Biomedical Research News

Chi Nguyen, a PhD student attending the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSK), has been awarded the 2023 Chairman’s Prize. The $2,000 prize recognizes Nguyen's research on interactions between environmental factors, gut microbiota, and the immune system in acute graft-versus-host disease following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). “Microbiota” refers to the fungi, bacteria and viruses that live in the intestines and play a pivotal role in regulating the immune system. Little is known about how different medications can impact this microbiota. Nguyen’s research aims to give physicians a better understanding of how they can protect the gut health of patients with cancer while they are undergoing treatment. Nguyen conducted her research under the mentorship of Marcel van den Brink, MD, PhD, Head of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, who also has a lab in the Immunology Program at the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI). Of her research, Dr. van den Brink shared: “Chi was very brave to engage in this project, which was purely computational biology. Her background in this field was limited when she joined my lab. Therefore, I am even more proud of her accomplishments.” Nguyen was born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam, and moved to the United States to attend Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. In 2018, after graduation, she moved to New York City to pursue graduate school with an eye on cancer research. “My parents have always inspired a sense of curiosity in me,” says Nguyen. “Curiosity about the natural world, biology, and how things work.”

The Mayo Clinic has announced the 2023 recipients of the Gerstner Family Career Development Awards. These awards are presented annually to researchers conducting innovative investigations to predict, prevent, treat, and cure diseases using individualized medicine approaches. This year, physician scientist Patrizia Mondello, M.D.,Ph.D., M.Sc., and medical oncologist Ryan Carr, M.D., Ph.D., have been selected to further develop their research in treating follicular lymphoma and pancreatic cancer resistance, respectively. For these studies, both of which aim to improve the outcomes for patients facing resistant forms of cancer, securing funding in these earliest stages is crucial.

As highlighted in their newly released annual report, Gerstner Philanthropies is working with Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) to support early career physician-scientists launch careers in the face of the unique challenges that come with juggling the rigors of clinical care and laboratory research. “The development of the Gerstner Physician Scholars Program is critically important to address the shortfall of cancer subspecialists who are highly trained as experts in both clinical care and scientific research, and who can translate their findings from the bench to the bedside, and back,” says Monika Shah, MD, Deputy Physician-in-Chief of Education and Faculty Affairs at MSK.

Four physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have been named 2023 Gerstner Scholars and will receive funding for up to three years to support their research. In addition, one 2020 Gerstner Scholar will receive the highly coveted Gerstner Merit Award. The Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars Program was established 15 years ago to provide exceptionally talented physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) with critical funding. This generous support allows early-career scientists to conduct high-risk, high-reward research and gather the pilot data necessary to apply for grants from the National Institutes of Health and other sources. The Gerstner Scholars Program is a model faculty development program for researchers across the continuum at VP&S, providing the foundations to build biomedical research careers. The physician-scientists named as 2023 Gerstner Scholars: Shah Ali, MD Edmond Chan, MD Pamela Good, MD Juan-Manuel Schvartzman, MD, PhD Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD, a 2020 Gerstner Scholar, has been awarded the Gerstner Merit Award. In 2014, the Gerstner Family Foundation created the Gerstner Merit Award to provide an additional year of funding for a Gerstner Scholar in his or her third year who has made remarkable strides in research and demonstrated extraordinary growth as an academic biomedical investigator.

Gerstner Philanthropies is excited to announce that the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core, part of the American Museum of Natural History’s new addition, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, will open to the public on May 4, 2023. This addition will create more than 30 connections among 10 of the Museum’s buildings to improve visitor circulation on campus, and will feature all new exhibition galleries, learning labs and collections facilities. The Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core will display over 3,000 objects from the Museum’s research collections and will span across three levels. The Collections Core is designed to showcase the importance of scientific collections as the bedrock on which scientific discoveries stand. The glass panels of the Collections Core will give visitors the opportunity to view scientists in-action working with the specimens on display. Along with the Collections Core, the Gilder Center will also include an all-new insectarium, with the world’s largest live leafcutter ant display, as well as a live butterfly vivarium. “The Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation is a glorious new facility that fulfills a critical need at a critical time: to help visitors to understand the natural world more deeply, to appreciate that all life is interdependent, to trust science, and to be inspired to protect our precious planet and its myriad life forms,” said Ellen Futter, President Emerita of the American Museum of Natural History.