“Our role is to bridge the gap between the two worlds”

Justine Epiney knew from early on in her studies that biomedical research was her calling. After graduating from high school, she set her sights high, swapping the mountains of her native Valais for the eastern seaboard of the United States, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science at the prestigious Tufts University in Boston. With a double major in biology and public health under her belt, she headed back across the Atlantic – this time to attend medical school at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), where she went straight into the second year. A short distance away, Mehdi Ali Gadiri was studying for a Master’s degree in micro-and nanotechnology at EPFL. He too had arrived from distant shores, having graduated from Jeddah International School in Saudi Arabia. And, like Justine, he had his eye on a career in medical research. Neither Mehdi nor Justine knew that, for all their differences, their journeys would ultimately lead them to the same place.

Medical students are acutely aware that they’re signing up for six years of hard work and intense competition. Many follow the conventional path: specializing before embarking on a career in clinical care, either in a hospital or in private practice. But some decide to remain in academia, driven by innate curiosity and a thirst for learning. Each year, only a tiny percentage of Swiss medical graduates choose to obtain a PhD – an experience that lets them deepen their specialization. For these medics, applying what they’ve learned isn’t enough. They want to challenge their understanding and develop new knowledge, applying methods that can be found only in academic research.

Graduates who opt for this route pay a heavy price, having to put in significantly more time and effort than their peers studying for traditional medical degrees. Justine was fully aware of this when she signed up for summer internships and MD master thesis at EPFL’s Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), headed by Prof. Elisa Oricchio. Mehdi, meanwhile, was accepted into a gateway program with the University of Geneva, which let him skip the first year of medical school and complete the second and third years concurrently. “For someone with a background in microengineering, it was a tough year!” he says with a smile. “They were reluctant to take me on because I didn’t have a solid enough foundation in microbiology and physiology. But they agreed to let me take a test.” Mehdi passed the test. Both he and Justine completed their medical degrees in 2022.

Dual expertise

In medicine, there can sometimes be a disconnect between research, which focuses on understanding the human body and diseases in order to develop new treatments, and day-to-day clinical practice. That’s why medical researchers, who straddle both worlds, are so important to the advancement of biomedical science. Each year, the MD-PhD program – run by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences – awards competitive scholarships to encourage people to opt for this route. Justine and Mehdi are among 8 students (out of 13 nationwide) on this year’s MD-PhD scholarship program in French-speaking Switzerland, and they’re two of the three joining EPFL this year to help develop technology to improve patient care.

“During my studies, I noticed that clinicians and researchers don’t always understand each other,” explains Justine. “They tend to use different language and communication can be challenging. As MD-PhD scholars, our role is to bridge the gap between the two worlds, because both doctors and biologists accept us as their own.” Justine says she’s always liked delving deep into her subject matter and found it frustrating she could only scratch the surface during her medical studies. Although she admits “it’s understandable when, as a doctor, you have to treat so many patients in so little time. You simply can’t spend your days reflecting on the underlying mechanisms.”

Mehdi, with his engineering background, agrees with Justine’s observations: “Right from the start at EPFL, they instill this idea that you can’t learn something unless you understand it. This approach shaped my view of medicine. For me, research and clinical practice are two sides of the same coin.”

A fresh perspective

On top of attending classes and completing in-hospital clinical rotations, the two students spent considerable time – often on evenings and weekends – preparing for the MD-PhD competitive application process and writing their research proposals. They also had to deal with the bewilderment of some of their peers. “People would ask me why I was going to all this effort,” recalls Mehdi. “They’d say that biologists were there to write books, and that we should focus on treating patients. I had to make peace with this questioning that came to mind every time I read something in a medical book and found myself surprised at the extent to which some things are empirical.”

The two students’ unconventional skill sets prove that a combination of passion and hard work can pay off. Despite starting their theses only a few weeks ago, both Mehdi and Justine are already bringing valuable skills to their research groups. “Mehdi’s dual background in medicine and microengineering sets him apart,” says Prof. Selman Sakar, who heads EPFL’s Microbiorobotic Systems (MICROBS) Laboratory. “He understands exactly what we’re doing and provides the medical expertise that we lack in the group. What’s more, we occasionally have difficulty to connect with clinicians and explain them how our technology works. Having him on our team is a game changer.” As part of his research at the lab, Mehdi will develop a microrobotic catheter for cardiovascular interventions, working closely with Prof. Olivier Müller, Chair of Cardiology at CHUV.

Justine, meanwhile, will continue to work at Prof. Elisa Oricchio’s laboratory, where her research will focus on the resistance mechanisms inhibiting antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis in lymphoma. “Some of our research addresses clinically relevant problems, but there’s a disconnect between our work and clinical practice,” says Prof. Oricchio. “MD-PhD scholars like Justine can bring a fresh perspective and help us bridge this gap. This makes them truly unique.”

According to Prof. Oricchio, who also helps select program participants as a member of the Lausanne MD-PhD Commission, more needs to be done to promote the program in Switzerland. Because, as Mehdi and Justine can testify, it’s a springboard to a varied and fulfilling career.