NeuroHealth Newsletter

“I like maverick approaches” page 5

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

1. Welcome!

2. Experiencing the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting I

3. Experiencing the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting II

4. Life after NeuroHealth

5. Drughunter’s corner

6. End of year 1 BBQ

This DN newsletter marks the maturation of DN in terms of the first students completing their masters' thesis and even some of them have already secured a PhD position.

For me this moment also marks passing the finish-line, as I have decided to ‘continue my career’ by going into early retirement. I will hand over the baton to Rudy Schreiber, who will take over the role of coordinator of this Research Master specialization. I will remain registered to UM but in a honorary role in order to keep being affiliated to some research projects, and to be available as advisor for DN.

The one thing that I am most happy about and proud of, is that all students who started the first (14) and the second year (13) of DN are still there! In addition 20 new students will start this year!

In this newsletter you will find subsequently: three reports from 2nd year students: two who presented a poster in Lunteren (NL), at the annual Dutch Neuroscience Meeting, one internship report by probably the first DN student who successfully applied for a PhD position, a so-called drug hunter interview and finally an atmospheric impression from the end-of-year BBQ of the 1st year students.

Welcome! By Wim Riedel

Currently I am an Intern at the Cryan Lab, University College Cork, Ireland. My area of research is related to early postnatal brain development and how mild gut microbiota changes, induced by caesarean-section delivery, might impact normal central nervous system architecture. I was one of the lucky students to attend the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting, (DNM) the 7th and 8th of June 2018, at the beautiful conference center of De Wereld, at Lunteren. Since I started my internship under the supervision of John Cryan and Emanuela Morelli I have realized how important its is to keep yourself updated within the scope of your own research, and in the broad world of neuroscience. Nevertheless, staying informed can become quite an arduous task. For this reason, attending conferences is a brilliant way to learn about other’s colleagues work together with new techniques and research possibilities. I would strongly recommend any DN student to join next year’s DNM, not only to broaden your horizon, but also to learn new skills such as poster design and defense. These skills will be really helpful for anyone willing to pursue a career in the scientific world. I am elated that young research master’s students, like me, are given the opportunity to present their data to fellow scientists. I really enjoyed the event and the experience as a whole.

Experiencing the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting-I By Alicia Molinero-Perez, 2nd year DN student

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I am approaching the end of my Master’s degree in Drug Development and Neurohealth and as one final endeavor I submitted an abstract summarizing my research work to the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting. This was my first time attending a scientific conference and despite the popular media depiction of scientists as antisocial individuals; I must say that I disagree; academia is an inherently collaborative profession. At the undergraduate level, it is sometimes difficult to see the exchanges across laboratories, yet, during an academic conference there is a cross-fertilization of ideas where researchers present their projects, discuss their results, network with prospective collaborators, and socialize with their peers.

By participating in a poster presentation, I gained soft-skills that will be valuable at every level of my academic career. I prepared a visual representation of my work on the epigenetic regulation of oxidative stress in neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases and presented the summary of my findings to other attendees. I had the opportunity to discuss my findings and gain positive feedback from like-minded individuals and experts in the field of neuroscience, enabling me to gain alternative perspectives regarding my research work. Nothing is more rewarding than when a pioneer of the field is interested in your work! On the other hand, I also was able to explore the leading edge of the neuroscience discipline and make connections by attending oral presentations and lectures discussing recent discoveries circulating in the field. This helped me to identify potential projects, laboratories, and institutions that I would like to work with in the future.

So, to conclude, if you have the chance to go to the next Dutch Neuroscience Meeting, I would strongly recommend it as it not only gives you valuable insight and skills but most of all it is great fun!

Wim Riedel, Amy Holland, Ana-Maria Pistikou (FN), Jos Prickaerts (FN)

Experiencing the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting-II By Amy Holland, 2nd year DN student

I joined the ‚Drug Development and Neurohealth’ master in September 2016 because I believe that it combines the most relevant and most important aspects concerning pharmaceutical research, fundamental neurosciences, and the drug development process. For me, the drug discovery process is very fascinating because it offers the opportunity to actively work on a solution for the patients that are suffering from a certain disease. In the first year of the Drug Development and Neurohealth track, I participated in many different courses which did not only broaden my horizon, but also taught me practical laboratory skills, as well as scientific writing and presenting skills. The interdisciplinary nature of this track enables me to view scientific problems from different perspectives and taught me the value of international and interdisciplinary research teams. It also enabled me to work independently on a project such as writing a review paper or preparing a scientific paper discussion round. I think that this master gives students the opportunity to grow as a professional and that it lays the foundation for a great scientific career.

Learning all about the drug discovery process in my classes, I wanted to experience this process first hand, which is why I decided to pursue my research internship at a pharmaceutical company. With the fantastic support from our mentors, I was able to receive a position as a research intern at Grünenthal GmbH in Aachen, Germany. Working at a company is different from working at an university with regards to the structure, organization and goals that the different parties might have. I am very grateful that I was able to make my own experiences in both an academic and an industrial setting, as this allowed me to already think about where I might want to work later in my career. During my time at Grünenthal, I learned to be extremely structured, to organize my own experiments, and to work independently in the lab. In a very short period of time, I gained an entire new skills set and valuable knowledge concerning laboratory skills, working with new pharmaceutical substances, and working towards the goal of developing a new drug for the market. I believe that theoretical courses at Maastricht University are essential, but the knowledge, skills and experiences one can learn during a nine-month internship are invaluable for a future career path as a scientist.

During my internship, I realized that I would like to stay within the pre-clinical research area and to continue my studies with a PhD. In April 2018 I was offered a three-year PhD position at Queen Mary University of London, UK which I will be starting in October. This position is funded by the MS society UK, as I will be working on the temperature sensitivity of optic nerve axons in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. With this, I hope to be able to contribute to our understanding of MS and to ultimately improve the lives of millions of people worldwide suffering from MS.

Life after the NeuroHealth Research Master

By Lavinia Przyborowski, 2nd year DN student

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“all drug hunters are good scientists, but a good scientist is not necessarily a good drug hunter”

Thomas Large, CEO & co-founder Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals

http://blueoakpharma.com

“I like maverick approaches”

I am meeting my former boss at the AstraZeneca Boston Biohub incubator where the company is located that he and Kerry Spear (see interview in the January 2018 newsletter) recently founded. In contrast to Kerry, Tom was not in a hurry to join the industry. He was for 8 years assistant professor at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, before he took a position at Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis. A recurrent motivation for mid career scientists to move to industry is that they got tired of the non-stop grant writing and the low succes rates (for NIH grants this is about 8%). Not so for Tom. He actually liked writing grants, and it surly must have helped that all (!) his grant applications were accepted. Instead, he got uncomfortable with the absence of a clear career path at academia. And the prospect of doing the same things in the same environment for decades to come was increasingly haunting him: “I felt like I was with one foot in the grave”. At Lilly, Tom “walked into a new world”. The company had a strong record in CNS (Lilly invented, amongst others, Prozac®) and with Darryle Schoepp a true ‘drug hunter’ was leading the Neuroscience group. In 2007, Tom became the leader of the Neuroscience discovery group at Sepracor in Marlborough, Massachusetts. He championing a target agnostic or phenotypical drug discovery approach. It started as an experiment and the desire to do something more radical; or in his words: “I like maverick approaches”. But then the phenotypical approach took off and Sunovion (the new name for Sepracor) has now several drugs from his discovery programs in clinical trials. This is a remarkable accomplishment as career academic scientists often struggle in industry. Perhaps, as Tom mentions, because “all drug hunters are good scientists, but a good scientist is not necessarily a good drug hunter”. Accordingly, one would have to complete sufficient academic training to become a good scientist, whilst being early enough involved in drug discovery to become a good drug hunter. We are coming full circle when we discuss the options for young scientists to start a career in drug discovery. Tom admires the 20-somethings that decide to become scientist-entrepeneurs. And for the more adventurous and ambituous this may be a good alternative to joining an existing company. There are advantages starting your own company at a young age when one is fearless and feels immortal. There is also financially less at stake and one has a longer runway for multiple attempts to get it right. The alternative is to start a company late in one’s career, which is obviously the route Tom and Kerry have taken with Blue Oak and both certainly seem not to regret it!

The Drug Hunters Corner By Rudy Schreiber

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The cohort of 2017 has 13 students from 8 different countries. And despite cultural differences, we have grown into a family. Courses in PBL-concept, discussions and learning groups have brought us together. Parties and Sit-Ins have deepened the bound and resulted in friendship. I’m more than happy to be part of this group and this master program! Even though the first year of the Master had its stressful periods, where students complained about the workload, it is now official that everybody passed the first year successfully! While our interests first were mainly devoted to the study fields of our Bachelor, by now most of the people studying psychology have shifted their interest to the pre-clinical area in Drug Development and managed to find an internship in this area. This master and the professors helped all of us to find ourselves and supported our development to become great future researchers. During the regular student-meets-staff meetings, students had the opportunity to exchange with the professors in a relaxed environment. We always enjoyed these meetings and appreciated our professors a lot. Hence, as our coordinator Wim Riedel announced that he is retiring, it was a sad moment for us students. We wish you all the best for the future Wim. Thank you for this master, thank you for this year! And welcome in our little family to Rudy Schreiber, our new Coordinator for Drug Development! The last student meets staff meeting-BBQ, DN students, and Professors.

A special year for all of us By Jana Schließeit 1st year DN student

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