Star athletes can raise everyone’s performance on a sports team and the same can be said for rising young physician researchers working at an academic medical center.

The work conducted in labs at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine runs the gamut for three of the medical school’s up-and-coming superstars. One researcher focuses on developing a new medication to prevent and treat heart disease. Another investigator works fervently to annihilate HIV here and abroad, while treating 100,000 Nigerians infected with the virus. An MD scientist looks for a way to help the immune systems of diabetes patients accept transplants of islets, the insulin-producing part of the pancreas, without the need for toxic anti-rejection drugs.

“These researchers are very accomplished and if they’re great now, they will be even better later,” says William L. Lowe Jr., MD, dean for faculty affairs and deputy director of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS).

“We’re a team-based institution, so it’s like sports. If you have a star, your chances of winning go up,” he explains. “Research is an important part of our mission and it drives our national reputation, in terms of recruiting, patient care, and educating the next generation of doctors and scientists.”

C. SHAD THAXTON, MD, PhD

C. Shad Thaxton, MD ’04, PhD ’07, assistant professor of urology, is working to develop a synthetic form of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or carrier of “good” cholesterol, that prevents or perhaps even reverses the buildup of cholesterol-laden plaques in the walls of the arteries—often a precursor to heart disease.

A medication may be a good 10 to 15 years away, but his research is “not pie in the sky.” “We’ll be testing it for years to come in model laboratory systems, on animals and, I believe, someday people,” says Dr. Thaxton, 33, of his research. His study appeared in the February 4, 2009, Journal of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Thaxton was named 2009 researcher of the year by Bioscience Technology and was named to MIT Technology Review’s TR35 list of young innovators under 35 for his work using gold nanoparticles to mimic the HDL found in the human body.

Nanotechnology is based on building structures and materials with novel properties that can be made to solve difficult scientific and technical problems. Bulk materials miniaturized to the nanometer scale often have new properties that present new opportunities in biomedicine.

“My thought was, ‘If HDL is so good, let’s try to mimic the HDL we all have in our body, understand it better from a nanomaterials perspective, and then attempt to make it even better,’” explains Dr. Thaxton. He and his lab team built artificial HDL nanostructures and then set out to see how well they took on cholesterol. “The structures bind cholesterol very, very strongly,” says Dr. Thaxton, who is now working to make a suite of nanoparticles to see how they bind cholesterol and behave biologically.

Dr. Thaxton’s mentor, Chad A. Mirkin, PhD, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern, is quite proud of his former student and now colleague. “He was one of the most promising students we’ve had come through Northwestern in a long time,” says Dr. Mirkin, director of Northwestern’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center and International Institute for Nanotechnology. Dr. Mirkin was recently appointed to President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Dr. Thaxton graduated with a BA degree in environmental biology from the University of Colorado and earned his MD and PhD degrees from Northwestern in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He joined the medical school faculty full time in 2008. For his final thesis project, he also used nanoparticles as part of a protein detection assay that he co-invented with Dr. Mirkin and a fellow graduate student. The team found that by using novel properties of nanoparticles, prostate specific antigen (PSA)—a marker for prostate cancer and recurrence—could be detected at serum levels below what is possible with current testing. Along with colleagues in the Department of Urology, Dr. Thaxton is preparing a clinical trial to validate the preliminary findings on a larger number of patients.

Dr. Thaxton got his start as a prospective research scientist during his third year as a medical student. Thumbing through Scientific American at a bookstore, he spotted an article about gold nanoparticles and their promise for research. Noting that the article was authored by Dr. Mirkin, the young student promptly called and asked if he could work in his lab. “Dr. Mirkin said, ‘Yes, if you can get funding,’” recalls Thaxton. “So I applied for a grant and received the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship, and started working with him.” The rest, as they say, is history.

BABAFEMI TAIWO, MBBS

Babafemi Taiwo, MBBS, came to Northwestern five years ago as a fellow in infectious disease. Now, the 38-year-old native of Nigeria is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease and director for African Research for the medical school’s Center for Global Health. He recently received the 2009 John Carey Young Investigator Award presented at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG). The award recognizes junior investigators who exemplify the ideals of the ACTG and the work of Dr. Carey, one of the first physicians in the nation to treat AIDS patients and study the effects of antiviral treatment on the immune system.

Dr. Taiwo welcomes the accolades for practical reasons. The notoriety allows him to increase his role in ACTG, gives credibility to his research proposals, and recognizes his work and career path. “You can’t live your life hoping for these kinds of awards, but I’m happy to be acknowledged,” says Dr. Taiwo, who hopes for accomplishments that will have a global impact.

His lofty goal is to help eradicate HIV or at least to achieve a state where HIV infection doesn’t adversely affect a person’s life expectancy. He explains, “Many people with HIV do well, but many still suffer from consequential conditions like cancer, liver damage, premature aging, central nervous system problems, and impaired memory.”

Dr. Taiwo received his MBBS degree (bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery, equivalent of a U.S. MD degree) from the University of Ibadan’s College of Medicine in Nigeria. He completed his residency at the University of Massachusetts Berkshire Medical Center and his fellowship training at Northwestern in 2006. His research interests include HIV drug resistance and strategies for optimal antiretroviral treatment in resource-limited settings.

Northwestern has a program with affiliates in Nigeria, where 100,000 patients are receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS at 37 different sites. Dr. Taiwo works closely with Robert L. Murphy, MD, GME ’84, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Global Health, on the medical school’s two international HIV-research-related grants. The first is the NIH Fogarty International Center grant to develop a university-wide global health program. The grant helps expand global health activities by creating a dozen new courses as well as research opportunities abroad so that teams of students can perform research locally and then go abroad for related fieldwork. Northwestern also received an AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) grant to develop a training program for researchers from the West African nations of Nigeria and Mali.

“Dr. Taiwo has contributed in two major ways,” says his mentor Dr. Murphy. “He is an active and productive investigator in the ACTG, which has a very busy unit here at Northwestern, so he’s caring for HIV-infected Americans. And he has worked very closely in helping the Nigerians set up and manage their President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, one of the largest public health projects in the world. I’m proud of his work in leading our ACTG. He’s done a remarkable job, and he is the youngest ACTG site leader in the U.S. network.

“Dr. Taiwo’s achievements to date are quite significant, and considering his young age, they are actually quite remarkable,” continues Dr. Murphy. “His success is a credit to Northwestern, which has trained a Nigerian national who is going to be a very successful academic.”

Only a few years ago Dr. Taiwo approached Dr. Murphy at a medical conference and said he wanted to work “on any project that involved Nigeria.” At the time, Dr. Taiwo was an internist and medical director of a community health clinic in an underserved area of North Carolina. “I told him that if he really wanted to help, he needed subspecialty training,” recalls Dr. Murphy. “I was impressed with his determination and intelligence and so I offered him a fellowship position in infectious diseases here at Northwestern. I was surprised when he quit his job, became a fellow, sold his home, and moved his wife and three kids to Chicago. He never looked back and made it all happen.”

XUNRONG LUO, MD, PHD

Transplant nephrologist Xunrong Luo, MD, PhD, says she believes the answer—effective therapy for insulin-dependent patients with type I diabetes—is in front of her. “It’s not far away, but we haven’t gotten there yet,” says this assistant professor of medicine at the medical school. In particular, she’s referring to help for diabetes patients who undergo human islet cell transplantation. The islets (clusters of cells in the pancreas that make insulin) from a donor pancreas produce insulin but the human immune system often rejects the transplanted cells, forcing patients to take often toxic immunosuppressive drugs to keep their bodies from rejecting the insulin-producing cells.

Dr. Luo’s earlier research involved taking a form of white blood cells from the islet donor’s spleen and treating them with a chemical that masked their identity. The altered cells were then injected into diabetic mice before and after the animals underwent islet cell transplantation. The mice didn’t reject the cells because they were tricked into believing they were their own and, even better, the research showed that the transplanted cells seemed to be permanently accepted. Dr. Luo said the technique has promise for treating other autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The research was reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and was initially funded by the Northwestern Memorial Faculty Foundation Young Investigator Award, and later by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the NIH.

Success with the animal studies has bolstered the hopes of Dr. Luo, along with her mentor, Stephen D. Miller, PhD, Judy Gugenheim Research Professor of Microbiology–Immunology and director of the Interdepartmental Immunobiology Center, for finding a potentially viable method for preventing islet rejection in diabetic mice without the side effects of anti-rejection drugs.

“I find diabetes to be a challenging disease, but we plan now to humanize the mouse models. It’s exciting work, and it’s not an easy road, but I look forward to it.” Dr. Luo received her undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University in China and her graduate and medical degree from Duke University. She completed her residency and fellowship training at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital. Last year, she received the NIH Type I Diabetes Pathfinder Award and an accompanying $1.5 million grant for her research. The award supports creative new investigators who propose innovative research projects.

None of this surprises Dr. Miller, who believes Dr. Luo has a great and far-reaching future ahead of her. “She is an up-and-coming young physician scientist who is promoting Northwestern and translational research and directing the next steps to therapies in humans.”

Dr. Luo’s promise is unlimited, he says. “I have no doubt she will do fantastically in the future.”

These three researchers, says Dr. Lowe of NUCATS, offer the world a glimpse into the face of the medical school. “Having top scientists brings the best students to our door and keeps our clinical programs on the cutting edge—all important attributes for a school that wants to maintain and build upon its top-notch national reputation.”

He suggests that Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine aspires to have two to three times as many standout physician researchers as it has now. Just like a sports team, there’s always room for more talent—and a few more stars.