network
News from the Medical Research Council
Winter 2012/13
years of life-changing discoveries
A DNA pioneer’s lab, 1958
Take a look around Rosalind Franklin’s work space.
Ten decades, ten life-changing achievements
Explore our Centenary timeline pull-out and find out what we’ve got
planned for our 100th birthday.
Network can also be downloaded as a PDF at:
www.mrc.ac.uk/network
CONTENTS
comment from
NEWS
£7m MRC-AstraZeneca projects funded
3
Dog study noses out a way to regenerate spinal cord 4
LATEST DISCOVERIES
20
Stem cells offer hope for deafness
21
PEOPLE
22
From the archive23
FUNDING
Developing tomorrow’s African research leaders
24
EU neurodegenerative disease research funding
25
FEATURES
Studying blindness? There’s an app for that
John
Savill
chief Executive
A sunnier outlook for TB patients
Award for infant pneumococcus research
NEWS
8
Working Life: Dr Alex Jeans, pathologist and
Centenary Award holder10
MRC Centenary timeline and calendar pull-out
12
My Work Space: Rosalind Franklin’s laboratory, 1958
18
Opinion: 100 years from now
Professor Jason Chin on synthetic biology 26
When the Medical Research
Committee and Advisory Council
was established in 1913, its
members could barely have
imagined the MRC in 2013. We
spent £759.4 million on medical
research in 2011/12, have 56
institutes, units and centres and
we support around 5,700 research
staff. Our laboratories are home
to some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world,
and every year our scientists make discoveries that change
the lives of patients with a wide range of diseases and
complaints. Not bad for an organisation that started with a
budget of £4m in today’s money.
But the committee members would have been familiar
with the idea of discoveries. As early in our history as
1916 Edward Mellanby deduced that a lack of Vitamin D
causes rickets. This was followed by many other significant
achievements, such as the discovery of the flu virus in
1933, working out the structure of DNA in 1953 and many
others. Turn to page 13 to see a timeline of MRC-funded
achievements and discoveries from the past 10 decades.
But we’re not just looking at the past. Given what MRC
research has achieved in the past 100 years, what might it
achieve in the next 100? One clue could be in the nascent
field of synthetic biology — which has the potential to
change the way that biological systems work — and in
capturing that power to target disease. You can read more
about synthetic biology in Professor Jason Chin’s opinion
article on page 26.
To mark the Centenary, I plan to visit every city where we
have a unit or institute in the space of a week. Between the
20 and 26 June — which marks exactly 100 years to the
day since the MRC was established on 20 June 1913 — I’ll
be visiting the research establishments where much of the
MRC’s important work is done and meeting the scientists
behind our past, present and future discoveries.
£7m MRC-AstraZeneca
projects funded
Fifteen research projects on Alzheimer’s, cancer and rare
diseases are now underway with £7 million funding
provided under the MRC’s award-winning collaboration
with AstraZeneca.
Under the collaboration, announced by the Prime Minister in
December 2011, AstraZeneca made 22 of its chemical compounds
available free-of-charge to academic researchers, who were
encouraged to apply for MRC funding to use them for research and
accelerate the search for new treatments.
The partnership recently won an award from pharmaceutical
intelligence company SCRIP for the Best Partnership Alliance 2012, and
has served as a model for other innovative alliances, including a similar
deal between the US National Institutes of Health and industry.
Scientists will use the compounds to study a broad range of conditions
from common diseases like Alzheimer’s and lung disease through to
rarer conditions such as motor neuron disease and muscular
dystrophies. Eight projects will involve clinical trials of potential new
therapies, and seven will focus on early-stage research.
AstraZeneca had conducted early trials of the compounds and
validated their use for future research, but had put them on hold for
further development. This collaboration extends the possible
application of these compounds for use in new and emerging areas.
Professor Patrick Johnston, Chair of the MRC’s Translational Research
Group, said: “Thanks to the generosity of AstraZeneca, UK scientists
will be able to carry out medical research that otherwise may never
have been possible. Not only will this bring benefits for patients in the
form of more effective medicines and a better understanding of
disease, but it has also allowed academic researchers to forge new
partnerships with industry, which will give rise to future collaboration
across the life sciences sector.”
You can read about one of the funded projects in the case
study box opposite.
CASE STUDY: Heartburn drug
coughs up a new use
Scientists from the University of Manchester, led by Dr Jacky Smith,
will carry out a small clinical trial of a new treatment for chronic
cough, a condition which affects up to 23 per cent of the population.
Previous work by Dr Smith’s team has shown that in around half of
these patients, the cough reflex is triggered by acid reflux, where the
stomach contents escape back up into the oesophagus.
This project will study an AstraZeneca compound called a GABA-B
receptor agonist, which was not found to be helpful in patients with
heartburn who were already taking acid-blocking treatments, but
which may improve cough triggered by acid reflux.
Healthy volunteers and chronic cough patients will be monitored
using a small device worn around the waist which records coughing
sounds over 24 hours. If the GABA-B receptor agonist relieves chronic
cough, the researchers will aim to carry out larger clinical trials.
Sir John Savill
MRC Chief Executive
MRCNetwork | 3
NEWS
The
MRC
First SME-university awards made
by £180m Biomedical Catalyst fund
Research projects on the early diagnosis of dementia
and a universal flu vaccine are among 32 industry-academic
collaborative projects to receive grant awards
under the Government-backed Biomedical Catalyst
funding programme.
A total of £39 million has been awarded to the projects under the
scheme, which aims to speed translation of scientific ideas into
commercial propositions, for the greater benefit of patients.
These are the first substantial awards made from the £180m
programme of public funding, which is jointly managed by the
Technology Strategy Board and the MRC.
Twenty-two projects led by small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
and 10 projects led by academic institutions will evaluate the technical
feasibility of their ideas, establish proof of concept or demonstrate the
clinical effectiveness of their innovative technologies.
Some of the funded projects include: a digital healthcare system that
will provide early diagnosis of dementia; a universal flu vaccine that
could protect against all known strains of the virus; and a targeted
therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer.
David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “Britain is in a
global race today and this £39m investment will help keep us at the
very forefront of life sciences by supporting some of our most
innovative SMEs and universities. It will help take excellent ideas
through to market, driving growth and helping patients benefit from
the very latest technologies and treatments.”
at
1913-2013
Welcome to the Centenary edition of Network. Our 100th birthday marks a great opportunity
to reflect on just how far the MRC has come from its origins in the 1911 National Insurance Act
and subsequent formalisation as the Medical Research Committee and Advisory Council by the
government two years later.
From the discovery of penicillin and MRI to HIV drug trials and bowel cancer screening tests, the MRC has made a
major impact on human health; inspiring scientific endeavour, collaboration and success in biotechnology, creating
life-saving drugs and delivering research that drives modern healthcare policy.
In this edition, we unite the past, present and future of medical research to show you how the MRC continues to
anticipate the medical needs of people across the globe and inspires, funds and nurtures the best researchers and
the most promising science.
National stem cell resource
The Wellcome Trust and the MRC have invested £12.75m to create a catalogue
of high-quality adult stem cells for researchers who use such cells
to study the effects of our genes on health and disease.
Dog study noses out a way to regenerate spinal cord
New research has shown it is possible to restore co-ordinated limb
movement in dogs with severe spinal cord injury. Scientists from the MRC’s
Regenerative Medicine Centre teamed up with vets from Cambridge
University to carry out a trial using a unique type of cell found in the noses
of dogs to regenerate the damaged part of the animals’ spines.
The 34 pet dogs (including Jasper, pictured before the treatment) had all
suffered severe spinal cord injury over a year before, and were unable to
use their back legs to walk or to feel pain in their hindquarters. By the end
of the study, dogs which had received the treatment were able to move
previously paralysed hind limbs and co-ordinate the movement with their
front legs.
The researchers are cautiously optimistic that the work could have a future
role in the treatment of human patients with similar injuries if used
alongside other treatments.
4 | MRCNetwork
Read the full story at www.mrc.ac.uk/Newspublications and watch a video
of Jasper on a treadmill before and after his treatment at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY6dGHROgmM&feature=youtu.be.
The Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Initiative (HIPSCI) will generate a type of
adult stem cell called induced pluripotent stem cells
(iPS cells) from healthy volunteers and patient
groups. Using sophisticated techniques,
researchers will analyse the cells and
characterise how they respond
to outside stimuli and develop
into specialised cell types.
HIPSCI will help fill gaps in our
knowledge about the biological
properties of these cells and
how scientists can best
manipulate them to accurately
model human disease. It will
also lay the foundations
to create a new iPS
cell bank.
MRCNetwork | 5
NEWS
Explore our beginnings
To mark our Centenary we’ve
republished our very first
Annual Report, from 1914,
on our centenary website.
Read about some of the
MRC’s first discoveries and
find out what the burning
research questions of the
day were as World War I
broke out. Also available are
extracts from Half a Century
of Medical Research, Volume
1, a 1987 biography of the
MRC written by A
Landsborough Thomson.
www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
Trials in developing countries:
right or wrong?
The MRC Clinical Trials Unit’s Professor Diana Gibb helped judge the
international final of the Debating Matters competition in October
which saw UK and Indian teams lock horns over the ethics of clinical
trials in developing countries. Arguing in favour of such trials, students
from Our Lady of the Missions School in Kolkata, India, triumphed over
the team from Graveney School in London.
Professor Gibb, who leads major trials in developing countries, said the
Indian team responded well to questions about informed consent for
illiterate poor people in India: “They reminded the audience that
consent processes for trials can - and frequently are - made culturally
appropriate through community involvement and sensitisation and
use of aids such as ‘the talking book’.
Dawkins opens new MRC centre
in Birmingham
November saw The Selfish Gene author Sir Richard Dawkins officially
open the MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal
Ageing in Birmingham.
Blindness article wins 2012
Max Perutz Award
The MRC Max Perutz Science Writing Award 2012 was won by Dr
Andrew Bastawrous, an MRC Research Fellow at the International
Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine.
Chosen from over a hundred entries, Andrew’s winning article —
Studying blindness – there’s an App for that — was promoted in
Metro newspaper in September.
Announcing the award, Professor Sir John Savill described Andrew’s
article as “interesting and very 21st century”, noting that he did a
great job of articulating the promise of his research.
A Nervous Encounter
A collaboration between scientists at
the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology
Unit in Oxford and artists on the Art and
Science MA course at Central St Martins
has produced a series of intriguing and
inspirational new artworks.
Read Andrew’s winning article on page 8.
New Director for Centre for
Reproductive Health
Professor Jeffrey Pollard has been appointed Director of the MRC
Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh
(MRC CRH). He formerly directed the Centre for the Study of
Reproductive Biology and Women’s Health at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York, where he held the Louis
Goldstein Swan Chair in Women’s Cancer Research.
6 | MRCNetwork
The centre, led by Professor Janet Lord, is a collaborative research
venture between Birmingham and Nottingham Universities. Exercise,
diet and motivational psychology research will be used to
understand how ageing results in loss of musculoskeletal function
and therefore how we can tackle age-related musculoskeletal decline
and disease.
The artworks, which formed an
exhibition called A Nervous Encounter
at Oxford’s Old Fire Station in October,
draw on the creative process involved
in both science and art.
To meet the artists and scientists
involved in the project and to enjoy the
full range of art created, go to
http://blog.nervousencounter.com
MRCNetwork | 7
FEATURE
Studying blindness?
There’s an app for that
The 2012 MRC Max Perutz Science Writing Award was
won by MRC Research Fellow Dr Andrew Bastawrous
from the International Centre for Eye Health at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Here we publish his winning article and find out how
Andrew’s research to develop a smartphone app to
study blindness in developing countries is progressing.
Everything is hazy; I can’t even see my glasses. I keep my eyes closed;
it doesn’t seem to make much difference opening them. My hand feels
clumsily around the bedside table, knocking my mobile phone to the
floor, and eventually I come across my glasses. On they go, and I can
see again. Those brief few seconds as I awake each morning serve as a
continual reminder of how much I value my sight.
Many people fear losing their sight more than any other sense. I am
fortunate to have perfect vision when wearing corrective glasses or
contact lenses, and privileged to be in a profession (ophthalmology)
where centuries of research and practice have brought us to a point
where much of blindness is curable or preventable. There is no feeling
like it: when the eye patch comes off someone who hasn’t seen for
years, witnessing their sheer wonder as they take in their surroundings
and their anticipation to see faces that have become voices and places
that have become memories.
Incredibly, despite 80 per cent of blindness being curable or
preventable, around 285 million people in the world are visually
impaired. The majority of these people live in developing countries
and have no access to suitable healthcare. Africa has the greatest
disparity in numbers needing treatment and specialists available to
provide it. In the UK we have 3,600 ophthalmologists compared
with only 86 in Kenya, where I will be moving later this year.
There are many factors that can lead to blindness, and many
complexities that lead to a society unable to deal with the
burden that comes with a disability. Although each individual
goes blind very much alone, there are shared stories and
features, the understanding of which can enable prevention or
access to curative treatment. Some of the major questions
include asking how many people are blind? Who are they?
Where do they live? Why are they blind?
of heavy and fragile equipment) to remote villages, many of which
have no road access or electricity supply, is extremely challenging yet
absolutely vital if provision to prevent needless blindness is to be put
in place.
and can be shared with specialists anywhere in the world to provide
expert diagnosis and treatment plans in even the most remote
locations. Individuals are locatable on an interactive Google Map, and
can be retraced and contacted to arrange treatment or follow up.
As I pondered and planned for the challenges that lay ahead, I’ve had
the continual thought that there must be an easier way to gather this
information, a way that is less expensive and resource hungry, and
therefore could be used on a much wider scale. Then it dawned on me
… I use my smartphone for everything nowadays, from checking train
times, navigating in the car, taking and sharing photos, not to mention
using it as a phone and speaking to people.
It is important to check the new device works and doesn’t miss people
who need help. To see how accurate the new device is, I will test the
phone on the same 5,000 individuals undergoing the detailed
examinations that use the gold-standard, state-of-the-art hospital
equipment. We will then be able to compare the two methods
and see how many of the study population we would have
correctly picked up as having sight loss (as well as the reasons
why) and if we would have missed anyone.
This has led me to develop a set of gadgets and applications making it
possible to use a modified smartphone (I call it the ‘Eye Phone’) to
measure someone’s vision; check their refractive error (glasses
prescription); take photos of the back of the eye for diseases such as
diabetic retinopathy, macula degeneration and glaucoma; and check
for the presence of a cataract. All the data is then stored on the phone
The examiner can go to the patient rather
than the patient waiting for someone
who might never come.
Max Perutz Award: What happened next?
Soon after scooping the Max Perutz Science Writing Award, Andrew
left the UK for Kenya to set up his project to diagnose and map
blindness in local
populations, using both
existing methods and
his new Eye Phone app.
Gathering this type of information is known as epidemiological
research, a method of describing the characteristics of a
population. This information is then used to inform policy-makers
and health workers to benefit individuals on a large scale.
Performing such a study can be a logistical nightmare, as well as
extremely time consuming and expensive. My study involves the
retracing and examination of 5,000 people across a district in Kenya
known as Nakuru. Taking what is effectively a fully staffed eye hospital
(a team of 15 people), fully equipped (with more than £100,000 worth
8 | MRCNetwork
At one-fiftieth of the price and with only one non-specialist
needed to perform the test, the examiner can go to the
patient rather than the patient waiting for someone who
might never come. It could be that those in remote and
resource-poor places, silently losing their sight, could
be a text message away from help.
Andrew has decided to
use his £1,500 prize
money to fund free eye
surgery for patients he
and his research team
find as part of his study.
Andrew, Madeleine and their son, Lucas, in Kenya
Serendipitously, Ketan Shah, who won second prize in the Max Perutz
competition, has kindly donated some of his own prize money towards
the Eye Phone after finding out that Andrew is testing his app in the
same small town, Nakuru, where Ketan’s father was born.
Meanwhile, Andrew’s wife Madeleine, who is also in Kenya, has set up a
competition with local schools in Nakuru based around baking healthy
foods. The prize will be free eye surgery for 22 people in the Eye Phone
project who are most in need.
Follow Andrew and Madeleine’s progress via their blog at
https://toddleradventure.wordpress.com and learn more about how
the Eye Phone app became a reality in Andrew’s post for our own blog
at www.insight.mrc.ac.uk/2012/10/11/serendipity-in-science. You can
also read Ketan’s highly commended Max Perutz article, I am the drug,
on our blog at www.insight.mrc.ac.uk/2012/10/02/i-am-the-drug
MRCNetwork | 9
WORKING LIFE
Dr Alex Jeans, Centenary Award Holder and MRC Clinician
Scientist Fellow, University of Oxford.
To mark our 100th birthday we’ve launched the MRC
Centenary Awards, special funding to accelerate the
research and careers of our early-career scientists. Alex
explains how his award has given him the time and
resources to pursue research into Alzheimer’s disease
alongside his main career as a pathologist.
practice. I’m looking at how the synapse – the structure that allows
nerve cells to communicate with each other – goes wrong
in Parkinson’s disease.
Clinical practice allows you to do something that’s measurably,
tangibly useful each day, whereas in research you can go for months
and months with no obvious progress. That can be frustrating, so it’s
wonderful to combine these two things where you have the advantages
of one to mitigate the occasional disappointments of the other.
Career in brief:
• Trained in medicine
• Specialised in neuropathology
• MRC Clinical Scientist Fellowship to investigate Parkinson’s disease
Getting the MRC Centenary Award has been brilliant because it’s
allowed me to expand my fellowship research, which concentrated
solely on Parkinson’s disease, to apply a similar approach to Alzheimer’s
disease too.
When I say I’m a pathologist most people think that I just do autopsies,
but that’s only about five per cent of my work. Essentially the job is
about diagnosing diseases in samples from living patients. So we’ll
get a slide of a patient’s tissue sample from the lab, theorise what the
disease process might be and then run a series of tests to find out.
As a neuropathologist, the bulk of my work involves diagnosing
tumours, but I might see any disease of the nervous system that
can be biopsied.
In a lot of ways, Alzheimer’s is a neglected field. We only have one type
of drug in current clinical use, which just slows down the course of the
disease by a few months. The big challenge is that we don’t know why
the nerve cells die in Alzheimer’s disease, so we don’t have anything
that can fundamentally change the course of the disease. Thanks to
my Centenary Award I’m now able to devote all my time to Alzheimer’s
disease research for a while and make a big push to try and complete
the story about synaptic dysfunction. I hope that I’ll be able to submit
my findings for publication within the nine-month timescale of
this award.
The highlight of the pathologist’s week is probably the big
Multi-Disciplinary Team meeting where all patient cases are discussed in
more detail among doctors from different specialisations – radiologists,
surgeons and so on. It’s one of the few times when we pathologists get
to be centre stage. The rest of the team will have something they
need to treat and they’ll ask you what it is, and what you tell them will
strongly guide what they do and the approach they’ll take –
so it’s a big responsibility.
Occasionally I’ll be asked to diagnose a sample during brain surgery
when a surgeon’s found a lesion and needs to know what it is as soon
as possible. There’s a technique we can use to try and get an answer
back within 20 minutes. I have actually found myself running down
hospital corridors to theatre before when a surgeon has been really
desperate for an answer.
From a young age I was one of those people who always wanted a
bit more detail, and to try to understand what was happening
fundamentally. That’s why I was attracted to pathology – it’s very
close to science and basic biology, but you also get to be involved in
patient care.
I’m halfway through an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship which has
given me the chance to combine academic research and clinical
I love doing research, and I’ve also developed a bit of a techy feel
for it too. The techniques we use are really cool. For example, using
fluorescent probes I can actually see the synapses between rat neurons
working in real time, watching the synaptic vesicles – the packages of
chemicals that transmit nerve impulses – glowing brighter as they
release their contents. I get a real thrill when I see the images that
I’ve acquired.
I tend to start my working day at about 8:30am after I’ve taken my
eldest child to school, and I leave around 7pm. I’m strict about making
sure that I do several hours of experiments each day and don’t get
sucked into too much of the administrative work. It can be a long day,
but I’m lucky in that I live within walking distance of work so I don’t
have to waste time on a commute and I’m usually home in time to
put the children to bed.
I’d say my ambition is to continue to enjoy my career as much as
I am doing now, which will mean continuing to combine clinical and
academic work. As long as I have the money and opportunities
to do that I’ll be happy.
Alex has also written about his Centenary Award research for the MRC’s
blog at: www.insight.mrc.ac.uk/2012/10/09/spare-time-science
Using
fluorescent
probes I can
actually see
the synapses
between rat
neurons
working in
real time
MRC centenary events 2013
During 2013 we’ll be celebrating 100 years of life-changing discoveries
and taking time to reflect on our scientists’ many achievements in
medical research, acknowledging those who have supported us along
the way and looking forward to what medical research will deliver in
the future.
TIMELINE • MRC Centenary website • Brighton Science Festival • a centenary of amplified music •
MRC Millennium Medal • Medical Research Live • Launch of Suffrage Science • Oxfordshire Science
Festival • Big Bang Science Fair • Edinburgh International Science Festival • The Great Egg Hunt •
Cambridge Science Festival • opening of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology building • Max
Perutz • Cheltenham Science Festival • MRC Festival of Research • Science Open Doors • Royal
Society Summer Festival of Science • British Science Association Festival of Science • Dundee
Science Festival • MRC Community Event
MRC-funded research continues to have a huge impact on health both
in the UK and worldwide as well as on our economy and society.
Throughout 2013 we’ll be running exciting activities and events to
showcase our research successes and collaborations. Full information
on all these activities is available on our centenary web pages at
www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
Month
Date
Event
April
4 – 14
January
2
MRC Centenary website goes live, including a timeline exploring 100 years of MRC achievements.
More stories will be added throughout the centenary year.
Strictly Science, an interactive live-lab installation showcasing the past, present and future of medical
research opens in the foyer of Imperial College London.
May
tbc
Official opening of the new MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology building - our £200m new
state-of-the-art research facility in Cambridge.
tbc
Centenary Max Perutz Science Writing Award competition opens.
10 - 16
Cheltenham Science Festival – MRC scientists to host activities in a Centenary tent.
tbc
Key figures in the UK submit their ideas for what they think the most important medical advance
has been over the past 100 years, and look forward to see what medical discoveries the next
100 years could bring.
June
February
March
16 - 17
Brighton Science Festival – various events being run by MRC scientists.
15 – 16
tbc
MRC Festival of Research – an interactive exhibition at the Science Museum in London
A healthcare revolution in the making online exhibition launched, telling the story of Cesar Milstein’s
development of monoclonal antibodies.
20 - 26
Science Open Doors: a week of open days with hands-on activities for the public at MRC centres, units
and institutes across the UK.
27
Centenary year MRC Millennium Medal winner announced by Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable at a House of
Commons event.
tbc
Medical Research Live* - The BBC Lab UK Great British Sleep Survey launched: take part in this survey
which aims to discover whether age, lifestyle or other factors affect our sleep patterns.
tbc
Medical Research Live*- A century of amplified music: how does leisure noise affect hearing?
An online interactive research project, run by the MRC Institute of Hearing Research.
July
3-8
Royal Society Summer Festival of Science, London – exhibit on viruses by Dr Leo James of the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology (tbc).
Launch of Suffrage Science – a London-based sequel project to promote women in science through a
publication, heirloom scheme, pop-up exhibition and debate.
August
7 - 12
British Science Association Festival of Science, Newcastle – various events being run by
MRC scientists.
September
tbc
Centenary Max Perutz Science Writing Awards Ceremony to be held at the Science Museum,
London (tbc).
October
tbc
MRC e-health research event as part of Imperial College’s Fringe Programme.
November
3 - 18
Dundee Science Festival - various events being run by MRC scientists.
tbc
MRC Community Events to be held in Oxford, Cambridge, London and Scotland.
8
9 - 24
Oxfordshire Science Festival – various events being run by MRC scientists.
11 - 24
Cambridge Science Festival - various events being run by MRC scientists.
14 - 17
Big Bang Science Fair, London – various events being run by MRC scientists.
23 - 7 April
Edinburgh International Science Festival - the MRC’s Mini Scientists activity will run at the City Arts
Centre, plus talks for adults by MRC funded scientists: Picturing Your Brain by Dr Rustam Al-Shahi
Salman, Aspirin a day? by Dr Lesley Stark and What zebrafish stripes tell us about skin cancer by
Dr Liz Patton.
29
Medical Research Live* - The Great Egg Hunt launched: contribute to a neuroscience study on brain
circuitry by playing a video game based on how nematode worms lay their eggs.
* The Medical Research Foundation is generously supporting the MRC Centenary ‘Medical Research Live’ events. www.mrc.ac.uk/mrf
100 years of life-changing discoveries
One hundred years ago, a fledgling
medical research committee held
its first meeting. Set up to oversee a
national fund for medical research
into tuberculosis, it later evolved
into the Medical Research Council.
Over the past century, our scientists
have made thousands of discoveries
which have benefited scientific
knowledge and human health across
the globe.
1929 - Nobel for discovery
that vitamins are important
for growth and health
Studying the diet of rats,
Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins
found that they grew well only if
he supplemented their diet with
milk, which led him to discover
essential nutrients for growth and
health - now known as vitamins.
Sir Frederick won a Nobel Prize for
his discovery.
1960s - Clinical trials of
radiotherapy for cancer
1995 - Deep brain stimulation treatment
for Parkinson’s disease
The MRC-funded National Survey of Health and
Development study has followed the lives of a group
of people born in one particular week in 1946 for 67
years. Over six decades it has taught us much about
how growth, health and environment in early life
affect risk of disease in adulthood.
MRC scientists started in-depth
trials in the 1960s to test
radiotherapy, the controlled
use of high energy X-rays, as
a treatment for cancer. Today
around four in ten cancer
patients have radiotherapy.
Oxford neurosurgeon Professor
Tipu Aziz discovered that
electrically stimulating a part
of the brain called the
pedunculopontine nucleus in
primates relieved the tremor
symptoms experienced by
Parkinson’s disease patients.
This technique has since
benefited over 30,000 patients
worldwide who do not respond
to drug treatment.
1933 - Discovery of the flu virus
2009 – Saving more HIV patients lives in Africa
A major trial carried out in rural Africa showed that more HIV
patients could be treated safely and effectively for no additional
cost by focusing funding on anti-retroviral therapy (ART)
monitored by trained field workers rather than on expensive
blood tests.
DNA fingerprinting, invented
by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the
University of Leicester, can
reveal distinctive patterns of DNA
fragments that are unique in
everyone apart from identical
twins. The technique is now used
for medicine, forensic science
and paternity testing.
Work by James Watson, Francis Crick,
Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin
revealed that the molecular structure of
DNA is a double helix. DNA encodes
genetic information and transmits it
from one generation to the next.
1930
To see it, visit our centenary web pages
at www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
1984 – DNA fingerprinting invented
1953 - Structure of
DNA unravelled
1920
We have produced a timeline
showing many more MRC discoveries
and stories from the past century which
will be added to throughout 2013.
Sir Peter Mansfield devised a way to harness cells’ natural magnetic
properties to produce images of soft tissues in humans, leading to the
development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Today, all major UK
hospitals have whole-body MRI scanners.
MRC scientists proved that flu is caused
by a virus, rather than a bacterium, after
studying ferrets in their laboratory which
had caught the illness.
Sir Edward Mellanby discovered that rickets,
a deforming and painful childhood bone
disease, is caused by lack of vitamin D and
can be treated with cod liver oil.
14 | MRCNetwork
1946 – First ever British cohort
study begins
1973 – MRI invented
1916 - Rickets is caused
by a lack of Vitamin D
1913
www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2013
MRCNetwork | 17
MY WORK SPACE
Rosalind Franklin’s Laboratory
In the early 1950s, at the MRC Biophysics Unit at King’s College London, Rosalind Franklin obtained X-ray
diffraction images from DNA which made a critical contribution to Watson and Crick’s discovery of
the molecule’s double helix structure. Later, with further MRC funding, she moved on to Birkbeck College
and these photographs of her lab there were taken just a week after her death in 1958 by John Finch,
then her student. He told Sarah Harrop what we can see, and what it was like to work with this pioneer
of biomedical science.
Exterior of 22 Torrington Square
Bottles
These are solutions, various acids, buffer solutions and salts for general
biochemical research. The little bottles are probably mercury or platinum salts –
she attached these heavy metal atoms to virus samples. The aim of that was to
locate the heavy atoms on the virus by looking at changes in the X-ray pictures.
From that you could work out, a bit by trial and error at that stage, information
about the virus’s structure.
Rosalind Elsie Franklin, Elliot & Fry
© National Portrait Gallery
The lab you can see in these pictures was on the first floor of this
building, 22 Torrington Square. On the next floor up was the flat of J D
Bernal, a well known communist and the head of our lab. He would poke
his head around the door of our room from time to time and ask “is
there anything new?” and if there wasn’t anything outstanding to report
he’d immediately start backing out of the door. Bernal had lots of
visitors, both Bloomsbury locals and communists. Picasso even visited
the flat and drew a mural on the wall of his sitting room. When the
building was demolished, the mural was very carefully preserved [it now
belongs to the Wellcome Collection].
Dessicator
Rosalind would have used this for making specimens for her X-ray diffraction
studies. She was working on determining the structure of a simple virus called
Tobacco Mosaic Virus to gain clues about the structures of similar viruses that
cause diseases in people. So she would purify the virus specimen in a centrifuge
and then samples would be concentrated down and dried off using this
dessicator. It’s got a pipe coming out of the top of it, connected to a water pump
that empties into the sink. So then she’d then have a concentrated sample that
she could load into the X-ray camera to make the X-ray diffraction images which
gave clues about the viruses’ structures.
Light Box
This is for looking at X-ray films she’d developed. The exposures were
quite long, they’d take at least 24 hours. The X-ray tube was in the
basement a couple of floors down so she’d take the films, develop,
wash and dry them and then come back up to her room to look at them
on this.
Model pieces
Cushion
Rosalind worked right up until the week before she died, at the tragically young
age of 37, from cancer. She brought this in because she was in some pain
towards the end of her life and this helped make her more comfortable. When I
took these photos, her room was just as she’d left it. I remember her as a very
strong willed and focused person. She didn’t socialise an awful lot in the lab, but
she was an inspiring supervisor. When we had results she’d be interested in
seeing them and would make comments on what I should do next. One hears of
supervisors who never go near the students unless they’ve got some hard results,
but Rosalind wasn’t like that. I remember her being extremely well organised and
keen on getting the work done, on reaching outcomes.
These spindly bits and pieces looks like the makings of a model of DNA.
Her work on DNA had been done a few years earlier at the MRC
Biophysics Unit, following on from work by Maurice Wilkins. When she
left, her supervisor Professor Randall told her she wasn’t to do any more
work on it and there was some bad feeling between them. But she was
quite stoical about it all. Her former student at King’s, Raymond Gosling
[who famously showed Wilkins, Crick and Watson his and Rosalind’s
X-ray diffraction images of DNA without her knowledge] still used to
come to the lab at Torrington Square to discuss things with her and
they wrote some of their DNA papers afterwards from this room.
Watson and Crick also came to visit as they were interested in Rosalind’s
work on Tobacco Mosaic Virus . At that time, the discovery of the
double helix structure of DNA hadn’t made a terrific impression on the
scientific community; full recognition of its significance came much
later, after Rosalind had died.
LATEST discoveries
Read about many more of the MRC’s discoveries from the past
100 years in our Centenary Timeline at www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk
A sunnier outlook for
TB patients
Most baby boomers ‘under the
doctor’ at retirement
Stem cells offer hope
for deafness
Suicide increase blamed on
impact of recession
In the era before antibiotics were available, tuberculosis (TB)
patients were often sent away to sunnier climes to soak up the
healing rays of the sun. New research has shown for the first
time how and why this might have been effective.
Most post-war ‘baby boomers’ have had at least one medical
condition requiring regular GP visits in the run-up to retirement,
according to the latest findings from the MRC National Survey of
Health and Development.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield have found a way to
cure a common form of deafness using human embryonic stem cells.
The impact of the economic recession has led to over 1,000 people
in England committing suicide, new analysis part-funded by the
MRC suggests.
A clinical trial in 95 patients on antibiotics, around half of whom
received vitamin D supplements, showed that high doses of
vitamin D given alongside antibiotic treatment appear to help
TB patients recover faster.
Researchers looked at the prevalence of 15 common clinical
disorders in a group of 2,661 men and women aged 60 to 64.
Analysis of markers of inflammation in the patients’ blood showed
that high doses of the vitamin, which our bodies produce when
we are exposed to sunlight, dampened the body’s inflammatory
response to infection. This allowed patients to recover faster, with
less damage to their lungs. The results also suggest that vitamin D
might help patients recover better from other lung infections such
as pneumonia.
The research was led by scientists from Queen Mary, University
of London (QMUL) and the MRC National Institute for Medical
Research. Lead researcher Dr Adrian Martineau of QMUL explains:
“Inflammatory responses in TB patients can cause tissue damage
leading to the development of cavities in the lung. If we can help
these cavities to heal more quickly, then patients should be
infectious for a shorter period of time, and they may also suffer
less lung damage.”
The team now plans to assess different doses and forms of vitamin D
in TB patients to see if this has an even more beneficial effect.
Published online at www.pnas.org, September 2012
100 years: Tuberculosis research
The MRC was set up primarily to tackle TB, and over the last century
we’ve played a leading role in TB research. In 1944 we funded a
landmark trial of the first anti-TB drug, streptomycin, and in the 1950s
we funded a major trial of the BCG vaccine for TB in schoolchildren,
which changed public health policy and led to universal vaccination in
schools. Today, the battleground has shifted to developing countries
and MRC scientists are working to find new drug targets and tests for
the disease, which still affects nearly nine million people each year.
20 | MRCNetwork
Despite this generation being the first to enjoy the lifelong benefits
of the NHS and the welfare state, the average baby boomer had two
medical conditions at retirement age. Half had hypertension, a third
obesity, a quarter high cholesterol and a quarter had diabetes or
were at high risk of developing it.
With the proportion of over 65s in the population set to rise by a
third by 2033, the findings could have important implications for the
NHS and social services in the coming decades.
Professor Diana Kuh, Director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health
and Ageing, said: “The good news is that the risk of developing
these conditions can be reduced by making simple lifestyle changes
at a young age. By targeting the most at-risk individuals early on
in life – before they reach middle age – we may be able to reduce
the pressure on the health service and, more importantly, save lives.”
With funding from the MRC and Action on Hearing Loss, the
scientists developed a way to turn human embryonic stem cells into
cells of the ear’s cochlear nerve. They then transplanted the cells into
deaf gerbils and on average 46 per cent of their hearing range was
restored by the end of the study.
Researchers from the universities of Liverpool and Cambridge and
the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tested the
theory that English regions hardest hit by unemployment have also
seen the largest rise in suicides.
The hearing loss symptoms that the gerbils in the study had are
similar to a human condition called auditory neuropathy, in which
there is a problem with the connection between the hair cells of the
ear and the brain. It’s the cause of deafness in up to 15 per cent of
those with profound hearing loss across the world.
The national suicide rate had been steadily declining for 20 years
before the recession began. But, between 2008 and 2010, 846 more
men and 155 more women ended their life than would have been
expected had the downward trend continued. The rate among men
rose by 1.4 per cent for every 10 per cent increase in unemployment.
Lead scientist Dr Marcelo Rivolta explained: “We now have a method
to produce human cochlear sensory cells that we could use to
develop new drugs and treatments, and to study the function of genes. And more importantly, we have the proof-of-concept
that human stem cells could be used to repair the damaged ear.”
Suicide rates for 93 areas held by the National Clinical and Health
Outcomes database were studied, along with data on changes in
unemployment from the Office of National Statistics.
Published online at www.nature.com, September 2012
Lead author Ben Barr of Liverpool University explained: “While the
study doesn’t prove the recession is the direct cause of the rise in
suicides, its consistency with previous research shows this is likely.”
Published online at www.bmj.com, August 2012
Published online at www.plosone.org, September 2012
100 years: Britain’s oldest cohort study
100 years: Stem cell research
The MRC’s pioneering National Survey of Health and Development
was the first British birth cohort study and follows a group of people
born in one week in 1946. Over the past 67 years, the study’s wealth
of findings have influenced policy on diet, lifestyle and healthy ageing,
and taught us about future disease risk and treatment.
www.nshd.mrc.ac.uk
The MRC has supported pioneering stem cell research since the field
first emerged and remains at the forefront of regenerative medicine.
In the 1970s we supported Sir Martin Evans’ Nobel Prize-winning work
to isolate and genetically manipulate embryonic stem cells for the
first time, and today our scientists are investigating the use of stem
cells to treat blindness, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases.
www.mrc.ac.uk/Achievementsimpact/NobelPrize/SirMartinEvans
100 years: Mental health research
Mental ill health is a huge social and economic burden on people and
societies around the world, and costs at least £77 billion a year in
England alone. That’s why mental health research is one of the MRC’s
strategic priorities. In 2010 we carried out a comprehensive review
of this field in the UK which included our own ambitions to focus on
experimental medicine, population based research and boosting
training for mental health research.
MRCNetwork | 21
MRC PEOPLE
Award for infant
pneumococcus research
Until 1970 the MRC provided a Radiological
Protection Service for the UK. In this 1969 picture,
scientists are simulating an incident involving
radioactive material and checking a member of
staff to see if his hands are contaminated.
Margaret Thatcher on a visit to
the MRC Laboratory of Molecular
Biology in the 1980s. She is talking
to Professor Max Perutz, who won a
Nobel prize with Sir John Kendrew
for determining the structures of
globular proteins like haemoglobin,
which carries oxygen in the blood.
A scientist from the MRC Unit in The Gambia, Dr Martin Ota, has
been awarded the Royal Society Pfizer Exceptional Merit Award in 2012
for his outstanding research on pneumococcal infection in infancy.
The annual award distinguishes early career scientists based in Africa
and aims to promote science capacity building in the developing world.
Pneumococcus bacteria cause around a million deaths a year among
children in developing countries. They are commonly found at the back
of the nose and can invade the lungs and brain to cause pneumonia
and meningitis.
Dr Ota will use his £37,000 prize money to help set up a study of 200
mothers and their babies which will aim to discover the level of
pneumococcus-fighting antibodies needed in mothers for them to be
able to pass on these protective antibodies to their newborn babies.
Dr Ota, who says he is “excited and very pleased” to have his work
recognised by the award, explains: “Vaccine trials that focus on the
efficacy of the vaccine in preventing disease are expensive and
time-consuming. By contrast, our trial will focus on correlates of
protection from invasive pneumococcal disease, and rate of
colonisation of the pharynx by the pneumococcus, producing results
more quickly and cheaply.”
New director for molecular
medicine institute
Professor Douglas Higgs has become Director of the MRC
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM) at the University
of Oxford, following the retirement of eminent immunologist
Professor Sir Andrew McMichael.
Scientists at the National Institute for
Medical Research World Influenza
Centre testing for different strains of
flu (using their mouths to draw
samples into pipettes), 1960s.
From
Major General Sir William B Leishman, Director General of Army Medical Services and a member
of the MRC’s Council from 1920 – 1923. Leishman was the first to describe the protozoa which
cause Leishmaniasis, a fly-borne disease still rife in some developing countries today.
archive
the
The MRC WIMM carries out research in molecular and cell biology.
Since it was established in 1989, MRC WIMM scientists have made
important discoveries relating to blood disorders, neurological
diseases, genetic conditions, cancer, malaria, HIV and influenza.
For our centenary edition we’ve scoured
the archives of Network’s predecessor,
MRC News, for images of some of our
scientists and research from decades past.
Describing his appointment as “a great honour”, Professor Higgs
added: “The challenge will be to ensure that the institute continues to
lead the field of molecular medicine and remains true to its founding
principles of applying first class basic science to important
biomedical problems.”
Alzheimer’s statistics win prize
The MRC Biostatistics Unit’s (BSU) Dr Fiona Matthews along with
former BSU scientists Dr Graciela Muniz (now at the MRC Centre for
Lifelong Health and Ageing) and Dr Ardo van den Hout (now at
University College London) have been awarded the Gopal Kanji Prize for
the best article published in 2011 by the Journal of Applied Statistics.
The award recognises their research which identified the age at which a
faster rate cognitive decline takes place in older people, using statistical
techniques to fill in the gaps when observations are missing.
22 | MRCNetwork
Staff from the MRC Institute of Sound and
Vibration Research measure the noise from an air
compressor to investigate whether it exceeds
government guidelines for noise in the workplace.
Virus inoculation of an
egg at the NIMR World
Influenza Centre in
the 1970s. Hen’s eggs
were used to culture
viruses for research.
Dr Dudley Goodhead
and colleague
investigate the
biological
effectiveness of
ultrasoft X-rays on
cells from mammals at
the MRC Radiobiology
Unit in Harwell, 1980s.
MRCNetwork | 23
FUNDING
For the latest information on MRC funding opportunities,
visit www.mrc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities
Developing
tomorrow’s
African
research
Research funding is now available for the ‘rising stars’
of biomedical research in Africa under the third
round of the MRC/DFID African Research Leaders
(ARL) scheme.
Awards of up to £750,000 are available to early- to mid-career scientists
to establish innovative research groups that are likely to attract
international recognition and external funding by the end of the award.
The scheme is designed to attract and retain talented African scientists
in sub-Saharan Africa, and invites applications for research which
address national and regional health needs in these countries.
Award-holders from the last two rounds of funding are carrying out
research into a broad range of diseases, from diabetes to Buruli ulcer,
a neglected tropical disease which causes disfiguring skin ulcers in
children. You can read a case study opposite.
The application deadline is 28 February 2013 and shortlisted applicants
will be invited to an interview in late July 2013, with final decisions on
successful applications in August 2013. For full details, including further
case studies of ARL award holders, visit:
www.mrc.ac.uk/Fundingopportunities/Calls/ARL2013
The EU Joint Programme in Neurodegenerative Disease Research
(JPND) has launched two calls for proposals which close on 19 and
21 March 2013.
The MRC is the UK lead for the first call, for research projects to identify
genetic, epigenetic and environmental risk and protective factors
for neurodegenerative diseases. ESRC is the UK lead for the second call,
which invites research proposals on the evaluation of health care
policies, strategies and interventions, such as care pathways and
end-of-life strategies.
JPND’s strategic priority diseases are Alzheimer’s and other
dementias, Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, prion disease,
motor neurone diseases, Huntington’s disease, spinocerebellar
ataxia and spinal muscular atrophy.
Further information can be found at www.jpnd.eu
leaders
Research Complex looks
for MRC proposals
CASE STUDY:
Dr Abdoulaye Diabaté,
Burkina Faso
In Burkina Faso, where malaria is endemic, ARL award holder Dr
Abdoulaye Diabaté is investigating ways to slow down breeding of
malaria-carrying mosquitoes. So far his research team has looked at
when and where mosquito mating swarms form, whether it will be
possible to attract male mosquitoes in a swarm and kill them en masse,
and how effective swarm-killing in combination with spraying homes
with insecticide is in reducing mosquito numbers.
Since receiving his award in 2011, Dr Diabaté has been promoted to a
Maître de Recherche at the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la
Santé. He’s also expanded his research team to include a post-doc and
two PhD students and leads a well-subscribed training course for
medical entomology and parasitology to build capacity
in this discipline in West Africa.
Dr Diabaté’s profile is in the ascendant internationally; he’s recently
been invited to an international malaria conference in Switzerland
as a key note speaker, given a lecture at Imperial College London and is
a member of the organising committee for an EMBO conference series.
24 | MRCNetwork
EU neurodegenerative disease research funding
Systems immunology funding
The MRC Systems Immunology of the Human Life Course call is
now open, seeking outline proposals to establish multi-disciplinary
consortia with expertise in applying state-of-the-art mathematical
or computational science.
Successful projects will be expected to use systems approaches to
explain and predict immunological processes and pathways and
how they change over the human lifecourse or in health and disease.
The closing date is in March 2013 and successful applicants will be invited
to submit full applications in summer 2013. For more information, visit
www.mrc.ac.uk/Fundingopportunities/Calls
The Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH), which provides
world-class research laboratory facilities for both life and
physical science researchers, is looking for funding proposals
from MRC scientists. Located close to the M4 and within
easy reach of Oxford and London, the RCaH provides prime
research space for researchers who are conducting work at
Diamond Light Source, the ISIS neutron facility, the Central
Laser Facility and other shared facilities at the RAL.
Already resident are a number of MRC-funded groups
including RCaH Director Professor Simon Phillips’ own group,
which is studying the structure and function of proteins that
modify DNA or repair it if it is damaged. Simon explains:
“These [proteins] are often implicated in hereditary diseases
with a predisposition to cancer, such as Bloom’s Syndrome,
and knowledge of the protein structures is key
to the design of drugs in the future.”
Space in the complex is filling up fast but proposals
are welcome from MRC scientists via our grant and
fellowship schemes. More information can be found at
www.mrc.ac.uk/Fundingopportunities/Calls/RCaH and
on the RCaH website at www.rc-harwell.ac.uk
MRCNetwork | 25
YOUR
Opinion
FEEDBACK
Network is for anyone who has an interest in the work of
the MRC, including scientists, doctors and health
professionals involved in medical research, government
departments and parliamentarians, and university staff
and students. The aim is to provide a quick, easy-to-read
summary of activities across the MRC, from research news
through to funding, grant schemes and policy issues, with
pointers to more in-depth information on websites and in
other publications.
100 years from now
Sixty years ago, the structure of DNA was unknown.
Today we know enough about DNA to reprogram its
instructions to produce synthetic molecules and even
cells. As we celebrate a century of MRC-funded
advances, Professor Jason Chin from the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology speculates about
where such research might take us in future.
Synthetic biology is a fascinating new area of science. It’s all about
thinking how we might be able to change the way biological systems
work, to help us understand them more deeply or to get them to do
useful things for us which they can’t normally do.
Its potential applications are broad and, frankly, amazing. For example,
some scientists are building biological systems that can count every
time a cell divides. In the future this might be used as part of a
system to trigger the killing of cells in the human body that have
divided more times than expected for a normal cell, such as cancer
cells. And beyond medical research, synthetic biology approaches
are being investigated to do many other things, from making
biofuels to mopping up pollution.
My research involves expanding the available repertoire of amino
acids, the twenty building blocks that are strung together to make the
proteins which carry out many of the processes that keep us alive.
We are working on re-engineering the cellular factories that normally
make proteins in a cell to get them to make proteins containing entirely
new amino acids that are not found in nature. This may sound esoteric,
but it provides a powerful approach for seeing what proteins get
up to in a cell, and takes us a step closer to providing new molecules
to tackle disease.
By introducing new chemical groups into proteins we can track them,
rather like with the GPS on our phones, and find out where they go,
and which other proteins in the cell they talk to. Putting new amino
acids into proteins has revealed some long-kept secrets about what
proteins do in cells. I anticipate that the insights revealed by these
approaches will, in due course, provide some of the very basic
knowledge to inform the next generation of translational research.
Synthetic biologists are already on the cusp of improving human health
through pioneering approaches that allow us to change and improve
drugs that are made of proteins - for example antibodies, insulin or
growth hormones.
Thanks to Sir Gregory Winter’s work here at the LMB in the 1970s to
‘humanise’ mouse antibodies and make them more suitable for use in
people, there’s been an explosion in protein therapeutics and several of
the world’s top drugs are now antibody therapies. Sooner or later I
think that more drugs will be protein therapeutics, and our ability to
‘soup-up’ these proteins with synthetic biology approaches could vastly
expand their scope.
We are very keen to receive feedback on Network and
suggestions for new features from our readers. So if you
have any comments, please let us know. Just email:
For example, a biotech company in San Diego, Ambrx*, is carrying out a
clinical trial of a protein therapeutic for growth deficiency
incorporating some of these synthetic amino acids, which they hope
will make the drug more stable in the blood so that patients need to
take less of it than they normally would.
A limited number of copies are available in print. Network
can also be downloaded as a pdf at:
Network is produced by the MRC Corporate Affairs Group.
Editor: Sarah Harrop
Designer: Vin Kumar
www.mrc.ac.uk/network
IMAGES
Other scientists are using these synthetic amino acids to attach
antibodies to toxic molecules so that they can be specifically targeted
to kill cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.
Front/Back cover: MRC archive, Noel Murphy, Martin Phelps
Page 3: © Charles D. Winters/Science Photo Library
© Zephyr/Science Photo Library
Page 4: © Pasieka/Science Photo Library
Page 5: © Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library
Page 7: © Photography of Richard Dawkins © Simon Hadley
Page 8: © iStockPhoto.com
Page 9: © Andrew Bastawrous
Page 10-11: © Henning Dalhoff / Science Photo Library
Page 12-13: © (Left to Right) Lindsay McBurnie, A. Barrington Brown/
Science Photo Library, MRC archive, Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix, iStockPhoto.com, iStockPhoto.com, Alec Jeffreys,
Zephyr/Science Photo Library, MRC archive
Page 14-17: © Wellcome Trust
© Science Photo Library
© MRC archive
Page 16: © Peter Mansfield, University of Nottingham
Page 18-19: main image - © John Finch, TL - © National Portrait Gallery,
TR - © Archive of Aaron Klug
Page 20-21: © iStockPhoto.com
Page 22-23: © MRC archive
Page 24: © Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library
Page 25: © Pasieka/Science Photo Library
One challenge that many synthetic biologists face is that our ability to
make bits of DNA and move them around far exceeds our
understanding of what the consequences will be.
But while research necessarily involves exploring unknown territory, it is
tightly regulated and scientists take every precaution that they can to
make sure the experiments they are doing are safe. As in every day life,
everything we do has some element of risk, but the more we learn
through research the more we’re able to judge those risks.
Watson and Crick elucidated the double-helix structure of DNA just 60
years ago. If you think back to a time before we understood the
molecular basis of heredity, before we could sequence genomes or
even really understood that genes are linked with disease, it would have
been impossible to imagine today’s world of antibodies or molecular
targeted therapeutics.
Medical Research Council (Swindon office)
2nd Floor David Phillips Building
Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon
SN2 1FL
Synthetic biology research isn’t going to solve all the world’s problems
tomorrow and it is important to be clear that the promise of new
approaches often takes many years to be realised in full. There was an
interval of many years from Fred Sanger’s invention of DNA sequencing
to the sequencing of the human genome; from the discovery of
methods for creating monoclonal antibodies by Kohler and Milstein to
the creation of antibody therapies. In decades to come I’m optimistic
we’ll see progress on understanding the physical basis of what it means
to be a sentient, conscious individual, and how life may have arisen
from simple molecules.
* Jason Chin has a financial interest in Ambrx.
26 | MRCNetwork
[email protected]
Medical Research Council (London office)
14th Floor
One Kemble Street
London
WC2B 4AN
Phone (+44) (0)1793 416200
www.mrc.ac.uk
Jason W. Chin is head of the Centre for Chemical & Synthetic Biology and a Programme Leader
in the Division of Protein & Nucleic Acid Chemistry at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Find out more at www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ccsb
MRCNetwork | 27
www.mrc.ac.uk