Recent Rice grad awarded place in prestigious program

Recent Rice grad awarded place in prestigious program
Belgard adds scholarship accolades to already impressive portfolio

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Adding to his honors as a Marshall Scholarship winner, Grant Belgard ’08 has earned a place in the competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH)/Oxford University/Cambridge Scholars Program (OXCAM). The scholarship provides full financial support for its students who spend two years at both Oxford and the NIH while pursuing a doctorate in philosophy and conducting biomedical science research. 

As an OXCAM scholar, Belgard will pursue an accelerated program in collaborative, interdisciplinary biomedical research training that leverages the resources of Oxford, an internationally premier research university, with those of the NIH, the world’s largest biomedical research center.

	GRANT BELGARD

Belgard will use the support of the OXCAM program, combined with funding from the Marshall Aid Commemoration and a fellowship with New College, Oxford, to take part in a transnational collaborative research project in comparative neurogenomics. He will study the evolutionary history of the brain and identify functional parts of the genome in different brain regions.

“I am interested in answering questions about the evolution of the brain and what makes human brains different from other species’,” Belgard said. “Until now, we really haven’t had the technology to answer these questions or gather the data we need.”

The OXCAM award has changed Belgard’s research direction slightly. Initially, he had planned to study biochemistry and conduct computational work to understand how a particular class of membrane proteins behaves in the cell. He hoped to collect knowledge that could be important for developing drugs relating to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke and epilepsy.

Belgard still hopes his research will help others. By completing his current project, he would like to develop a “geographic map” of the brain that helps scientists know what regions of the body look like on a molecular level and how cells interface and affect others.

“We are looking to do what has never been done before,” Belgard said. “It is kind of risky to try something like this. We’re using brand new technology. But whatever we do will be helpful and able to be built upon.”

Mentors at both Oxford and the NIH will assist Belgard in choosing and conducting his research project. Belgard will spend two years at Oxford studying with Chris Ponting, professor of genomics and program leader of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Functional Genomics Unit. He will spend an additional two to three years at the NIH, under the direction of Elliott Margulies, a research investigator in the National Human Genome Research Institute. 

The Rice influence

Belgard said his research experience with Michael Wong, associate professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering and in chemistry, has been an invaluable part of his scientific education. Facilitated by the Rice Undergraduate Scholars Program (RUSP), Century Scholars and the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, Belgard worked with Wong on nanomaterials, and the team submitted a patent application on the work.

“The excitement at Rice has really encouraged me,” Belgard said. “My professors encouraged me to take classes outside my discipline. You always have to be learning and evolving. Rice gets that and that’s why the school has been hugely successful. It is willing to leave what’s safe and take a new approach, bring new ideas together and integrate disciplines.”

Belgard said some of his most eye-opening college memories were formed in the RUSP. The program taught him things about academia that have played a role in his career planning. Currently, he would like to be a researcher at a university or the NIH.

Belgard’s experience at Rice also encouraged him to serve others. He was involved in the Houston Scholars Program (HSP), which aids economically disadvantaged high school students attending Houston’s most highly selective schools. The students, who attend school on academic scholarships, are provided with boarding and support from HSP. Belgard was one of four resident staff members who lived with the students to serve as mentors, tutors, disciplinarians and friends.

About the program

The NIH OXCAM program is an accelerated, individualized doctoral training program for outstanding science students committed to biomedical research. It enables students to undertake a collaborative project in any area of biomedical investigation involving two mentors — one at the NIH intramural campus in Bethesda, Md., and one at either Oxford or Cambridge University. The students conduct research at both locations and potentially other sites, including fieldwork in Africa and elsewhere around the world.

All students participate in the enriched environment of the residential colleges of the U.K. universities and enjoy special educational opportunities that develop their understanding of disease outcomes and policy issues related to their studies. This prestigious program is highly selective in choosing scholars from a large pool of applicants that includes Marshall, Rhodes, Churchill, Fulbright and Gates scholarship recipients.