Gustav Cederquist, a fifth-year student in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD program at Weill Cornell Medicine, has received an honorable mention from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. for the fourth annual Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation.
The biopharmaceutical company each year honors postdoctoral fellows and graduate students who have shown early promise in the sciences. Nominees are required to submit a proposal for a "dream project" that they would undertake if given unlimited resources. Cederquist's project focused on gene therapy, specifically on improved methods for gene delivery — research that earned him an honorable mention and a $10,000 cash prize, which he received during the Regeneron Prize Dinner on July 13.
"I feel incredibly fortunate to pursue a career that might allow me to translate basic scientific discoveries into innovative therapies," Cederquist said. "Receiving the honorable mention helps to shape these ideas, encouraging me to think about genetic medicine as a possible career goal."
While his theoretical project would focus on gene therapy, his actual doctoral research focuses on studying the biology of autism. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core deficits in social behavior, and is associated with a variety of genetic mutations. However, unlike in cancer research where scientists can biopsy tumors and study them in the laboratory, scientists studying autism do not have access to brain tissue.
Working with mentor Dr. Lorenz Studer, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cederquist is creating models of the developing brain using human stem cells. By engineering the stem cells to harbor the exact mutations found in autism patients, he is able to recreate brain models of autism and to pinpoint when and where problems arise.
"We have ways of turning stem cells into the exact tissue seen in autism, which gives us a platform to study the disease," he said.
Dr. Olaf Andersen, director of the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program, said Cederquist's award was an important recognition. "I am incredibly proud of Gustav and his ability to think so creatively outside of the box," Dr. Andersen said. "This is an amazing accomplishment."