Gonville & Caius College student Ujjawal Kumar (Medicine 2018) has been honoured at two high-profile surgical conferences after expanding upon research which began during his final year of preclinical studies. He is now in the fifth year of his medicine degree, based at the School of Clinical Medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

Ujjawal was awarded the top prize at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery of Great Britain and Ireland in May. He was the recipient of the Ronald Edwards Medal for best scientific presentation for his talk entitled “snoRNAs: a genetic marker to inform the choice of conduit for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) and potential mechanism of action”. The SCTS annual meeting is the national showpiece event for everyone involved in heart and lung surgery: consultant surgeons, trainees, other healthcare professionals and medical students interested in the field.

Ujjawal has also presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Clinical Research conferences, where he was awarded the University Perelman Prize for the best research presentation by a medical student. In October 2022 he gave multiple presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society in Miami, Florida, where he was awarded for the best oral cardiac poster presentation. In the last week, he has also presented at the European Summit on Cardiovascular, Renal and Glycemic Outcomes, where his presentation was recognised with a prize for being one of the top three at the event.

As well as the national and international conferences, Ujjawal has also presented at local/regional events in Cambridge, amounting to nearly 20 presentations at conferences in the last year.

“It’s been a busy couple of years for me, on top of my regular academic work and placements in clinical settings across East Anglia,” he says.

Conferences closer to home have ranged from student conferences at the University of Cambridge, to institutional ones, such as the Caius Medical Association Annual Meeting, and the Cambridge University Hospitals research meetings. Ujjawal adds: “The Caius Medical Association have been incredibly kind and generous to support my work financially and as well as through advice and guidance from senior academics and clinicians.” He added his gratitude to the College for a Graduate Travel and Research grant to present at these prestigious international conferences.

The fifth-year medical student has always had an interest in genetics from a molecular biology level since before university and read Part II Natural Sciences in Genetics in his third year as part of his undergraduate studies. His Part II project on non-coding RNAs and Prader Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic developmental disorder, was supervised by Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith and Dr Russell Hamilton of the Department of Genetics and he has continued working with them since, undertaking summer projects and combining it with his clinical medicine studies when time allows.

“I wanted to find a way to combine my scientific research and interest in genetics and molecular biology, specifically non-coding RNA biology, with my clinical interest in cardiovascular medicine and heart disease,” Ujjawal says.

“I was able to work with my supervisors to come up with a research programme that allowed me to do this, developing the skills I learnt in my Part II project, but looking to see how we can use these RNAs to improve patient outcomes.

“I have focused mainly on the suitability of snoRNAs to facilitate personalised approaches to coronary artery bypass surgery, as well as genetic biomarkers for future cardiovascular disease.”

Ujjawal plans to combine research with clinical medicine in future.

“I went into medicine to be a clinician first and foremost, to be able to see patients and really make a difference to them and their lives, on an individual level but also on a bigger scale,” he adds. “However, I do want to undertake research and would consider further clinically orientated research in my future career and while a trainee. I want to make my research work immediately applicable and much more relevant to my clinical practice as an aspiring cardiac surgeon.”

Ujjawal acknowledges just how competitive cardiac surgery training programme places are, as he undertakes placements at the Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge this year.

“I’ve been fortunate to have been able to undertake placements in intensive care and cardiac surgery in my fourth and fifth years, and I’m about to start my specialist medicine placement in cardiac intensive care, learning about the management of operative patients around surgery,” he adds.

“We’re very lucky at Cambridge to have international centres of excellence on our doorstep and be able to spend time there as students.

“Places like Papworth are world-leading hospitals for cardiovascular medicine and surgery, such as their pioneering work on heart transplantation and pulmonary endarterectomy surgery.”

Pictured: Ujjawal at the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery meeting in May 2022, with his prize-winning presentation.