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Research Opportunities

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Prospective Students

The goal of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge (OxCam) Scholars Program is to create, foster, and advance unique and collaborative research opportunities between NIH laboratories and laboratories at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. Each OxCam Scholar develops a collaborative research project that will constitute his/her doctoral training. Each Scholar also select two mentors – one at the NIH and one in the UK – who work together to guide the Scholar throughout the research endeavor.

Students may select from two categories of projects: Self-designed or Prearranged. OxCam Scholars may create a self-designed project, which enables students to develop a collaborative project tailored to his/her specific scientific interests by selecting one NIH mentor and one UK mentor with expertise in the desired research area(s). Alternatively, students may select a prearranged project provided by NIH and/or UK Investigator(s) willing to mentor an OxCam Scholar in their lab.

Self-designed Projects 
Students may create a novel (or de novo) project based on their unique research interests. Students have the freedom to contact any PI at NIH or at Oxford or Cambridge to build a collaboration from scratch. The NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) represents a community of approximately 1,200 tenured and tenure-track investigators providing a wealth of opportunity to explore a wide variety of research interests. Students may visit https://irp.nih.gov to identify NIH PIs performing research in the area of interest. For additional tips on choosing a mentor, please visit our Training Plan.

Prearranged Projects
Investigators at NIH or at Oxford or Cambridge have voluntarily offered collaborative project ideas for NIH OxCam Scholars. These projects are provided below and categorized by research area, NIH Institute/Center, and University. In some cases, a full collaboration with two mentors is already in place. In other instances, only one PI is identified, which allows the student to select a second mentor to complete the collaboration. Please note that prearranged project offerings are continuously updated throughout the year and are subject to change.

1 Search Results

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Category:
RNA Biology
Project:

Harnessing Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation in Lymphocyte Immune Responses: Implications for Cellular Immunotherapy

Project Listed Date:
Institute or Center:
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
NIH Mentor:

Dr. Eugene Valkov

UK Mentor:

Prof. Martin Turner

University:
Cambridge
Project Details:

Lymphocytes respond to infection by rapidly increasing and decreasing the expression of many genes in a highly regulated manner. This regulation requires the integration of transcription, mRNA decay and translation. We are only just beginning to understand how these processes are integrated with each other. The host labs are studying how the multiprotein CCR4-NOT complex and its associated RNA binding proteins control gene expression. By combining structural and molecular biology approaches with cellular immunology and mouse models of immune responses we offer a broad training experience and the opportunity to discover fundamental mechanisms of gene regulation in the immune system. The discoveries have application in modifying the potency and durability of cellular immune therapies such as anti-tumour CART cell responses and the student will have an opportunity to apply fundamental knowledge to these applications.

References
The timing of differentiation and potency of CD8 effector function is set by RNA binding proteins. Nat Commun. 2022 doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29979-x. PMID: 35477960; PMCID: PMC9046422.

Regulation of the multisubunit CCR4-NOT deadenylase in the initiation of mRNA degradation. Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2022 doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2022.102460. Epub 2022 Sep 16. PMID: 36116370; PMCID: PMC9771892.

The nexus between RNA-binding proteins and their effectors. Nat Rev Genet. 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41576-022-00550-0. Epub 2022 Nov 23. PMID: 36418462; PMCID: PMC10714665.

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