Head of fruit fly in cross section

2003 U3A meeting

Abstracts of talks:

The secrets of the human genome. What will we learn about human biology? : Don Williamson

When the draft sequence of the human genome (the sum of all the genetic information in our chromosomes) was announced in 2002 it was the culmination of almost fifty years of molecular biology. We already knew DNA was the source of genetic information that indirectly created all the remarkable proteins that carry out our life processes. We already knew how to exploit this information to make, in living factories, many protein medicines (insulin, growth hormone, blood factors etc) that are definitively free of viruses and prions that could be used to treat many kinds of disease. The reason the sequence provokes such excitement is that we now have in our computers the basic information required to understand the nature of human life in health and disease (even if it takes centuries). This information is very complicated but has many practical implications that will revolutionise medical practice. The genome contains hundreds of, as yet uncharacterised, proteins with potential importance in medicine. It also tells us, the genetic make up of each person is highly individual and tests could be devised that might warn us of whether we are unusually at risk from potentially damaging life activities. Medications could also be tailored to our individual requirements. Like all new frontiers, the genome is full of dangers of an ethical kind that must be resolved.

Have we anything to fear from infectious disease? : Anne O’Garra

For most of recorded time, the most likely fate of any individual was death from infectious disease and on a number of occasions severe epidemics dramatically changed the course of history. One hundred years ago, microbial threats were already less menacing, thanks to improved sanitation and a growing appreciation of the rules of hygiene. With the discovery of antibiotics and the implementation of vaccination campaigns in the 1950s, there seemed nothing more to fear from infectious disease. How wrong we were! In the last half century more than ten new diseases have been discovered each pointing to yet another chink in our hygienic armour while reported cases of food poisoning and sexually transmitted disease have risen inexorably. To combat new dangers and devise strategies to manage any public health threat, a network of microbiologists exists throughout the world. How well they work is illustrated by their response to the recent episode of SARS. In 1918, when the great Spanish ‘flu outbreak killed more than twenty million people in a few months, such a response was inconceivable. As with SARS, the cause was also unknown to science but many years elapsed before it was identified.  Scientists working at the present site of NIMR demonstrated it was caused by a virus and work on many aspects of the virus has continued at the Institute ever since. Tuberculosis, malaria and HIV are infectious diseases that are still major causes of death and sickness throughout the world without obvious methods of control.  If we could learn more about how the body responds to these infections we could be in a much stronger position to devise methods to limit these infections. 

New ways of refurbishing the damaged body : Robin Lovell-Badge

Most cells of the brain, the heart, and skeletal muscle will never divide again after we are born, although they can function with amazing fortitude for more than a hundred years.  However if they are damaged severely by accident, virus infection, strokes or heart attacks they seem almost irreplaceable.  Medical scientists have wondered for many years if this problem is really insurmountable.  Human tissues that can be renewed such as blood, skin or liver do so because they contain undifferentiated cells with an unlimited capacity to propagate. Some of their daughter cells can differentiate and take their place in the organ where they perform their proper function. We already use this idea in bone marrow transplantation. Providing tissues are immunologically compatible, a donor’s bone marrow can restore a wide range of blood cell types to cure a large number of genetic diseases or to restore bone marrow function after chemotherapy. Stem cells from the skin can be used to repair burns in which as much as ninety percent of the body’s surface has been damaged and stem cells for cartilage can restore some sporting injuries to joints. The use of most stem cells is restricted because they make only a narrow range of differentiated cells. However, we are on the brink of a revolutionary possibility that cells cultured from a fertilised egg could be used to make many kinds of cell providing they are exposed to the right cues. Compelling support for this idea comes from experiments done with mice but there are some serious ethical checkpoints to be passed before this can be done with human embryo cells. Particularly attractive targets for this kind of approach are the lesions caused by Parkinson’s disease and other neurological problems.

 

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