It’s OK to admit you don’t know things — in fact that is the best way to learn. Also, when you do give an answer, people will trust that you know what you are talking about, otherwise you wouldn’t have said it. People also appreciate others being truthful and humble.
As part of my series about young people who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Martyn Hiscox.
Martyn Hiscox, Ph.D., is principal scientist in the phage display group at Adaptimmune.
Adaptimmune’s phage display team is responsible for discovering new T-cell receptors (TCRs), one of the earliest stages in the development of the Company’s products. Dr. Hiscox oversees the scientific leadership and management of Adaptimmune’s pipeline activities.
Dr. Hiscox joined Adaptimmune in 2013 upon the completion of his MChem and Ph.D. in chemistry from University of Southampton. His Ph.D. focused on the study of Lipoyl synthase, a member of the radical SAM superfamily of enzymes. Throughout his studies, he utilized techniques such as peptide synthesis, HPLC, Mass spectrometry, NMR, Molecular biology (PCR, cloning etc), bacterial cell culture, protein purification, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and Fluorescence Binding Assays.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit how you grew up?
I grew up in a small town in the West Country, a rural part of southern England where the biggest industries are probably farming and vacuum cleaners with faces on them! I have two fantastic parents who despite finishing school at 16 (the default age in the UK at the time), encouraged me to do as well as I could and always supported me to reach my goals. I was the first person on my mother’s side to go to university and the second on my father’s side. I am the only one to have completed a PhD, but I have lots of younger cousins!
You are currently a part of an organization that aims to make a social impact. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
Our Company’s mission is to transform the lives of patients with cancer. We aim to do this by producing novel cell therapies that specifically target molecules on cancer cells to destroy them. My role is focused on finding the initial cell receptors for a particular target that we can then optimize and use as a therapy for people with cancer.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
There were two drivers which led me to work in cancer research. Firstly, during my postgraduate studies, my aunt sadly passed away from leukemia. Secondly, after my PhD, I wanted to find a role where the science I did could have an immediate impact and make people’s lives better.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
For me, there wasn’t really a final trigger. Life just turned out the way it has. I was always interested in science and therefore pursued it. Deciding each next step generally just before the last step was about to end.
Many young people don’t know the steps to take to get started. But you did. What are some of the things or steps you took to get where you are?
I think the best thing you can do is to give things a try. When I started out at university, I was doing chemistry and mathematics, biology and biochemistry were not my focus. I was just trying out different courses that made me go — wow this is actually pretty cool. So, I think I would advise anyone starting out to grab different opportunities as they become available, you never know what will spark your interest.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company or organization?
A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to lead the science on a project to develop HLA independent TCRs. These TCRs, if we could develop them would act like an antibody in their target binding but function in the cell like a TCR. The hope being that a therapy like this would allow us to treat many more patients. It was a bit of a gamble, some people believed it only had a 20 % chance of success. Luckily with such a strong team working together, we were able to identify a single TCR which acted in such a way. This piqued the interest of our senior leaders to invest more into finding these types of TCRs and since then we have gone on to find many more.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or take away you learned from that?
I had run an assay on some bacterial constructs we had made, and the results didn’t make sense. We had three molecules joined together. While it was possible to have just the second and third molecule in the construct, we couldn’t have just the first and third, which the results suggested. I repeated it twice and got the same results — everyone believed I had made a mistake — — me included. Finally, someone sequenced the constructs and found an error had occurred during production and part of the second molecule was missing, which explained my results.
I learned that sometimes the results won’t make sense, but if you repeat the experiment and get the same result — then it’s a true result — the explanation, however, might not be so easy to discover!
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
I think the biggest cheerleaders I’ve had are my parents. My father is so hardworking, and he really instilled a strong work ethic in my brother and me. In terms of mentorship, I think taking advice from as many different people as possible has helped me find my own way of doing things. You won’t always agree with everyone, but that’s ok.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Due to strict guidelines, we have for dealing with patients, I can’t name names and I don’t know our patients personally. Our clinical team has shared examples of patients treated with our therapies who have had months or years being cancer-free after one dose of our cell therapies.
I really hope that more and more patients will have their lives transformed by our therapies, it’s why we do what we do.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Funding medical research — You must take risks to get results and sometimes those results won’t pay off. It is difficult for industry to cover all the bases, especially those experimental medicines that won’t be able to return the investment. Therefore, there is a large need for national and multinational research efforts.
Healthcare for all. — I’m lucky to live in the UK where my health needs are met by the NHS. I know if I get a serious disease, I won’t need to worry about the cost of treatment and can focus on getting better.
Learn to trust scientists. As scientists, we spend years of our lives learning and then researching to discover the way the world and universe work and then to develop things that will improve people’s lives. Whilst it is right to doubt what a single person tells you, when there is data from many different sources, and it has been through peer review you can be sure it should be trusted. If you can try and learn some of these things for yourself! Believe it or not, Wikipedia can be a great place to start!
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- Don’t be afraid to move — I decided to stay at the same university where I studied for my undergraduate for my PhD, I wish I had been braver to move and maybe try out a different environment.
- It’s ok to admit you don’t know things — in fact that is the best way to learn. Also, when you do give an answer, people will trust that you know what you are talking about, otherwise you wouldn’t have said it. People also appreciate others being truthful and humble.
- Fail fast! — It’s ok in research when things don’t work out as you’d hope. Ideally, try to plan your experiments to fail fast — then you can move on to something else. I have spent far too long going down a rabbit hole — sometimes this can’t be helped, but if you can plan to fail fast, you can cut your losses quickly and move on to something that might work.
- If the lid comes off the tube, label the tube not the lid! — I’ve gotten two tubes confused before, it just creates a headache, don’t risk it!
- Always start your files with a reverse date (i.e., YYYYMMDD), it makes organizing files so much easier!
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
No person is an island. We should always do what we can to make the lives of others better. After all, we all want a better quality of life ourselves!
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Taylor Swift — mostly to give my partner Hannah and a colleague Richard, major jealousy!
How can our readers follow you online?
Linkedin.com/in/martyn-hiscox-8a233698
Adaptimmune.com
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Young Change Makers: Why and How Martyn Hiscox of Adaptimmune Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.