients at ever earlier stages of the illness. “We’re now able to differentiate even single DNA molecules that have a mutation compared to the wild type.” In 2014 Rosenfeld became the cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer of Inivata Ltd, a company spun out of Cancer Research UK to exploit the circulating DNA work. The aim is to develop a less invasive alternative to conventional biopsy that can be repeated more often, and so allow the progress of tumours to be tracked more thoroughly, not least in relation to other events such as changes of treatment. Although he still spends the greater part of his time in research, he is also involved
with getting the technology to the market place. In this sense he has the best of both worlds. “Or the worst of both”, he says—but with a wry laugh. He is managing to cope with the many demands of launching a new company. “It’s a pretty demanding time in my life, but I like being in lots of different activities.” Asked if the present UK Government, and its recent predecessors, have truly grasped the economic value of a thriving scientific community, Walport is in no doubt that they have. This is not, of course, to suggest that scientists are now content with their slice of the UK national budget, or ever will be. Rosenberg moreover suspects that his commercialisation might have proceeded more rapidly in, for example, the USA than it has in Cambridge. On the other hand, he adds, speed in these matters is not necessarily an unalloyed good. So, Walport can be more than content with Rosenfeld’s overall verdict—that, all in all, Britain has proved to be an enabling environment in which to carry his project forward. Geoff Watts Academy of Medical Sciences, London W1B 1QH, UK [email protected] Dr Geoff Watts is a medical writer and broadcaster, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
The changing funding environment for clinical academics A career in clinical academia has never been more exciting. Medical science is advancing at an extraordinary pace, driven by the increasingly rapid translation of discovery science into new prevention, diagnostic, and treatment strategies. Advances in so-called omic technologies and bioinformatics are providing data and new knowledge at an astonishing rate and, in this new technological age, collaboration between clinicians and biologists with engineers, mathematicians, and physical and computing scientists is becoming increasingly common and important. Similarly, a renewed focus on disease prevention and public health has led to increasing interactions between clinical, behavioural, and social scientists. Clinical academics are crucial to ensuring that these technological advances and collaborations address the remaining health challenges and produce health and www.thelancet.com
wealth gains that reap the benefit of the unprecedented investment in biomedical science made over the past decade. Since its founding in 2006, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) alone has provided an extra £1 billion per year for health-related research, more than doubling the amount of taxpayers’ money previously directed towards medical research largely via the Medical Research Council (MRC). An increasing proportion of MRC funding is being devoted to experimental studies in human participants, to generate new understanding of human disease mechanisms, to support the identification of new therapeutic targets, and to establish proof of concept for new diagnostics and therapies. Clearly, clinical academics are essential in delivering these new translational programmes. Past difficulties arising from the lack of a clear and recognised career pathway for clinical academics have
Published Online February 25, 2016
3