The Royal Society Career Development Fellowship is a newly launched initiative designed to support early career scientists from underrepresented backgrounds, especially those of black heritage. The fellowship will provide funding and mentorship over four years to allow the recipients to establish their careers. 

The scheme was put together to help combat the low representation of Black and multi-ethnic groups amongst applicants to early career fellowship schemes and combat the low number of black group leaders in the UK. This is evidenced by the 40% drop in people from ethnic backgrounds in teaching positions compared to research positions and that only 165 out of 23,515 science professors in the UK are black. The fellowship will provide funding to the recipients to contribute to their salary and research expenses, in addition to relocation and visa costs for them and their dependants if required. 

Dr Nsikan Nsek from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences is one of this year’s recipients of the fellowship. Nsikan plans to use the money to fund his research into tumour development and growth using fruit flies as a model. Part of what makes this work fascinating is the use of older model animals. Most model animals used in experiments are relatively young, due to time and budget constraints, while cancer is a disease of the old. The short life spans of fruit flies will allow Nsikan to conduct experiments on both young and old models to gain a better insight into the impact of ageing on tumour progression.  

This work represents a continuation in Nsikan’s interest for cancer biology that was sparked during his undergraduate degree. The changes that occur in a healthy cell to cause malignancy are small and hard to pinpoint. The challenge of trying to target these small differences within tumour cells without damaging healthy cells is something that Nsikan finds deeply interesting and is one reason why he plans to remain working in cancer research for as long as he can. 

When asked about the importance of the Royal Society Career Development Fellowship and other similar schemes Nsikan stated that the diversity enriches scientific research. In particular, he pointed to how few women are represented in group leader positions compared to postdoc positions. Nsikan believes that fellowships like this one are important for addressing the lack of representation in leadership positions in science. 

Representation is a topic of great importance to Nsikan. Going to school in Bethnal Green, he felt that attending the UCL Horizons programme helped solidify the possibility of a scientific career being in his future. He is now proud to be seen as a black scientist at a world class institute and being the representation for others to benefit from. 

His belief in representation is mirrored by his belief in mentorship. As someone who feels has benefited greatly from his mentors in the past, he feels it is important to pay this forward and be a good mentor for the next generation of scientists. This is part of what drew him to this fellowship which supplies mentorship and training for the awardees. Nsikan hopes that this will allow him to be a better mentor and teacher to the people he supervises. He also hopes that this mentorship will allow him to excel as a group leader when he eventually sets up his own independent lab. 

Nsikan will continue his work in the laboratory of Group Head Helena Cochemé at the LMS who’s work explores the role of redox signalling in metabolic pathways. Helena said of Nsikan’s achievements

“Nsikan is a truly talented scientist, and this fellowship will give him an excellent opportunity to support his path towards independence. This new scheme from the Royal Society is so important to promote diversity in academia, and complements the existing Athena Swan and EDI initiatives at the LMS. I’m incredibly proud to be hosting Nsikan for this award, and excited about the science ahead!”

 Professor Wiebke Arlt, the Director of the MRC LMS adds 

“Supporting researchers from diverse backgrounds is a key part of our research strategy – we will only be able to deliver truly groundbreaking science if we get prismatic views on big problems, which requires people from many different backgrounds and different perspectives.” 

In addition to his research, Nsikan also runs a blog called All-Things-Cancer Station. In his blog Nsikan explores a wide variety of topics relating to cancer in an accessible manner. While the blog started as an assignmentmasters during his degree, it is still going strong 7 years later. Nsikan said that the blog gives him an opportunity to look beyond his own niche in cancer biology and explore the wider field, discussing not just science but also how the public interacts with science. 

Another awardee from Imperial is Dr Timmy Delage who will be joining the Department of Physics’ Astrophysics Group, where he will work on early-stage planet formation. The fellowship is further represented in Imperial by Dr Mark Richards, Senior Teaching Fellow at the Department of Physics and a member of the Royal Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, who supplied significant input on the development of the fellowship.