Introduction by Director Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, PhD

Welcome to the Fall 2023 issue of The Dish. Penn BGS has had a busy and exciting fall as we’ve warmly welcomed our 38th class, every member of which brings to our campus a unique perspective and range of experiences. Without question, our success is rooted in the remarkable and diverse groups of students who choose to join BGS.

 Our newest cohort serves as yet another example of our program’s remarkable ability to attract capable and accomplished students from across the nation and around the world each year. Members of our 38th class, for example, hail from 96 different colleges and universities. Our work continues as we strive for inclusive excellence, ensuring that individuals from all backgrounds have opportunities to contribute to society through world-class education and research. We are immensely proud of what each of our students accomplishes during and beyond their time with us here at Penn, and we are always delighted to share their stories here in The Dish.

 We have much to celebrate at Penn this fall, including the announcement that our own Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, and Katalin Karikó, PhD, have received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their pioneering work in the development of the messenger RNA vaccine platform. This accomplishment is particularly monumental for BGS, as several of our students and alumni have contributed to this groundbreaking work. In this issue of The Dish, we hear from Bart Anderson, GR’10, about his experience working with Drs. Karikó and Weissman as a doctoral student in Cell and Molecular Biology (CAMB). Bart’s experience mirrors the experiences we hear about from so many BGS graduates: phenomenal mentorship, cutting-edge research, and a true sense of belonging.

 We also feature in this issue current Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology (MVP) student and Presidential PhD Fellow Rachel Richards. Rachel shares her appreciation for the people who have made her BGS experience so positive and discusses her passion for research and for increasing diversity in the STEM fields.

 As we approach a time of year during which many like to express gratitude for the good things in their lives, I am particularly thankful for our vibrant BGS community. Our students, faculty, and alumni represent the compassion, hope, and positive action our world needs. I am grateful to be in such amazing company.    

 I hope you enjoy this issue of The Dish. Thank you for your continued support of BGS.

Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, PhD
Professor of Pathology, Department of Oral Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Director, Biomedical Graduate Studies, Perelman School of Medicine

Alumni Spotlight: Bart Anderson, GR’10

Receiving the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 was an especially profound moment for Bart Anderson, GR’10. Bart, a molecular biologist cross-trained in immunology, neuroscience, and genetics, studied the therapeutic use of mRNA as a doctoral student in the Cell and Molecular Biology (CAMB) Graduate Group. Working with recently named Nobel Laureates Katalin Karikó, PhD, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, Bart contributed to the research that enabled the platform used to rapidly develop the lifesaving mRNA vaccines amid a global pandemic.

Bart describes the moment as surreal. “It was just incredibly rewarding,” he says of receiving the vaccine. “I was a part of something that did a lot of good. I wanted to make sure I was doing something that could help. And so that moment was huge.”

Fast forward to 2023, and Bart is thrilled to see the mentors with whom he worked so closely receive the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

“Very often when I think about Nobel Prize winners, I think of people who have been ‘science famous’ for a while already. They have massive labs with armies of postdocs, and they're doing these big collaborative things with lots and lots of people involved and then a few headliners get the Nobel Prize. My experience with Drew and Kati was very different from that,” he explains. “I am thrilled to see them getting this acknowledgement. They were both very focused on doing good science that was going to be beneficial. And that focus then translated to helping millions of people.”

As Bart began his doctoral studies in 2004, Dr. Weissman suggested he work on his collaboration with Dr. Karikó. Bart worked side by side with Dr. Karikó at the bench, studying immune responses to RNA. As a mentor, Dr. Karikó was thoughtful and engaged, Bart says.

“She was right next to me doing experiments all the time. She was actively doing the research herself every day and training me on how to do the experiments. We would talk through data, and when I wrote things, she read them very carefully and worked on how to tell that story with me.”

Bart also benefited tremendously from his interactions with his formal mentor, Dr. Weissman, who worked closely with him on his data, slides, and writing, and on how he portrayed and interpreted results. Both Drs. Karikó and Weissman were supportive, accessible mentors invested in modeling good science, Bart says.

Bart’s contributions in the lab helped the team find that innate immune responses to RNA were generally decreased, and translation of mRNA was increased, when modified nucleosides were introduced into the RNA. Additional studies focused on developing a new vaccination strategy based on a conditionally replicative HIV vector which induces T-cell mediated immunity. His first-author manuscript was published in Nucleic Acids Research in 2010 and was identified by the Nobel committee as one of three critical publications.

BGS student contributions to this groundbreaking, lifesaving work were not limited to Bart’s discoveries. Michael Buckstein, GR’06, was second author on another of the three publications, this one focused on the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA. This paper was published in Immunity in 2005. In fact, over the past 20 years, 21 CAMB students were lead or co-authors on 40 publications from the Weissman Lab, many of which were collaborative work between the labs of Drs. Weissman and Karikó.

“The BGS graduate groups attract students that are essential contributors to the research mission of the Perelman School of Medicine,” says Daniel S. Kessler, PhD, chair of the CAMB graduate group. “The BGS graduate students are exceptionally talented, motivated, and passionate about their research and, as a community, collaborate to elevate the quality of the work accomplished. These young scientists, pursuing their thesis research in CAMB and the other graduate groups, are essential to the success of the research mission. Again and again, we see the contributions of these students at the heart of the most impactful, most important work of Penn Med.”

Dr. Kessler says that Penn Medicine’s mission of joining basic and clinical science in a translational realm enables more students to see the results of their work just as Bart has, only sooner.

“Twenty years ago, this was an aspirational thought. We would say to students, ‘Come here and do basic science for the benefit of the world at large,’” he explains. “But the realistic opportunities to do that within the period of a student's thesis work were rather limited. The nature of the work today and the focus of Penn Med on translational science has given our students an opportunity to see the broader impact of their work. Students doing foundational basic science in the laboratory move their discoveries forward to translational and preclinical studies. For some, by the time they complete their thesis work, their initial discoveries have matured to the point of being implemented in clinical trials. The previous aspirational idea is now a practical reality in the experience of the students, and this is why Penn Med attracts the most talented students. They want to see their work have that impact.”

For his part, after graduating from Penn, Bart completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University, where he studied RNA-miRNA-protein interactions in neurological disorders. He then worked for eight years at biotechnology company Exicure, leading drug discovery and development. Today, in his role as Senior Director of Novel Modalities at Grünenthal, Bart applies his background in RNA-based therapeutics to advance new pain therapeutics outside of conventional small molecules. In each of these roles, Bart has focused his efforts on helping people, just as his doctoral mentors had done. Fame was never a motivator for Drs. Karikó and Weissman, and Dr. Karikó often said that if her work helped at least one person, it would all be worth it, he recalls.

“That’s really been the key for me, and why I chose this field,” Bart says. “The thought that what I do might really help someone helps me get out of bed in the morning. That was a big part of their ethos, too, and that’s been a big driving factor for me ever since.”

Today, Bart marvels at how the timing of the progression of mRNA technology and the critical need the world suddenly faced came together just a few years ago.

“No one wants a pandemic to make what they do worthwhile,” he says. “That said, if the pandemic was coming either way, it sure was great to see that what we had done could help.”

Student Spotlight: Rachel Richards, GR’29

When Rachel Richards was a child, her family emigrated from Jamaica to the United States so her mother could pursue a PhD in food microbiology at the University of Georgia. Today, Rachel is following in her mother’s footsteps, pursuing her own passion for microbiology as a second-year doctoral student in the Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology (MVP) Graduate Group.

Rachel recalls attending the biology classes her mother taught at a college in Missouri, where the family had moved for her father to earn his own PhD.

“I was a very inquisitive child,” she explains. “I was the kid in class who was always saying, ‘But why?’ and asking all the extra questions. I felt science was the one field in which I could ask as many questions as possible, and that was not only accepted – it was celebrated.”

Now, as a Presidential PhD Fellow at Penn working in the lab of Sunny Shin, PhD, Rachel focuses on cell death from the microbiology perspective. In particular, she studies Salmonella – the same Gram negative, rod-shaped bacterium her mother studied during her own PhD.  

Rachel’s interest in microbiology, epidemiology, and public health grew during middle school when she participated on a Science Olympiad team and drove her to find ways to help build her community, such as teaching music classes and instrument lessons at her church in Charlotte. Later, she earned a full scholarship to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (A&T) State University, a historically black university and top producer of African American STEM graduates. At North Carolina A&T, Rachel studied biology and was a student researcher in a microbiology and immunology lab investigating the efficacy of a novel approach to treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. During her undergraduate years, she also completed an internship at Tufts University School of Medicine, where she investigated the mechanism behind the PA-X protein of the Influenza A virus, and two internships at the Perelman School of Medicine that served as her introduction to Penn: a virtual Summer Undergraduate Internship Program (SUIP) in 2020 and another in Summer 2021 in which she studied the innate immune defenses, specifically the downstream responses of TNF signaling, to Legionella pneumophila. 

“I would say my journey into science has really been a journey to the top of the mountain over the span of my entire lifetime so far,” she says. “So now, being here at Penn, in a PhD program I wanted to get into and getting the training I always dreamed of – that has really been such a blessing.”

Rachel says she was drawn to Penn because of its people. Her mentor during her virtual SUIP experience, Dr. Shin, had a tremendous impact. Dr. Shin provided the training Rachel had always yearned for and was patient while also pushing her to her potential. She encouraged Rachel to return to Penn for a second summer internship in her lab, this time in person. The positive and supportive relationship she formed with Dr. Shin is what inspired Rachel to join BGS.

“It is such an honor and privilege for me to mentor Rachel from her time as an SUIP student until now as BGS graduate student,” says Dr. Shin. “Rachel’s passion for science as well as community outreach and DEI in STEM is truly inspiring. It brings me so much joy to see Rachel grow as a scientist while making a positive impact on BGS, Penn, and the greater community.”

Rachel credits many other Penn faculty, including Kellie Ann Jurado, PhD; Donita C. Brady, PhD; and De’Broski R. Herbert, PhD; as well as fellow BGS students Ariana Campbell and Carl Bannerman, for her positive experiences.  

“These are the leaders in the field that I want to work with and who I want to learn from because they show their humanity. These are people who understand that I'm not a robot only here to produce numbers – I'm a person who will contribute her own ideas and initiatives to strengthen the DEI efforts and the scientific efforts of BGS. And so I'm eternally grateful to them,” Rachel says.   

Dr. Shin and Daniel S. Kessler, PhD, were instrumental in nominating Rachel for the Presidential PhD Fellowship, a three-year fellowship that includes summer support and funds to support her research. First announced in Fall 2020, the President’s PhD Initiative is a six-year, $30 million initiative to support doctoral education at Penn. Fellows are selected from among incoming PhD students across the university and must demonstrate exceptional academic promise, contribute to increasing diversity in their fields, have an exceptionally innovative or impactful research agenda, and demonstrate leadership potential.

In addition to her research, Rachel is focused on inequity in the STEM fields. She deeply values diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work and has participated in many community outreach activities in the cities in which she’s lived. During her time as an undergraduate in Greensboro, NC, she served as a mentor and tutor, worked to increase awareness of HIV and STI testing resources in the local community, organized a winter clothing drive for the area’s homeless population, and planned a care package drive for the elderly population during the pandemic. She has continued with similar efforts at Penn, directing her service toward children with an eye toward increasing DEI in biomedical research and other STEM fields. She helped organize a book drive within the Department of Microbiology, donating more than 100 books to schools in West Philadelphia and other areas of the city to benefit the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC). More recently, Rachel planned a read-aloud event in collaboration with DEI and student organizations. During the event, doctoral students and postdocs visited several local schools to read aloud a book focused on a concept related to STEM. They then conducted a Q&A session in which students could learn and ask questions about the volunteers’ research and goals and how reading supported their growth within STEM.   

With a growing curiosity about public health and epidemiology, Rachel wants to advance understanding of emerging infectious diseases and use integrated surveillance to track outbreaks. She envisions working with the Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization and hopes to someday develop standards for tracking epidemics and outbreaks to help stop them more quickly. And as she works to reach her own goals, she remains dedicated to ensuring that children and young people have similar opportunities to do the same through outreach opportunities.

“My goal is to get students at a very young age into the STEM pipeline,” she says. “They're able to see there are people in science who look like them and that science isn't just for one specific group or one demographic. We want to show them that there are resources and there are opportunities.”

Make a Difference: Give to the BGS Fellowship Fund Today

Graduate students at the Perelman School of Medicine are the backbone of all the remarkable research happening here at Penn. If you would like to support the BGS students’ efforts and ensure future generations of scientists have similar opportunities, we ask that you consider making a gift to the Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) Fellowship Fund. Your support provides our brilliant students with the resources they need to be at the forefront of scientific discovery.

You can make a gift online or send a check payable to "The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania" and include “Biomedical Graduate Studies Fellowship Fund” in the memo line.

Mail it to:

Penn Medicine Development
c/o Amelia Klein
3535 Market Street, Suite 750
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Thank you for your partnership.