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Oluwasegun Afolaranmi

  • Scholar
  • Nigeria
  • 2021 PhD Medical Science at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute
  • Homerton College
Oluwasegun Afolaranmi

Oluwasegun Afolaranmi

  • Scholar
  • Nigeria
  • 2021 PhD Medical Science at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute
  • Homerton College

The idea of harnessing the immune system to treat cancer is fascinating to me. Moreover, during my medical training in Nigeria, I was deeply moved by the experiences of cancer patients, especially with the very limited treatment options available. This combination of curiosity and compassion inspired me to pursue a career at the intersection of excellent patient care and cutting-edge cancer research. I subsequently received the Clarendon scholarship for a Masters at the University of Oxford, where my research was on the innate immune cGAS-STING signalling in cancer, under the supervision of Dr Eileen Parkes. At Cambridge, I have joined Dr Maike de la Roche's group to explore how hedgehog signalling is orchestrated in cytotoxic immune cells during the antitumor response. Mechanistic insights from this work, and others, will potentially enable better design of advanced cellular therapies, bringing hope to numerous patients. Ultimately, I plan to contribute significantly to efforts aimed at expanding access to transformative therapies globally, and alleviate the unacceptable disparities currently observed. I feel incredibly honoured to have joined the Gates Cambridge community and look forward to an enriching experience with other young leaders from across the world.

Previous Education

University of Oxford Integrated Immunology 2021
University of Ibadan Medicine and Surgery 2019

Melisa Basol

  • Alumni
  • Germany
  • 2018 PhD Psychology
  • Pembroke College
Melisa Basol

Melisa Basol

  • Alumni
  • Germany
  • 2018 PhD Psychology
  • Pembroke College

Dr Melisa Basol is a Social Psychologist and part of the 2022 Class of Forbes 30 under 30.

In collaboration with the UK Cabinet Office (and supported by UNESCO, UN, and WHO), Melisa co-developed 'Go Viral!', a gamified intervention to combat the threat posed by COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracies. 'Go Viral!' has been played over 1.5 million times since it's launch and is now available in 10+ languages.

Melisa also collaborates with the Stanford Health Communication Initiative and Duke University's efforts to fight vaccine hesitancy. She enjoys public engagement (e.g., BBC World, TedX) and continues to advise governmental institutions (e.g. EU Commission, NATO) on evidence-based policy-making.

As a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, she read Psychology and focused on persuasion and resistance against misinformation through inoculation theory. Alongside numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications, Melisa was also awarded the WhatsApp Research Grant for Misinformation to help develop, test, and launch interventions against the spread of harmful misinformation on WhatsApp in India, Brazil, and the UK.

Previous Education

University of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Cambridge

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbasol

Maheetha Bharadwaj

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 MPhil Genomic Medicine
  • Clare College
Maheetha Bharadwaj

Maheetha Bharadwaj

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 MPhil Genomic Medicine
  • Clare College

Passionate about delivering quality health care to all, I came to Stanford with the intention of taking up a career in health care . Pursuing a bachelor’s in biology, a master’s in biomedical informatics, and genomics research equipped me adequately to understand the role of genome mutations in disease processes. At the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University, I searched sequencing and expression data for patterns in tumor suppressors and oncogenes that caused cancer. At Stanford, I studied translational allelic-specific expression in human lymphoblastoid cells. The complexity of our genome fascinated me, and I garnered a desire to understand ways in which genome could be modified disease processes. With increasing availability of sequencing data, it is important to gain the skills to analyze and interpret this data meaningfully for a future of genetics-driven, preventative, personalized medicine. Thus at Cambridge, I will pursue a Masters of Philosophy in Genomic Medicine exploring ways to incorporate sequencing data and technologies directly into patient care delivery. After Cambridge, I plan to do an MD/Ph.D, which will enable me to deliver health care in innovative ways to my local community and bring personalized medicine to bedside globally. Outside academics, I am the founder of Stanford Music and Medicine, an organization that recruits Stanford students to use music as a form of therapy for nursing home residents. I also work for a non-profit that develops arts-based science supplemental lesson plans for middle school students in East Palo Alto. In my free time, I love singing in the shower, hiking, and horror films.

Previous Education

Stanford University

Sampurna Chakrabarti

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2016 PhD Pharmacology
  • Corpus Christi College
Sampurna Chakrabarti

Sampurna Chakrabarti

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2016 PhD Pharmacology
  • Corpus Christi College

Originally from India, I graduated in May 2016 with B.S. in Biological Sciences and B.A. in Psychology from The State University of New York at Buffalo, USA. For my PhD, I studied mechanisms of inflammatory knee pain in the lab of Dr. Ewan St. John Smith at the Department of Pharmacology. Currently I am a Alexander von Humboldt fellow researching how we perceive touch at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. I am also passionate about educational equality and hope to work with organizations around the world, especially in developing countries, to make quality education available to all. I am honoured and excited to become a member of the vibrant and compassionate Gates Cambridge community where scholars from across the world share the vision of making a difference in the world.

Previous Education

University at Buffalo

Hei Yeung (Aland) Chan

  • Alumni
  • Hong Kong
  • 2019 PhD Plant Sciences
  • Downing College
Hei Yeung (Aland) Chan

Hei Yeung (Aland) Chan

  • Alumni
  • Hong Kong
  • 2019 PhD Plant Sciences
  • Downing College

Growing up in Hong Kong, I enjoy trekking through the city’s subtropical countryside. From a young age, I developed a passion to study and protect the wildlife I encounter. I completed my undergraduate studies and started my MPhil project at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, I realized how climate change, habitat degradation, and forest loss are not only threatening millions of species living in natural systems, but also destabilizing the environmental conditions that human civilization is built on. New technologies in remote sensing are starting to revolutionize our understanding of large scale patterns in forest ecology. During my PhD, I wish to utilize these newly available remote sensing datasets to study how forests resist and recover from extreme weather events, which are made more frequent by climate change. My hope is that such research will allow us to more efficiently manage natural systems and better control carbon emissions from tropical forests.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge Biological Science 2019
University of Cambridge Natural Sciences 2018

Rakesh Chand

  • Scholar
  • Nepal
  • 2020 PhD Veterinary Medicine
  • Robinson College
Rakesh Chand

Rakesh Chand

  • Scholar
  • Nepal
  • 2020 PhD Veterinary Medicine
  • Robinson College

I graduated as a veterinarian from Tribhuvan University in Nepal (2015) and have been since working in the field of zoonotic diseases and One Health. Although a veterinarian, I chose epidemiology and public health rather than being a hospital clinician treating individual patients because through this approach I believe I can make a bigger impact on the population of both humans and animals. I've worked with various infectious diseases throughout my brief career, but the disease which I am obsessed with is Rabies. I have seen many lives lost due to it and it's a shame that although there are perfect prevention methods available, it still plagues the communities. I am currently running a Rabies control program (0.30 project) in Nepal through my organisation Center for One Health Research & Promotion (COHRP) which involves mass dog rabies vaccination, community awareness, and KAP surveys. I recently (2019-20) completed my MPhil in Veterinary Science from Cambridge where my project dealt with animal rabies and free-roaming dog population situation in Nepal.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge MPhil in Veteirnary Science 2020
TUAT Veterinary moleculardiagnostic 2018
Tribhuvan University B.V.Sc. and A.H. 2015

Willow Dalehite

  • Scholar
  • United States
  • 2023 PhD Zoology
  • Trinity College
Willow Dalehite

Willow Dalehite

  • Scholar
  • United States
  • 2023 PhD Zoology
  • Trinity College

Cooperation is important for the evolution of many species, allowing them to persist in otherwise hostile environmental conditions. As an undergraduate at Princeton, I cultivated an interest in the evolution of cooperative behavior through my research on three avian species. During my PhD in Zoology as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, I hope to uncover the impacts of cooperation on biodiversity using burying beetles as a model study system. Not only do burying beetles provide essential ecosystem services such as returning bioavailable nutrients to the soil, but they can also help us understand how social behavior might influence biodiversity on a genetic and phenotypic scale. By studying wild beetle populations in Cambridge, I also hope to learn about drivers of local adaptation in a fragmented habitat, which can inform us about factors that allow species to adapt to human-induced environmental change. I believe that the biodiversity crisis is one of the most important challenges facing humanity today; my work will contribute to meaningful solutions to preserve the well-being of humans and the ecosystems in which we live. I am honored to be joining a community of scholars committed to improving the lives of beings around the world.

Previous Education

Princeton University Ecology & Evolutionary Biology 2022

Eckart De Bie

  • Scholar
  • Netherlands
  • 2023 PhD Medicine
  • Clare College
Eckart De Bie

Eckart De Bie

  • Scholar
  • Netherlands
  • 2023 PhD Medicine
  • Clare College

I studied medicine at Radboud University (the Netherlands). During my studies I realised that, whilst working in medicine is both extremely rewarding and challenging, there are many patients for whom curative treatments are not available. This sparked my interest in translational research; I want to make a contribution to get science from the ‘bench to the bedside’ to improve the outcomes for patients. Therefore, I intermitted my medical degree to undertake an MPhil at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Dr Mark Toshner and Dr Chris Wallace. We investigated the link between autoimmunity and Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH); a rare but deadly cardiovascular disease. We found that a significant subset of PAH patients had a clear autoimmune signature. I was keen to further investigate this, which led me to apply for a PhD after completing my medical degree. In my PhD, I aim to identify the mechanisms mediating the link between autoimmunity and PAH as well as biomarkers associated with autoimmunity in PAH. In the future, this may result in personalised treatment and better outcomes for PAH patients. I am delighted to become a part of the community of Gates Cambridge Scholars and look forward to start in Cambridge!

Previous Education

Radboud University Nijmegen Medicine 2023
University of Cambridge Translational Biomed Research 2020
Radboud University Nijmegen Medicine 2019

Akhila Denduluri

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2017 PhD Chemistry
  • Murray Edwards College (New Hall)
Akhila Denduluri

Akhila Denduluri

  • Alumni
  • India
  • 2017 PhD Chemistry
  • Murray Edwards College (New Hall)

I was born and brought up in South India. I chose to pursue bioengineering as an undergraduate to study the human body from the perspective of a structure-function relationship defined within a mathematical framework. As part of my Masters in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, I worked on developing a polymer based gene delivery therapy for brain tumours and explored ways of making this technology available to patients. As a PhD student in Chemistry at Cambridge, I hope to work on developing biophysical tools to better understand and elucidate the protein chemistry and associated toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases. However, in many parts of the world, there is a large gap between the availability and financial accessibility of life-changing technologies. This has been partly informed by my upbringing in India and my work with non-profits developing public health interventions. As part of the Gates Cambridge community, I aspire to address this gap by working at the intersection of research and social entrepreneurialism to improve the standard of care in low and middle income countries.

Previous Education

University of California Riverside
Johns Hopkins University

Daniel Egan

  • Scholar
  • South Africa
  • 2022 PhD Biological Sciences at the Department of Veterinary Medicine
  • Wolfson College
Daniel Egan

Daniel Egan

  • Scholar
  • South Africa
  • 2022 PhD Biological Sciences at the Department of Veterinary Medicine
  • Wolfson College

I was drawn into the curious and complex world of immunology during my Honours degree in the Horsnell group at the University of Cape Town, where I studied lung pathology in the acute immune response to helminth infections. This, against my background as a clinician and further education in public health, has led my professional interests towards the intersection of these three areas: fundamental science, clinical medicine and population health. By identifying important health concerns and addressing them across scales, I hope to improve global health outcomes through my career in a cost-effective and context-relevant manner which prioritises reaching under-served people. In partnership with global leaders in the field, my PhD aims to develop and test a novel vaccine platform to generate broadly-protective vaccines against Betacoronaviruses. The idea underlying this work is ‘pandemic preparedness’ – aiming to ensure the next human viral pandemic is comparatively minor by pre-emptively improving the breadth and efficacy of available vaccines. I am privileged to be joining the Gates Cambridge community, and am very grateful to the Trust for this wonderful opportunity.

Previous Education

University of Cape Town Public Health (Epi & Biostats) 2022
University of Cape Town Medicine 2017
University of Cape Town Infectious Disease, Immunology 2014

Alexander Hutterer

  • Scholar
  • Austria
  • 2020 PhD Philosophy
  • Corpus Christi College
Alexander Hutterer

Alexander Hutterer

  • Scholar
  • Austria
  • 2020 PhD Philosophy
  • Corpus Christi College

I aim to analyse the Enlightenment philosopher Kant’s concept of “cognition” (“Erkenntnis”). For Kant, “cognition” has a central programmatic role: Kant’s overall aim is to delineate the extent to which we humans can “cognise” the world. Until recently, it was widely assumed that “cognition” is simply a form of “knowledge.” Yet, recent research shows that Kant’s notion of “cognition” does not quite fit any available account of “knowledge.” Hence, to understand Kant’s so-called “transcendental idealism,” a new interpretation of his concept of “cognition” is needed. I intend to fill this gap. The results will be valuable not only for historians of philosophy but also for society at large. Through analysing fundamental epistemic notions, we can better understand our epistemic practices and their value. For instance, the prevalence of “fake news” in social media demonstrates the need for a deep understanding of the respective values of truth, authenticity, and reliability. Before taking up this project, I read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at King’s College London and later completed the MPhil in Philosophy at Cambridge. I am deeply honoured and humbled to be a part of the Gates Cambridge community.

Previous Education

King's College London (University of London) Philosophy, Politics & Econom. 2018

Links

https://alexanderhutterer.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amhutterer

Myesha Jemison

  • Scholar
  • United States
  • 2021 PhD History and Philosophy of Science
  • Trinity College
Myesha Jemison

Myesha Jemison

  • Scholar
  • United States
  • 2021 PhD History and Philosophy of Science
  • Trinity College

My Princeton University and Columbia University degrees weren’t the first to teach me that inequity in education opportunities and outcomes is wide-spread, yet poorly-addressed. Writing my college and scholarship essays on my smartphone and having my mother bus me to the best free advanced academic programs available outside my neighborhood taught me that. When coupled with biases in technology that scholars like Ruha Benjamin, Joy Buolamwini, and Timnit Gebru expose, the future of EdTech and its ability to widen educational divides and be complicit in anti-Black racism is concerning. This conviction will guide my Cambridge PhD research as I investigate the use of EdTech applications by out-of-school youth (OSY). In meditating on what I aim to accomplish in the realm of EdTech, I ultimately start by questioning and analyzing how we adapt technology to students’ learning needs, working alongside students to design interventions. Moreover, I will grapple with how education can be made more equitable and how research is more than a distorted reflection imagined by outsiders studying communities unfamiliar to them. Rather, it’s an interrogation of how the Western world relinquishes agency and legitimacy to these communities.

Alex Kong

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 MPhil Biological Science (Pharmacology)
  • Churchill College
Alex Kong

Alex Kong

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2016 MPhil Biological Science (Pharmacology)
  • Churchill College

Being a Gates Scholar has been one of the defining moments of my life so far, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to remain engaged as Co-Chair of the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association. After earning my MPhil in Pharmacology, I completed my PharmD at the University of Kansas and made a critical decision to switch fields from the pharmaceutical sciences to global health. For two years, I worked at the Access to Medicine Foundation, a global health non-profit based in Amsterdam that assesses the policies, commitments, and actions of some of the largest global pharmaceutical companies in ensuring access to medicine for patients in low- and middle-income countries. My role as the R&D lead on the Access to Medicine Index involved dissecting the pipelines of 20 pharmaceutical companies and challenging companies to ensure that these projects were available as quickly and broadly as possible through systematic and advance access planning during clinical development. I am currently a PhD Candidate in International Health at Johns Hopkins University with the goal of advancing access to innovative health technologies.

Previous Education

University of Kansas

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-kong-4415b76b

Andrea Kusec

  • Alumni
  • Canada
  • 2017 PhD Biological Science at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
  • Fitzwilliam College
Andrea Kusec

Andrea Kusec

  • Alumni
  • Canada
  • 2017 PhD Biological Science at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
  • Fitzwilliam College

I became interested in the brain and mind when I was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 13. I pursued a BA in Psychology at Ryerson University, where I became interested in the development and treatment of cognitive biases in mood disorders. While volunteering on the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Unit of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, I developed an interest in designing treatments for cognitive and emotional difficulties in individuals with an ABI that account for their unique impairments. To further my knowledge of ABI, I obtained an MSc in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. Many people with an ABI have symptoms of depression, but available methods of treating mood disorders such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy fall short because they rely heavily on domains often compromised in ABI, such as mental flexibility, comprehension, and memory. As a student in the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, I will investigate whether depression in ABI can be treated by increasing engagement in positive activities, and whether this treatment can be enhanced through cognitive training to facilitate planning and engagement in such activities. If effective, this research could immediately influence rehabilitation services worldwide.

Previous Education

Ryerson University
McMaster University

Alexandra Mannerings

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2009 PhD Veterinary Science
  • Selwyn College
Alexandra Mannerings

Alexandra Mannerings

  • Alumni
  • United States
  • 2009 PhD Veterinary Science
  • Selwyn College

While Archimedes chose a lever and fulcrum, I would pick data and the right question. Properly directed analytics really can move the world. That’s why I so passionately believe in making vital data skills and tools available to everyone, whether you are starting from the beginning or seeking to take it to the next level. This passion is voiced in my analytic education and consultancy business, Merakinos. My goal with Merakinos is to advance how we use data, with a special focus on those people and organizations new to the analytics space. Together we can transform the world, one data-inspired decision at a time.

Links

https://www.merakinos.com
http://www.alexandraorion.wordpress.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandramannerings
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3323830

Christopher Molteno

  • Alumni
  • South Africa
  • 2017 MPhil Engineering for Sustainable Development
  • Magdalene College
Christopher Molteno

Christopher Molteno

  • Alumni
  • South Africa
  • 2017 MPhil Engineering for Sustainable Development
  • Magdalene College

Energy infrastructure fascinates me. So much of society is built around and is dependent on our energy supply. Over the years, the way we access energy has repeatedly been revolutionised. Now, we are painfully aware that a complete revolution is again necessary. The energy sector of South Africa, my home country, is not only unsustainably dependent on coal but urgently requires expansion to meet rising demand. This gives us a fantastic opportunity to develop our energy sector in a sustainable direction. During my MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development at Cambridge I will study the options available to developing countries and how we can implement the necessary changes. I will focus on the decentralisation of energy supply and solar electric power production. The practical aspects of sustainable development that this course teaches will build on the technical knowledge that I have gained through my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and my professional experience in a small Namibian energy company. It is an exciting and dynamic time that we are living in. I am honoured to be joining the Gates Cambridge community: an inter-disciplinary cohort that are working to make that change positive.

Previous Education

University of Cape Town

Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen

  • Scholar
  • Viet Nam
  • 2023 MPhil Medical Science (Clinical Neurosciences)
  • Fitzwilliam College
Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen

Hoang Minh Hieu Nguyen

  • Scholar
  • Viet Nam
  • 2023 MPhil Medical Science (Clinical Neurosciences)
  • Fitzwilliam College

I was concerned about the lack of adequate healthcare in my hometown. For this reason, I established the first student-run NGO in my province to provide medical support to vulnerable indigenous families. This accomplishment helped me to be selected as the representative of Vietnam at the Pearson UWC in Canada with 200 students from more than 100 countries. Despite the relentless efforts, I encountered many situations where treatments were unavailable due to the limit of science and costs. This realization inspired me to advocate for interdisciplinary approaches in global health initiatives, which integrate research and entrepreneurship. For this reason, I participated in many research projects in Middlebury College, MSKCC and Rockefeller University. Besides, I collaborated with the World Telehealth Initiative and local government officials to establish Kenya's inaugural telemedicine program, aimed at increasing access to healthcare. At Cambridge, I seek to understand the prevalence and potential mechanisms of extrachromosomal DNA genesis in glioblastoma. This study holds promise in establishing the first precision therapy for glioblastoma, and presents potential therapeutic options for other cancers that share the same etiology.

Previous Education

Middlebury College Neuroscience 2023

Veselina Petrova

  • Alumni
  • Bulgaria
  • 2015 PhD Clinical Neurosciences
  • Hughes Hall
Veselina Petrova

Veselina Petrova

  • Alumni
  • Bulgaria
  • 2015 PhD Clinical Neurosciences
  • Hughes Hall

Originally from Bulgaria, I moved to the UK six years ago when I was awarded the HMC scholarship to study at a British boarding school – Dollar Academy. I first became interested in the clinical neurosciences last summer during my research experience at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology where I worked on a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and on advancing some of the current tools available for gene therapy. My interests were further developed through my dissertation project which I am about to finish as part of my undergraduate degree at Edinburgh University, in which I characterised some of the major pathological changes in a novel mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Today I look forward to starting my PhD degree in Prof. James Fawcett’s laboratory in Cambridge where I will be exploring what goes wrong inside nerve cells upon spinal cord injury and will hopefully be able to design new strategies to repair the damage. My ultimate aim is to enhance the understanding of the neurodegenerative and regenerative processes in the brain and to provide improvements to the diagnosis, treatment and quality of life of the affected individuals and their families. I am also passionate about scientific communication and I have been involved in writing for the Science and Environment section of the Student newspaper over the past few years. I hope that as a Gates scholar, I will be able to reach out to communities and bridge the gap between scientists and the public.

Previous Education

The University of Edinburgh