Prof. Mark Poznansky is the Director of the Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center (VIC) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, which he founded to accelerate the discovery and development of new medical products for specific types of cancers, infectious and immune mediated diseases. One key part of VIC’s mission is the training of the next generation of innovators and scientists. Each summer Prof. Poznansky, who gained his PhD while at Clare College, provides stipendiary support for Natural Sciences or Medical students from Clare to spend 12 weeks at VIC under the supervision of a senior scientist. This annual program was initiated with the eminent Dr. Celia Duff at Clare and has been continued in a wonderful collaboration with Prof. Jason Carroll. While here at MGH, the Clare student receives extensive training in cutting edge experimental techniques and analysis of data and frequently gains coauthorship on publications ensuing from the original research conducted in the lab. Often times the selected Clare student has continued to be involved with the research remotely long after the completion of their studentship. Some Clare students requested to return for a second “tour of duty” at VIC the following summer. All the selected students from Clare College have been exceptional and many have gone on to successful careers in medicine and scientific research and report that the studentship changed their lives in pursuing a career in academia. We are now celebrating the 20th year of this very successful program that included former and current Clare students – from James Smith and Emma Anderton in 2002 and 2003 all the way to James Adeosun in 2022.
Celebrating the 20th Year of Annual Research Program at VIC for Clare College Students
