Women, Science, and Mentoring: NextGen Leaders and Entrepreneurs

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

WATCH VIDEO

Host

Richard P. Lifton, M.D., Ph.D.

President
The Rockefeller University

Speakers

Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D.

Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor
Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of
Mammalian Cell Biology and Development
The Rockefeller University

Yejing Ge, Ph.D.

Former Women & Science Postdoctoral Fellow

Samantha B. Larsen

Former Women & Science Graduate Fellow

Our skin has a remarkable capacity to renew and repair itself. Whether suffering from sunburns, cuts, infections, or worse, our skin cells mount an inflammatory response to halt the damage and initiate repair. The laboratory of Elaine Fuchs studies the role of adult stem cells in this process. New research from her laboratory is elucidating the normal mechanisms stem cells use to protect and heal the skin, while also revealing what happens when these processes go awry. This research has enormous implications for understanding wound healing and inflammation-both in the skin and the gut-as well as autoimmune disorders and proliferative diseases such as cancer.

Recently, Dr. Fuchs and the members of her laboratory have embraced opportunities to pursue the translational potential of their work. In the new, necessary, and exhilarating entrepreneurial climate of biomedical research, many investigators are moving their basic science in therapeutic directions, demonstrating the medical potential of new findings and shepherding discoveries toward early clinical trials.

Rockefeller is at the forefront of this important trend. Thanks to enlightened philanthropy, our scientists have the ability to explore the clinical significance of their work and to envision innovative medical applications. Dr. Fuchs will discuss academic entrepreneurship through the lens of her own research and with particular emphasis on preparing women postdoctoral investigators and students to become future leaders at the interface between basic science and translational research. She will be joined by two researchers from her lab, Yejing Ge, Ph.D., and graduate student Samantha Larsen. Both women have received coveted translational research grants and will share some of their recent direction-setting results.

Elaine Fuchs is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2008, and is the recipient of many honors, including, most recently, the 2017 McEwen Award for Innovation, which recognizes transformative research that opens new avenues toward the treatment of human disease.