Perspectives from a BRIDGE fellow
Perspectives from a BRIDGE fellow: A future leading role in translational research
We have asked MD, PhD and fellow Song Guo as well as his mentors about their motivation for being part of the BRIDGE programme, what they are looking forward to and their expectations.
Song Guo desires to have a future leading role in translational research at the Danish Headache Center. He wants to enable bidirectional translation between animals and humans, hopefully making the world a better place for patients with headache disorders. He believes in teamwork as one of the characteristics of successful contemporary science. And he feels very dedicated to educate himself further, discuss with experts in different fields and establish interesting new collaborations:
'The BRIDGE programme is a unique opportunity for me to network and educate myself as a translational researcher. I have a huge interest, respect and insight into the challenges of this process and feel dedicated to contribute with my clinical knowledge and experience. I believe that only through collaboration between clinical, basic and pharmaceutical sciences can we provide better care and therapies for patients'.
A unique collaboration of basic, clinical and pharmaceutical sciences
Song Guo continues: 'The setup of four mentors forms a unique collaboration that includes basic, clinical and pharmaceutical sciences. In combination with the facilities at the university, Glostrup Research Institute and Lundbeck Research Department, the mentor team provides an optimal training site for me to develop into a competent translational researcher and form an excellent basis for the BRIDGE programme'.
Multidisciplinary expertise and guidance
One of Song Guo's clinical mentors is Messoud Ashina. He is a Clinical Professor in Neurology, Director of Human Migraine Research Unit at The Danish Headache Center & Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet-Glostrup. He expresses:
'As clinical scientist I think it is important to interact with basic researchers. The BRIDGE-programme provides a unique opportunity for such interaction. The strengths of the programme are multidisciplinary expertise and guidance'.
Living the bench-to-bedside experience
Song Guo's life science industry mentor is Ayodeji Asuni, who is Discovery Project Leader/Principal Scientist, Department of Neuroscience, at Lundbeck A/S. He states:
'Opportunities like this gives us a chance to contribute to the education of the next generation of transformational scientist, by sharing our Neuroscience expertise, and at the same time collaborations like this gives us access to innovations and innovative thinkers in brain health'.
He continues:
'The biggest plus for this setup is that we the mentors; based on our diverse expertise in basic and applied research as well as drug discovery, truly complement each other, and give the candidate (Song Guo) the best opportunity to really live the bench-to-bedside experience not many scientists typically live. This is a good chance to ask basic pharmacology questions, and then answer them in mechanistic animal models and potentially in humans'.