It started with a spark of interest and a connection. John Climax, a pharmacology student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), noticed that his classmate, Ganesh Adaikan, seemed more knowledgeable than other students. When John asked Ganesh how he knew so much about research, Ganesh offered two words: “Dr. Karim.” This name would change the direction of John’s life.
Clinical Professor Emeritus Dr. Sultan Karim
A humble man with an impressive work ethic, Dr. Sultan Karim established himself in the field of obstetrics and gynecology at a young age, working at Makerere University in Uganda as Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. It was there in the late 1960s that he became interested in a cluster of hormones that is released from the umbilical cord after it is cut, and that is responsible for preventing blood loss during childbirth. Dr. Karim’s observations would lead to the pioneering application of these hormones, or prostaglandins, in the field of obstetrics – forming the basis of what the New York Times called “one of the most promising fields in the biological sciences.”
Dr. Karim with members of his laboratory
Over the years, Dr. Karim also became well-known for his care for his students and trainees. When in 1972, the then President of Uganda, Idi Amin, ordered the expulsion of the country’s South Asian minority, Dr. Karim risked his own position to relocate 72 trainees of Asian origin to continue their training in other countries. “As one of two professors of Asian origin, and a Ugandan by birth, I felt responsible. I reached out to my contacts in medical schools throughout Canada, the United States, Britain, and elsewhere. I simply pointed out the problem, and they responded with solutions. We were able to place all of them in new medical programs.”
Dr. Karim would eventually relocate to Singapore to accept the position of Research Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Professor of Pharmacology in a clinical department at NUS, accompanied by his lab technician, Ganesh. Together, they managed a seminal research program that included studies in gender reassignment, fetal development, and labour induction.
It was also at NUS that John’s curiosity was rewarded with an invitation from Ganesh to join Dr. Karim’s prostaglandins team as a research assistant. “My role was to assist Sultan’s clinical studies. I worked in the labour wards, in the operation theaters, in the fertility clinic,” John remembers. “I was not your typical research assistant; I thought a bit outside of the box. I did what I wanted to do. And Sultan gave me free reign to do it.” John worked a flexible schedule – often late into the night – and at the same time assisted multiple different prostaglandin projects. “John was very unusual,” Dr. Karim recalls. “The fact that he wanted to spend time in a research department, without any external funding, singled him out as a different sort of person.” When John decided to apply for graduate studies in the UK a year later, Dr. Karim offered his enthusiastic support.
Although John’s association with Dr. Karim and his lab was brief, lasting only one year, the impact of his mentor’s early influence is still reverberating nearly 40 years later.
Now an established scientist in his own right and an accomplished entrepreneur, Professor Climax is looking to UBC to train clinical research leaders who will help translate important scientific advances more quickly into clinical treatments. “A candidate drug needs to undergo clinical testing in humans as early as possible in order to assess its viability as a safe and effective medicine,” John explains. “Clinical pharmacologists have a crucial role to play in determining the utility of a potential new drug at an early stage of development.”
“Clinical pharmacologists have a crucial role to play in determining the utility of a potential new drug at an early stage of development.”
Professor John Climax
When Professor Climax learned that Dr. Karim had retired from research to teach at UBC, he was keen to do something to show his gratitude to the man who had given him his first opportunity to explore the field. The Sultan Karim Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology will honour the curiosity and scientific rigour that fueled Dr. Karim’s accomplishments. Like John, ambitious UBC medical residents will have the opportunity to learn from internationally recognized leaders in pharmacology.
The creation of the Sultan Karim Fellowship follows the establishment in 2017 of the Climax Chair of Clinical Therapeutics and Fellowships at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. John’s hope is that these initiatives, which are supported by a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities, will lead to a new generation of clinical pharmacologists who will transform the translation of novel therapies from laboratory to clinic, and who in doing so, will improve the health and well-being of people across the world. “I am in great awe of what Sultan has achieved,” John says of his mentor. “I often tell people about his early influence on me.”
Reflecting back over his years as a researcher and teacher, Dr. Karim is both surprised and pleased with this recognition. “Contacts do wonders sometimes. Out of the blue, something remarkable can happen.”