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UAMS College of Medicine student Sydnye Shuttleworth will continue her pursuit to become a physician and cancer researcher with support from a National Cancer Institute fellowship.
Image by Jaison Sterling
UAMS M.D./Ph.D. Student Receives Fellowship Award from National Cancer Institute
| Sydnye Shuttleworth, a student in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and an affiliate trainee member of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship award for aspiring physician-scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Shuttleworth, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in the UAMS Graduate School in addition to a medical degree, is the first M.D./Ph.D. student at UAMS to receive the highly competitive Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the NCI. She joins an elite group across the country and a small group from UAMS who have received NRSA awards from one of the NIH institutes.
The $189,128 award, referred to as an F30 NRSA fellowship, provides four years of funding for Shuttleworth’s tuition, a stipend and an institutional allowance to support her research training.
“Ms. Shuttleworth’s NRSA fellowship is focused on the rapidly expanding field of engineering immune cells to be more effective and efficient at eliminating cancer cells, particularly those in solid tumors,” said Alan Tackett, Ph.D., deputy director of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and executive associate dean for basic research in the UAMS College of Medicine. “This specific area of research has the potential to transform how we utilize immunotherapies to treat patients with cancer.”
“Sydnye is one of those trainees who just doesn’t let up — in the best way,” said Shuttleworth’s mentor, Brian Koss, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “She is driven, deeply committed, and always thinking about how her work can make a real impact. That kind of focus is exactly what you want in a future physician-scientist, and it’s no surprise she has already earned competitive funding to support her research. She raises the bar for everyone around her, including me.”