The Rudy A Menon Foundation has been working towards the need of having a dedicated PhD student in Prof Chris Jones lab at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. This student would work solely on Gliomatosis Cerebri (GC) and would be able to give GC complete focus.
We are happy to share with you that our hard work has finally borne fruit this year and a candidate has recently been chosen for what is being called the Rudy A Menon PhD Studentship. The position had been published and after going through innumerable applications and a vetting process, a candidate has been selected.
Shauna Crampsie has a background in neuroscience and neuroimaging, as well as experience in molecular cell biology, and has been working at the UCL Brain
Bank. After Prof Chris Jones and his team felt Shauna was the right person, a Skype interview was held with Dr Mara Vinci of the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome and with Dr Mariella Filbin at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. They all agreed she was the best candidate for the job!
This is a first in GC history and we believe it will give GC Research the push and focus it needs. Shauna will work under the guidance of Prof Chris Jones in his lab in London at the ICR as well as with Dr Mariella Filbin and Dr Mara Vinci who are all very excited about this huge step forward.
The Rudy A Menon Foundation is very proudly committed to sponsoring this PhD student for four years as she completes her Research.
In her first year, she will spend a few months in Boston in Dr Mariella Filbin’s lab, before returning back to ICR to Prof Chris Jones lab. She will also later spend time in Dr Mara Vinci’s lab in Rome, possibly in her second and third year.
The timing has been excellent in more ways than one. We have been working with Prof Chris Jones and hoping we would be able to have a decision regarding the candidate ahead of the Barcelona Conference so that we could share this huge step forward with you before we attend the GC Conference in Barcelona. Though she does not officially start with Prof Chris Jones till the end of October, she has made herself available for the Conference.
The finer details of how the Research will work are still being worked out between Prof Chris Jones, Dr Mara Vinci and Dr Mariella Filbin. Monthly Skype calls are already happening and will continue.
Dr Mariella Filbin will contribute specific expertise in single cell sequencing and Dr Mara Vinci in single cell proteomics. Prof Jones will cover genomics and all other aspects to bring the research together.
This is the first time in GC Research that an international collaboration has been set up. On many levels this is one of the hugest steps forward as this sharing of data and research opens the door for further collaborations hopefully.