Five previous Mayo Fellows talk about their experience and how this will be used in their future careers in these case studies below.
Alessandro Prete
Clinical Research Fellow
Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
I visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, from May to June 2017 and was hosted by Dr Irina Bancos (Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition). I had the opportunity to observe and appreciate the “Mayo approach” of world-renowned specialists in the fields of adrenal, pituitary, bone and thyroid disorders. Overall, I feel that that the Mayo visit was a complete success and a unique experience that has left a long-lasting impression. It is my sincere wish and goal to develop a career as an academic endocrinologist and to perform internationally leading research following a true clinician scientist approach. The Birmingham Mayo Academic Exchange programme fellowship provided the ideal platform to set this goal in motion and represented a crucial step in my career development.
Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos
Clinician Scientist in Endocrinology and Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist
Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
I visited the Mayo Clinic from 30 March 2015 to 22 May 2015 and was hosted by Dr Adrian Vella whose research interests are in human metabolic physiology and in particular in the regulation of insulin secretion and the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. I returned having learned a range of new techniques for my research and having established good links with a world-leading department in the field of human metabolic research that will be useful in the future. Overall, I feel that all my personal objectives were met and that the Mayo visit was a complete success.
Dr Danae Delivanis
Endocrine Fellow
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA
I visited Birmingham from the Mayo Clinic during November/December 2016 and was hosted by Professor Wiebke Arlt (Institute of Metabolism & Systems). I am grateful for the amazing opportunity to be mentored by researchers in the University of Birmingham’s Endocrinology Research Unit as this has allowed me to expand my knowledge and explore new approaches in endocrine practice.
Dr Alex Sinclair
NIHR Clinician Scientist and Neurology Consultant,
Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
I visited the Mayo Clinic Phoenix Arizona between 5th November and 3rd December 2016 was hosted by Professor David Doddick, clinical and academic lead for the headache centre at the Mayo clinic and he is also the President of the American Headache Society. As a result of this visit I have gained significant insight and ideas for innovating the Clinical Headache service in Birmingham. But additionally I have formed important collaborations to enable future grant submissions. I plan to organise a short further visit to enable preliminary data to be collected and to plan the details of a grant submission (between University of Birmingham and the Mayo clinic). It has been a unique opportunity that will enable me to build future research collaborations and significantly enhance my own academic portfolio.
Dr Richard Borrows
Department of Nephrology and Transplantation
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
I visited the Mayo Clinic, Rochester for a period of 8 weeks during July and August 2016. I am, and will remain, hugely grateful for the opportunity afforded to me in regard to visiting the Mayo Clinic. It was a most valuable experience, which I believe has broadened my understanding of research methodology, clinical practice and Health Care systems. I am especially grateful that the Trustees considered it useful that a more senior clinician such as myself be given this opportunity (as opposed to the more traditional involvement of research fellows). I suspect what I learnt from the experience (and hopefully what I offered in reciprocity) was accordingly different, but no less valuable.
Dr Sandeep Potluri
Clinical Research Fellow/Haematology SpR
Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
I visited the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota for 3 months from March 2019 and was hosted by Dr Alexandre Gaspar Maia and Dr Mrinal Patnaik. I predominantly worked in the labs and helped establish with the Mayo Clinic a new methodology for single cell ATAC-seq which was used on a variety of samples from patients with cancer, in order to understand gene regulation on an individual cell level in cancer. I have been able to bring this technique back to Birmingham. I also attended haematology rounds and clinics in order to appreciate how the Mayo attempted to treated some very difficult and refractory cancers. This is an amazing fellowship that allowed me to advance my skills as a clinician and a scientist and am very grateful to the trustees; I would highly recommend this opportunity to anyone.