Nada Anzak “was young, full of ambition, and had a wonderful sense of adventure,” recalled Willy Lensch, PhD, Co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Internship Program (HIP). “She was a serious scientist, an exceptional friend and colleague in the lab, and a very accomplished student.” During her summer at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), in 2012, Anzak, then a medical student at King’s College London, even won an award from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists for her work in the HSCI program.
Tragically, Anzak died in 2013 at the age of 22 of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma — an aggressive form of blood cancer. This summer, HSCI honored her memory with the awarding of the Nada Anzak Memorial Award to HIP intern May Barakat, a Harvard undergraduate, at the conclusion of the 2015 internship program symposium.
Those who worked with Anzak recall how profoundly she influenced her fellow interns. “Even before her cancer diagnosis, Nada was the bravest person I had ever met,” said Lori Dershowitz, who spoke of her friend and former roommate at the award presentation. Nada openly talked about the struggles of being a female Muslim scientist in the United Kingdom, and she took every opportunity to explore Cambridge and Boston during her internship.
“Even when ill in the hospital, Nada would wear her t-shirt with the HSCI logo on it and would enthusiastically tell everyone how wonderful research at this great institution is. Nada truly valued the friends she made at Harvard,” wrote her mother, Huma Anzak, in a correspondence.
Since its founding, HSCI has invited more than 400 students from 126 different colleges and universities, both domestic and international, to spend ten weeks learning and participating in cutting-edge science in the labs of world-renowned stem cell researchers at HSCI.
“The internship program was one of the priorities when HSCI was established,” said Lensch during his opening remarks at the annual HIP symposium. “This is a field that we are very serious about, and it will continue if good people are available and interested in the work.”
Many former HSCI interns have gone on to complete a graduate degree, medical school, or a joint MD/PhD program. Other alumni have explored the business of biomedical science; for example, HIP alumni Craig Russo (HIP '13) and Sreyan Chowdhury (HIP '12) have formed the startup company, miLab Inc, to connect early-stage scientists with entrepreneurs and investors. A select few have had their work acknowledged by prestigious scholarship programs: Nouran Abdelfattah (HIP '11) was named a Gates Scholar, Samantha Olyha (HIP '12) won a Marshall Scholarship, and Elliot Akama-Garren (HIP '12) will join fellow Rhodes Scholars at the University of Oxford next year.
In addition to conducting their own research projects, this year’s 38 interns, selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, attended a weekly seminar series, stem cell companion course, and journal club where they dissected and discussed the field’s latest research articles. The program culminated with a daylong symposium where each intern shared his or her research findings.
At the end of the symposium, Lensch and Administrative Director, Maureen Herrmann, presented the inaugural Nada Anzak Memorial Award to Barakat, who studied cell regeneration in the lab of Jessica Whited, PhD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital during the summer as part of her Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology honors thesis at Harvard.
“Nada made the most of every moment during her time at HIP and worked to bring out the best in others. Last summer, May Barakat embraced that same approach and in so doing, improved the experience for everyone,” Lensch said. In addition to attending every academic and social event offered throughout the program, Barakat was a wonderful ambassador to interns from out of town, asked challenging questions and shared “exceptionally thoughtful observations,” said Lensch. Barakat also volunteered to organize the first student-run session of the journal club. “May set the bar as an individual and group contributor and was the obvious choice for the inaugural Nada Anzak Memorial Award.”
“I know how incredibly rare it is that one person should have such a positive impact on her peers, and to be given this award in Nada’s honor leaves me absolutely speechless,” said Barakat (pictured right with Nada Anzak's HSCI mentor, Dong Feng Chen, MD, PhD). “I am so grateful, and overwhelmed with pride if I have had even the smallest sliver of the effect that Nada had when she was here. Thank you all so much for giving me the honor of sharing something so special with her.”
A plaque engraved with the names of each annual recipient going forward will hang in the HSCI offices in Cambridge.
The HIP 2015 program was made possible thanks to the very generous financial support of the Vranos Family, Biogen Idec, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, EPSRC Center for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine (UK), and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.