Two trainees from the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) came together this summer to win third place in this year’s Merck Innovation Cup, held in Germany. 

Yeojin Kim, a PhD student in Stefan Knapp’s group at SGC-Frankfurt, and Dr. Madison Edwards, a postdoctoral fellow in Rachel Harding’s lab at SGC-Toronto, were selected from a global pool of applicants to take part in the week-long program and to their surprise, they ended up on the same team!

Despite never having met before, Yeojin and Madison were both assigned to Team Drug Discovery, where they had just four days to design and pitch an innovative research proposal alongside teammates from around the world. Their project secured third place, placing them among the top teams in the competition.

“What are the chances?” said Yeojin. “I had never worked directly with SGC-Toronto, and I was thrilled and amazed to meet Madison, not only from SGC-Toronto but also on my team. Out of all the applicants, it was unbelievable.”

“The Innovation Cup was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget,” she continued. “Just becoming friends with the other participants — all incredibly smart, passionate, and deeply in love with their research — was already a huge asset. I learned so much from the lectures given by senior leaders at Merck, but more than that, I led, designed, and pitched a brand-new R&D project. It gave me a real, hands-on understanding of the drug discovery process that I had only heard about before.”

For Madison, the experience was equally powerful and unexpected.

“After passing the first screening round, we were asked to write a research proposal on a novel method for use in drug discovery. This gave me the opportunity to explore a new topic, outside of my usual field of research,” she said. “When I saw the names of my teammates, I was surprised to see another SGC trainee from Frankfurt! It was amazing that we both made it through and ended up on the same team.”

“The Innovation Cup was an amazing opportunity to collaborate with graduate students from around the world on an innovative proposal, to receive training from experienced scientists at Merck, and to learn about working in industry. I have never before learnt so much, nor met so many inspiring people in such a short amount of time.”

Sponsored fully by Merck, the Innovation Cup provides post-graduate students and postdocs in life sciences, chemistry, data science, and business with a hands-on introduction to pharmaceutical R&D. It combines lectures from leading experts with project-based teamwork in fields like oncology, green chemistry, neuro-inspired AI, and drug discovery.

For both SGC trainees, the experience reinforced the value of interdisciplinary thinking and international collaboration, values that sit at the heart of SGC’s open science approach.

“The Innovation Cup was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life,” said Madison. “I would highly recommend others to apply!”

SGC congratulates Yeojin and Madison on this fantastic achievement and celebrates the serendipitous meeting of two colleagues, brought together through scientific curiosity.