ISSUE 60 OCTOBER 2009

Conceptions
of beauty
Wellcome Image
Awards 2009

Medical
engineering
Four new research
centres launch
Developing science
Research capacity
in Africa
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PU-4550/13.5K/10-2009/CD
Cover: Sperm and ovum in IVF. See pages 8–9. Spike Walker
This document was printed on material
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WellcomeNews | Issue 60
Editorial
An exemplar collaboration was between
Glasgow obstetricians Ian Donald and John
McVicar and engineer Tom Brown, who in
the 1950s launched the field of prenatal
diagnosis by ultrasound scanning. Donald
had come across radar and sonar while
serving as a medical officer in World War
II, and led the development of a prototype
scanner that fused industrial metal flaw
detector technology with Meccano
sprockets and chains and a borrowed
hospital bed table. Their 1958 Lancet paper,
‘Investigation of abdominal masses by
pulsed ultrasound’, which demonstrated
the utility of the technique, noted that their
findings “encourage great efforts to refine our
Biology and medicine are powerful
technique”. Such refinements have brought
disciplines in their own right, but they
ultrasound scanning to the forefront of
do not stand alone. Each interacts with,
antenatal care.
and is dependent upon, a variety of other
It is this spirit of innovation that
disciplines, and we should always look to
underpins our newly awarded funding
enhance these links – for they can stimulate
to four Centres of Excellence in Medical
new ideas, approaches and innovations.
Engineering (see page 5). At these centres,
Chemistry, for example, is intimately
engineers and medical scientists are using
linked to biology, explaining the properties
the latest technologies to tackle major
of complex molecules and being central
unmet needs in medicine. The Imperial
to drug development. Meanwhile, physics
College London team is developing small,
has brought us brain imaging for research
tailored artificial knee implants and
and diagnostics and, on a grand scale, the
tissue-engineered stem cells to repair joints
Diamond synchrotron in Oxfordshire: a
damaged by osteoarthritis. The Leeds centre
massive particle accelerator that is being
is taking a wider view of the ageing body and
used to solve the structures of proteins and
is working on bioregenerative scaffolds to
other materials.
repair cartilage, bone, heart valves and blood
Away from the ‘classic’ science areas,
vessels. The Oxford team’s work includes liver
computing has perhaps brought the most
cancer treatments that are encapsulated in
profound shifts in biomedical research over
nanoparticles and are guided to their target
the last two decades – and bioinformatics
in the body and released using ultrasound.
has emerged as a discipline in its own
And finally, King’s College London is
right. Every day, the Wellcome Trust
developing improved imaging tools for
Sanger Institute produces the equivalent
detecting arrhythmia and robotic guides to
of one human genome’s worth of DNA
aid keyhole surgery procedures.
sequence data; without computing power
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund is
on an industrial scale, the capture, storage,
another exciting initiative that we hope will
analysis and sharing of these terabytes
bring many new products, technologies and
of data would be impossible. Parallel
interventions into routine healthcare. This
developments in networks are bringing
collaboration with the Department of Health
us electronic patient records, which will
launched its first themed call for proposals in
not only help doctors to look after their
July, under the banner of ‘advancing genetic
patients but also be powerful resources
discoveries into clinical practice’ and with
for researchers looking to understand our
funding of up to £20 million. Given the
long-term health.
tremendous pace of developments arising
The discipline that has had and will
from the application of genome sequencing
continue to have a huge impact on
to improved understanding of human
healthcare is that of engineering. There
variation in health and disease, this initiative
is a long history of collaboration between
is both timely and important.
doctors and engineers, bringing us health-
transforming developments such as hip
and knee replacements, pacemakers,
dialysis machines and video laryngoscopes,
and today it is the fastest-growing area of
Sir Mark Walport
engineering. Director of the Wellcome Trust
In this issue 60th
issue
Funding

Latest Trust fellowships news 6

Translational research scheme launches 6
Mary Rose museum wins support 7

3
News
Wellcome Library looks back 2
Bioluminescent art on show 3
Win a new book on Henry Wellcome 3
7
Research
New chlamydia test for men 12
Videos: MRI scans and pain research 12
Using science for good or ill 13
Schistosome genome sequenced 16

2 Noticeboard 17

Features

Medical engineering centres open 5

Wellcome Image Awards 2009 8
African Institutions Initiative 10
Studying adverse drug reactions 14

5
9
WellcomeNews | Issue
WellcomeNews 58 |60
| Issue 3
News
Wellcome Library looks back
The Wellcome Library’s Year in Review
has been published. Detailing Library
activities over 2008, this review highlights
the Library’s digitisation programme
and features some exciting acquisitions
from the year, including the casebooks
of the ‘father of modern forensics’ Sir
Bernard Spilsbury and the notebooks of
double Nobel Prize-winning geneticist
Fred Sanger. Two of the Library’s
regular readers, independent researcher
Andy Clark and postgraduate student
Katherine Rawling, offer insights into
their experiences as Wellcome Library
New teaching materials online
Take a look at www.wellcome.ac.uk/
bigpicture for our Big Picture supplement
on influenza – a primer and source of
background information produced in
light of the unfolding H1N1 flu pandemic.
Drawing on the previously published
Big Picture on Epidemics, this online
resource looks at past flu pandemics and
places a particular focus on implications
for, and activity in, the UK.
‘Swine Flu’ glass sculpture by Luke Jerram.
2 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
users. Read a PDF version of the Year in
Review at library.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_
WTX055805.html or request a print copy
(subject to availability) from t.tillotson@
wellcome.ac.uk.
The Wellcome Library blog
(wellcomelibrary.blogspot.com) is the
perfect way to stay in touch with Library
activities. The blog covers everything from
updates on Library services to news of
new acquisitions, and also includes more
discursive pieces on interesting items from
the Library’s collections.
• In 2008, the Library recorded over
33 000 visitors to its facilities and over
486 000 unique visitors to its website.
• The Library had over 12 000 registered
readers, of whom 5000 were new
during the year.
Over at www.wellcometreeoflife.
org there are three curriculum-matched
lesson plans that help students to use
the interactive Tree of Life to explore
how living things are related. There are
activities for Key Stages 3 and 4, and for
students aged 16–19.
Also as part of Darwin200, The Great
Plant Hunt treasure chests have been
sent to every state primary school in the
UK, and over 8000 Survival Rivals kits
have been ordered by secondary schools.
Initial results of ‘A Question of Taste’ – an
experiment in one of the Survival Rivals
kits that explores taste and genetics – are
now online, and the UK-wide survey
will remain open until summer 2010.
Workshops are underway to allow students
to use molecular biology techniques
to investigate their findings further.
survivalrivals.org/a-question-of-taste/
Thanks for the funding,
50 years on
An email landed in the Wellcome News
inbox that we had to share. In 1961,
Dr Karlis Adamsons received a Senior
Research Fellowship (SRF) from the Trust.
Now a professor in the Department
of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the
University of Puerto Rico, he says: “I
wanted to contact you to say how much
my SRF helped me – specifically because
it freed me from the obligations of
private practice.” Indeed, of over 200
publications Professor Adamsons has
authored in his career, 90 were published
in 1963–72: during and immediately after
his Fellowship. The financial freedom
afforded by the Fellowship also allowed
him to consult for organisations such as
the National Institutes of Health.
Do you have any comments on
Wellcome News to share? Email us at
wellcome.news@wellcome.ac.uk
and let us know.
Party in the parliament
The All Party Parliamentary Group on
Medical Research held a summer reception
in July to celebrate medical research
in the UK. Over 150 people attended,
including around 40 MPs and peers
and representatives from 60 member
organisations of the Association of Medical
Research Charities. Attendees had the
opportunity to talk with researchers from
the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and
the Trust-funded Avon Longitudinal Study
of Parents and Children, as well as play the
popular ‘Sneeze’ game from our Routes
Darwin200 project (www.miniclip.com/
games/sneeze).
Exploring the invisible
There’s more to bioluminescent bacteria
than their use in scientific research. With
Arts Award funding, artist Anne Brodie,
microbiologist Dr Simon Park and curator
Dr Caterina Albano are exploring the
wider relationship between humans and
microorganisms.
By inverting the standard practice of
using bacterial bioluminescence as an
internal marker, and making it an external
source of light, they expose objects and
bodies, surfaces and skin to the soft ethereal
glow of bacterial light, establishing new
points of contacts and visual punctures.
Part of their project has been the use of
bacterial light to illuminate the personal
letters and journals of Joseph Lister, held in
the Wellcome Library, producing a series of
ghostly photographs more reminiscent of
X-rays.
The project will involve a unique live
installation and photographic projections
at the Old Operating Theatre, St Thomas’s
Street, London (www.thegarret.org.uk)
on 3 December, and projections from 4–7
December. The team will be giving a talk at
the Old Operating Theatre on 8 December.
bioproject.tumblr.com
New book explores Wellcome’s collection
A new book about Sir Henry
Wellcome’s collection has
just hit the shelves. An Infinity
of Things: How Sir Henry
Wellcome collected the world
(Oxford University Press,
£18.99) draws on hundreds
of documents from the
Wellcome Library archives to shed light
on the remarkable world of competitive
collecting that Wellcome mastered.
Author Frances Larson investigates the
history of the collection, from Wellcome’s
earliest recorded purchases as a boy to
his death in 1936 – by which time his
collection had become a major enterprise.
The book charts his relationships with his
Neuroscientists make memories last
Neuroscience has been one of the key
areas we have supported for nearly 60
years. A new Trust-funded research project
will record interviews with prominent
neuroscientists about the field, providing
a valuable resource for historians,
journalists, policy makers and aspiring
young neuroscientists.
Bioluminescent images from the project. Anne Brodie and
Simon Park
growing team of collecting agents, who
travelled through Europe, Asia and beyond,
acquiring objects during the opening
decades of the 20th century. It also analyses
the displays at the Wellcome Historical
Medical Museum, which opened in 1913.
We have two copies of the book to
give away. For a chance to win one,
tell us the address of the Wellcome
Historical Medical Museum. Email your
answer (one entry only per person) to
wellcome.news@wellcome.ac.uk using
the subject line ‘Henry competition’.
Competition closes 17.00 GMT, 13 November 2009,
after which two correct entries will be randomly selected.
Winners will be notified by email by 20 November 2009
and announced in a future issue of Wellcome News.
The interviews and transcripts are freely
available online. www.ucl.
ac.uk/histmed/audio/
neuroscience
Alexander
Kalina/
iStockphoto
News in brief
Eyes on the prize
The Wellcome Trust Book Prize’s
first year is going well, with 70 books
submitted. The Prize is open to fiction
and non-fiction entries, and celebrates
the interaction between medicine and
literature. The judging panel, led by
Jo Brand, is compiling a shortlist to be
released at the Cheltenham Literature
Festival in October. The overall winner
will be announced in November at a
special reception at Wellcome Collection.
www.wellcomebookprize.org
Career Tracker
We’ve launched a new study to give
us a better understanding of the
career progression and choices Trust-
supported researchers make, helping us
to improve research and career support.
The first wave of the Wellcome Trust
Career Tracker ran this summer, looking
at students on Basic PhD Programmes,
Research Career Development Fellows
and International Senior Research
Fellows who have recently finished or
are in the final year of their awards.
The results will appear soon online
and in Wellcome News.
Survival of the fittest
The growing field of synthetic biology is
the focus of a new Trust bursary scheme
aiming to get UK students to the
International Genetically Engineered
Machine competition (iGEM). Run by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
iGEM challenges student teams to build
biological systems that can operate in
living cells. Our scheme will enable up
to five UK teams to compete.
WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 3
News
Discover the autumn Collection
Robert Byron/iStockphoto
Wellcome Collection has an exciting series
of events to tickle your brain this autumn.
Our newest exhibition, Identity: Eight
rooms, nine lives, looks at how science has
tried to determine human identity. From
fingerprinting to DNA sequencing, it will
explore different aspects and approaches
Wellcome News is 15!
Ah, 1994. Bruce Springsteen in the
charts, the opening of the Channel
Tunnel, and the publication of the first-
ever issue of Trp3 – the esoteric original
name of Wellcome News.
As in Wellcome News today, funding
was a popular topic for issue 1 of Trp3,
which included articles on the newly
constructed Wellcome Trust Centre
for Human Genetics in Oxford and the
Functional Imaging Laboratory at the
Institute of Neurology, London (now the
Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging).
Other stories included a report on one of
the Trust’s first-ever funding interviews
conducted via satellite, and a piece by
Max Perutz on his efforts to deduce the
alpha-helix structure of proteins.
1 in 10 000
We’re thrilled to welcome our 10 000th
subscriber to Wellcome News: Dr Farhan
Abdul Rauf, a health coordinator and
consultant physiotherapist in Karachi,
Pakistan. “I’m interested in medical
research and development,” says Dr Rauf.
“I’ve subscribed to Wellcome News to
4 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
Prizes and honours
in eight discrete rooms. The exhibition
opens in November and is part of our
Identity Project, with further activities
and events to be announced.
Also this autumn, Wellcome Collection
partners with the BBC World Service to
host some of biggest names in science in a
series of talks examining the social impacts
The Trust-funded Tree of Life (above)
of their discoveries and the frontiers of
animation has won the Judges’ Choice
scientific knowledge. The series, hosted
award in the Institutional Category
by philosopher A C Grayling, has already
of The Scientist Video Awards. The
welcomed theoretical physicist Lawrence
video, which can be viewed at www.
Krauss and neurophilosopher Patricia
wellcometreeoflife.org or www.
Churchland. Upcoming guests include
youtube.com/wellcometrust, was
Tejinder Virdee, Seth Shostak and Rajendra
praised for its “beautiful graphics” and
K Pachauri.
“well-written script [that] conveyed info
Sex and revulsion are on the menu for the
in a clear, concise, engaging manner”.
autumn run of Packed Lunches, our series
of lunchtime events where local scientists
Lucinda Jarrett, Wellcome Trust
discuss their research. In October, we
Fellow and Artistic Director and
welcome Dr Catherine Mercer, a statistician
Chief Executive of artist-led charity
at University College London, discussing
Rosetta Life, has been awarded a Clore
the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes
Leadership Fellowship. The Fellowships
and Lifestyle, and Dr Val Curtis from the
aim to strengthen leadership across a
London School of Hygiene and Tropical
range of cultural activities.
Medicine, talking about the protective
power of disgust.
www.wellcomecollection.org
While the title
Trp3 may have
lasted just ten
issues, Wellcome
News is still going
strong 15 years on.
You can browse
present and past Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
issues at www. Professor Vikram Patel (above) of the
wellcome. London School of Hygiene and Tropical
ac.uk/ Medicine has been elected a Fellow
wellcomenews. of the Academy of Medical Sciences
If you have any story ideas, comments or and was also awarded the Chalmers
queries, let us know by emailing wellcome. Medal for 2009 by the Royal Society for
news@wellcome.ac.uk. And if you haven’t Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for his
worked it out yet, the derivation of the contributions to the field.
name Trp3 is revealed at www.wellcome.
ac.uk/news. A People Award-funded website that
promotes greater awareness of genetics
has won the Best Use of New Media
Award at the Association of Healthcare
get updates on education, research and Communicators’s Communicating
development. I’d also like to read more Health Awards. ‘Telling Stories’ aims
on medical and clinical ethics.” to help nurses, midwives and health
To join Dr Rauf and the thousands of visitors understand how genetics has
others who receive Wellcome News free an impact on the people they care for.
every quarter, see www.wellcome.ac.uk/ www.geneticseducation.nhs.uk/
subscribe. tellingstories
Engineering medicine
Replacement joints that
exactly fit your body’s
needs, monitoring
tools that tell you which
type of medicine will
best cure your illness…
Mun-Keat Looi finds out
about four new Centres
of Excellence in Medical
Engineering.
“The synergy of medicine and engineering
is a powerful combination that both
medics and engineers can benefit from,”
says Professor Ross Ethier, head of the
Department of Bioengineering at Imperial
College London. Indeed, pacemakers,
X-rays, ultrasound and functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are
just some of the innovations that have
come from engineers partnering with
clinicians.
Today, medical engineering is the
fastest-growing area of engineering, and
the field has had a further boost from
the launch of four Centres of Excellence
funded by a new initiative from the
Wellcome Trust and the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC). Projects range from improved
diagnostic technologies to better knee or
hip implants (see box).
Such new technologies have many
implications for healthcare. They may,
for example, reduce our current reliance
on drugs: “Better diagnostic technologies
can help us make more efficient use of
drugs and occasionally develop therapies
that don’t involve drugs at all,” says
Professor Lionel Tarassenko, Director of
the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at
the University of Oxford. Furthermore, as
the development of medical devices has
fewer regulatory hurdles than for drugs,
the time to get them to market tends to be
shorter and the costs can be much lower.
Hence, as Professor John Fisher, Director
of the Institute of Medical and Biological
Professor Reza Razavi in his laboratory at King’s College London.
Engineering, University of Leeds, points
out, “Medical engineered technologies
have the potential to deliver treatments at
a cost level that patients, communities and
Centres of Excellence funded by the Wellcome Trust–
EPSRC Medical Engineering initiative
Department of Bioengineering,
Imperial College London
• Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common cause
of chronic pain in the UK. The work
of Professor Ross Ethier and colleagues
includes tailored artificial knee implants
that replace only the damaged part
rather than the whole joint. They are
also creating tissue-engineered implants
that are preconditioned in the laboratory
to withstand the wear and strain of the
individual patient’s daily life before they
are implanted.
Institute of Biomedical Engineering,
University of Oxford
• Personalised healthcare
Professor Lionel Tarassenko and
colleagues are targeting individual
patients’ needs at different stages of their
lives. Examples include mobile phone
software to teach patients how to manage
conditions such as diabetes and asthma,
and liver cancer treatments encapsulated
in nanoparticles that are released at the
right place and time using ultrasound.
developing countries can afford.”
For more, read our feature article
on medical engineering at
www.wellcome.ac.uk/news.
Institute of Medical and Biological
Engineering, University of Leeds
• ‘50 years after 50’
Professor John Fisher and colleagues
aim to make the last 50 years of our
(increasingly longer) lives as comfortable
as the first 50. They are developing
low-wearing, durable hip and knee
joint replacements, implants to replace
discs in the lower back and spine, and
bioregenerative scaffolds to repair heart
valves and blood vessels.
Division of Imaging Sciences, King’s
College London
• Imaging the body
Professor Reza Razavi and colleagues
are concentrating on new imaging
technologies to aid diagnosis and
treatment. Examples include computer
models and combined PET and MRI
scanners to look at cardiovascular disease
at the cellular level. For psychiatric
diseases such as depression, their
improved neuroimaging techniques could
help to improve initial diagnoses and
monitor the effects of drug treatments.
WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 5
Funding
Prestigious postdoc funding
Andrew Wood, a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow.
The Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral
Fellowship scheme is now taking
applications for its fourth year of awards.
Who can apply? Talented researchers
who are in the final year of their PhD or
who have less than one year’s postdoctoral
experience. Candidates should have
no more than 12 months’ postdoctoral
experience by February 2010.
What’s available? £250 000 for a four-
year, full-time fellowship to develop an
independent research career in the best
labs in the UK and overseas.
What’s the deadline? Preliminary
applications must be received by
2 November 2009. Full applications
will be invited by 1 December 2009.
For further information on the
application process and a taste of what
it’s like to be a Sir Henry Wellcome
Postdoctoral Fellow, watch the video
featuring some of the current Fellows.
www.wellcome.ac.uk/shwpf
Drug Discovery deadlines
Klebsiella, a bacterium targeted by previous work funded
by Seeding Drug Discovery. John E Richens
The November deadline is fast approaching
for applications to our Seeding Drug
Discovery funding stream, which helps
researchers with a potential drug target or
new chemistry to embark on a programme of
compound discovery and/or lead compound
optimisation. Preliminary applications must
be received by 9 November. The next round
of funding will close in May 2010.
www.wellcome.ac.uk/sdd
6 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
Beit back
We and the Beit Memorial Fellowships were originally founded in 1909 by the
for Medical Research have announced philanthropist Sir Otto Beit in memory of
the launch of the Wellcome–Beit Prize his brother, Alfred Beit, another notable
Fellowships. The new £25 000 Fellowships philanthropist. www.wellcome.ac.uk/beit
will be awarded annually to the top-scoring
early career scientists interviewed for our
Research Career Development Fellowships
and Intermediate Clinical Fellowships.
The prizes will be given in addition to the
salary and research expenses provided to the
fellows and can be used flexibly in support
of their research. The first recipients will be
announced in December 2009.
These awards replace the Beit Memorial
Alfred Beit (left) and Sir Otto Beit.
Fellowships for Medical Research, which
Health Innovation Challenge Fund launches
We have launched a new £100 million to stimulate the delivery of technologies,
fund in association with the Department products and interventions to clinical
of Health to further the development use in the NHS within three to five years.
of innovative healthcare products. The The fund will make a series of themed
Health Innovation Challenge Fund will calls, the first of which, ‘advancing
facilitate technological developments genetic discoveries into clinical practice’,
that deliver economic and patient health was announced in July.
benefits to the UK. By providing ‘gap- www.wellcome.ac.uk/hicf
bridging’ funding, the initiative hopes
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund will support technological innovation in the NHS.
Fellowships strengthen Kenyan research capacity
The Consortium for National Health
Research in Kenya, supported by our Health
Research Capacity Strengthening Initiative,
has so far awarded ten research internship
fellowships to graduates and six Research
Leadership Grants to senior researchers.
The Consortium is currently processing 68
Research Training Fellowship applications
for eight training slots under the fellowship
scheme. www.wellcome.ac.uk/hrcs Researcher in Kenya. Michael Chew
Engaging funding for India
We are continuing to increase funding in
Indian science, both for research and for
public engagement. Debating Matters –
which brings together students from all
backgrounds to debate topical scientific
issues – will enter its second year in Indian
high schools thanks to an extended
Society Award. Run by the Institute of
Ideas, the competition will culminate with
a final in Delhi on 14–16 January 2010.
www.debatingmatters.com/projects/
debating_matters_india/
Elsewhere, the National Centre for
Biological Sciences in Bangalore will host our
International Public Engagement workshop
in December. This will bring together
scientists, artists, policy makers, journalists,
educators and health workers to explore
how narrative and storytelling can help to
communicate with and engage audiences in
biomedical science and health issues.
Meanwhile, the Wellcome Trust–DBT
India Alliance continues to go from strength
to strength, offering fellowships at key career
stages to support Indian biomedical research
of the highest quality. Applications have
just closed for its Early Career and Senior
Fellowships, with a new round due to open
next year. www.wellcomedbt.org
New vaccine initiative
Affordable vaccines for developing
countries are the focus of a new not-for-
profit joint venture we have launched with
pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.,
Inc. The MSD–Wellcome Trust Hilleman
Laboratories will receive up to £90 million
in support from its founders over the next
seven years. The labs, based in India, are
expected to be operational by the second
half of 2010. Dr Altaf Lal, as CEO, is leading
on the establishment of a portfolio of
vaccine development projects.
www.wellcome.ac.uk/hilleman
Museum receives ship-shape support
Painting of the Mary Rose, by Geoff Hunt. © The Mary Rose Trust
The Mary Rose Trust has received
£1 million from us towards its new
£35m museum for the 16th-century
warship. The Capital Award will help
to establish sections of the museum
focusing on the medicine practised on
board the Mary Rose, as seen through the
eyes of a Barber-Surgeon. The Barber-
Surgeon’s cabin will be reconstructed
to include a new character case and
a reconstruction of the heads of key
members of the ship’s crew. The award
Awards to make a song and dance about
A People Award has been made to Ymogen
for NHS the Musical – Live. The project will
portray a day in the life of a hospital and
the impact of modern medical treatments,
as well as the hopes and fears of patients
and staff – in song. Performed by a cast
including real health professionals,
the musical will draw inspiration
from user-submitted stories,
and play at a major London
venue.
The Opera Group has
received a Large Arts Award to
develop a new opera exploring
the social, emotional and physical
aspects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Building on research funded by a
Small Arts Award, the team is working
with Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College
London on the production, which will
premiere at the Brighton Festival in
May 2010 before touring the country.
will also cover a ‘medicine aboard’ display,
and the construction and fit-out of the
secondary collection, including racking,
displays and environmental controls.
“We believe that the Mary Rose is a great
vehicle for science education and a new
and exciting way to engage young people
with modern biomedical science,” said
Clare Matterson, Director of Medicine,
Society and History at the Wellcome Trust.
For more details on the museum, see
www.maryrose.org.
On a non-musical note, we have made
a Small Arts Award to Gina Czarnecki of
Forma Arts & Media Limited for ‘Wasted:
Realising the potential of discarded body
parts’. This will generate sculptures exploring
the myths and history surrounding the life-
giving potential of ‘discarded’ body parts,
including a piece made up of children’s milk
teeth and another made of preserved
human fat from liposuction.
Brent Melton/iStockphoto
WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 7
Looking at life
This year marks the tenth Wellcome Image Awards.
Here, we present our pick of the winning entries.
The Wellcome Image Awards recognise the
most informative, striking and technically
excellent images acquired by Wellcome
Images. Over the years, the images
presented in the awards have impressed
audiences with their powerful insights into
the structures of the body and the diseases
that affect it.
Previously, winning images have been
created using a range of microscopic
techniques, from combinations of light
microscopy and innovative histological
approaches to electron microscopy and
cutting-edge imaging research. This year,
to celebrate the tenth awards ceremony,
3D reconstruction of villi from the mouse small intestine. Multiphoton micrograph. Paul Appleton
8 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
two additional categories have been
included: photography and illustration.
The winners of the tenth awards have
been selected from images acquired by
Wellcome Images since the previous
awards in 2008.
The 2009 awards were presented by
Dr Alice Roberts in a ceremony at
Wellcome Collection on 14 October 2009.
Catch a display of all the winning images
at Wellcome Collection from 15 October
until spring 2010, or view them at
www.wellcomeimageawards.org.
To browse Wellcome Images, visit
images.wellcome.ac.uk.
Sensory nerve fibres at the end of a hair follicle.
Light microscopy image. Spike Walker
A premature baby in an incubator in a neonatal unit. Medical Illustration Department, Leicester Royal Infirmary

“Imaging and imagery can help scientists in

many ways: to understand structures that
are too small to be seen by the naked eye,
or perhaps to elucidate the relationship
between structure and function, or even to
illustrate abstract ideas that are otherwise
difficult to grasp...But as well as deepening
understanding, the art of science can also be
– in its own right – beautiful and awe-inspiring.”

Dr Alice Roberts, host, Wellcome Images Awards 2009

Summer plankton. Light micrograph. Spike Walker

Sickle-cell anaemia: a sickle cell alongside a normal red blood cell. Scanning electron micrograph. Co-polymers used in drug delivery. Scanning electron micrograph.
EM Unit, Royal Free Medical School

WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 9
Platform for research:
the African Institutions
Initiative
Africa has an abundance of pressing research questions,
but a shortfall of scientists and research capacity to
tackle them. The Wellcome Trust’s £30 million African
Institutions Initiative has recently awarded funding to
plug this gap. The Initiative is supporting seven African-
led international consortia – involving over 50 scientific
institutions from 18 African countries – with awards
lasting five years. Mun-Keat Looi spoke to the African
scientists heading them.
Southern Africa Consortium for
Research Excellence (SACORE)
Director: Dr Newton Kunwendo,
Malawi College of Medicine
“The major obstacle African science
faces is probably the prevailing limited
understanding about scientific research
and its benefits. Science is a profession and
a long-term commitment, and its returns
are not always dramatic nor immediate.
Our programmes will address the way
the public and government officials view
research, while creating a more conducive
environment for researchers. We also
plan SACORE sabbaticals that will allow
young scientists, who may have just
completed their higher degree training,
to get individual tailored supervision and
mentorship from established scientists at
partner intuitions.”
Research Institute for Infectious
Diseases of Poverty (IIDP)
Director: Dr Margaret Gyapong, Dodowa
Health Research Centre, Ghana
“Africa is losing many of its best
scientists to the brain drain, partly because
of the absence of coordinated institutional
strategies and national research
environments that enable research.
IIDP is an interdisciplinary consortium.
We hope to bring together researchers
from the social sciences, public health,
epidemiology and laboratory sciences to
10 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
quantitative and interdisciplinary skills
that are difficult to acquire without a
broad network of collaboration, effective
partnerships, sharing of resources and
exchange programmes among institutions.
We will establish well-supported
postdoctoral research fellowships and
training opportunities, as well as lecturer
‘buyouts’ – short-term grants that allow
scientists to take up to six months out
of teaching to visit a different research
institution and develop their own research
proposals.”
One Medicine Africa–UK Research
form a single network. Our shared vision
Capacity Development Partnership
is for sustained training and retention of
Programme for Infectious Diseases in
world-class public health research leaders
Southern Africa (SACIDS)
in a vibrant research environment, with
Director: Professor Mark Rweyemamu,
shared ownership of activities, enabling
Sokione University of Agriculture, Tanzania
us to address the challenges of infectious
“The most cost-effective approach for
diseases of poverty in West Africa.”
addressing Africa’s infectious disease
burden is to foster research collaboration
Consortium for Advanced Research
between institutions and sectors. SACIDS
Training in Africa (CARTA)
will produce postdoctoral students
Director: Dr Alex Ezeh, African Population
whose research activities evolve around
and Health Research Centre, Kenya
defined themes such as tuberculosis
“One of CARTA’s aims is to introduce
and haemorrhagic fevers. We hope
skills such as critical thinking, data
that this will encourage collaborative,
analysis, literature reading, writing skills
thematic research, generating a cadre of
and management – all of which can
scientists focused on research rather than
enhance research. Many universities,
administration.”
including those in the North, do not have
courses for these – people pick them up
Strengthening Research Capacity in
through their interactions with other more
Environmental Health (SNOWS)
senior researchers, at regular seminars or
Director: Professor Esi Awuah, Kwame
at conferences. But these skills are what
Nkrumah University of Science and
encourage scholars to think about how to
Technology, Ghana
manage and conceptualise research; they
“Aspiring water and sanitation
provide ways of challenging people to
researchers suffer from a global shortage
think outside of the box.”
of research funding – it is not considered
cutting-edge science by the bodies that
One Health Initiative: African
fund research in engineering or health.
Research Consortium for Ecosystem
Moreover, most of the African staff in
and Population Health
this field have little research training
Director: Professor Bassirou Bonfoh, Swiss
or experience, or the funds to carry
Centre for Scientific Research, Côte d’Ivoire
out research. SNOWS is developing a
“Research in public and veterinary
programme of short courses for academic
epidemiology increasingly demands
staff, as well as courses on administrative
issues for staff who manage grants
and administer resources. These are
designed to promote the exchange of
experiences between African universities,
Northern universities, and academics and
practitioners in government agencies,
nongovernmental organisations and the
private sector.”
Training Health Researchers into
Vocational Excellence in East Africa
(THRiVE)
Director: Professor Nelson Sewankambo,
Makerere University, Uganda
“In Africa, we are not attracting and
retaining enough talented individuals
to allow us to expand our pool of high-
class scientists. This is in part due to
an environment that is not ideal for
stimulating and supporting trainees
at the highest level, with few mentors
and inadequate research infrastructure.
Our consortium aims to empower
institutions to build a critical mass of well-
trained researchers capable of winning
competitive grants, augmented with a
conducive research environment with
improved governance and management.
We hope our efforts will strengthen
South-to-South collaborations including
partnerships between the older, stronger
universities and younger ones in post-
conflict areas of Africa.”

Mali
Senegal

Chad Sudan
Ghana
Côte d’Ivoire Nigeria

Democratic Uganda
Republic
KEY
of the Congo Kenya
Country of lead institution Rwanda
Country of consortium
collaborators
Tanzania
CONSORTIA

Malawi

Zambia Mozambique

Zimbabwe

Botswana

South Africa

Further information on the African

Institutions Initiative and a longer
version of this article are available on
the Wellcome Trust website.
See www.wellcome.ac.uk/aii

WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 11
Research
New kit takes pain out of chlamydia test
Kenneth C Zirkel/iStockphoto
A new urine test can diagnose chlamydia
infection in men within the hour,
improving the ability to treat the infection
on the spot and prevent re-transmission.
Caused by the bacterium Chlamydia
trachomatis, chlamydia is the most
common sexually transmitted bacterial
infection in the UK. In the majority of
cases, people suffer no symptoms, yet
research suggests that the infection
may cause reduced fertility – with more
serious complications for women – if left
untreated. Once diagnosed, the disease can
be treated easily with a one-off antibiotic
pill. However, until now, male rapid
tests for chlamydia have been relatively
inaccurate and have involved urethral
swabs, which can cause discomfort.
Scenes from the latest Trust videos.
12 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
The new test uses a collector that
gathers six times the amount of Chlamydia
bacteria than a standard urine sample, and
a signal amplification system that boosts
sensitivity. In clinical trials of over 1200
men, the new test correctly identified
infection in 84 per cent of samples.
“Without an effective and rapid testing
programme for men, we are unlikely to
succeed in efforts to control chlamydia
infection,” said Dr Helen Lee from the
University of Cambridge, who developed
the test. “Our test is both accurate and swift,
allowing men attending the clinics to be
tested and treated on site in one visit.”
Nadala EC et al. Performance evaluation of a new rapid
urine test for chlamydia in men: prospective cohort study.
BMJ 2009;339:b2655.
Watching Wellcome: new videos now online
Our YouTube channel is packed with
thought-provoking videos that examine
the work we do and the people we support.
Ever wondered what it’s like to have
your brain scanned? A new video follows
our Design Manager, Steve, through an
MRI scan at the Wellcome Trust Centre for
Neuroimaging. Researchers always need
people to take part in scans, and it is hoped
that the video will help to encourage more
volunteers.
Artemisinin resistance spreads
Resistance to artemisinin, the first-line
treatment for malaria, has been detected
in western Cambodia, according to
researchers at the Wellcome Trust–
Mahidol University–Oxford Tropical
Medicine Research Programme in
Thailand. They studied people with
malaria in western Cambodia and north-
western Thailand, looking at the
susceptibility of Plasmodium falciparum
parasites to artemisinin-based drugs.
Their data revealed that patients in western
Cambodia took twice as long to clear the
parasites as those in Thailand.
“It suggests that malaria parasites in
Cambodia are less susceptible to
artemisinin than those in Thailand,” said
Dr Arjen Dondorp, lead author of the
study. “This has very important
consequences for the lifespan of
artemisinin-based combination
therapies. Losing these would be a
disaster for malaria control.”
In a separate study, an analysis of
parasitology papers from 1996 to 2007
reveals that Trust-funded researchers
make up over three-quarters of the top
30 most cited authors in the field. Professor
Nick White, Chair of the Wellcome Trust
South-east Asia Programme, is at the top
(12 000 citations), with Professor Kevin
Marsh, Director of the Kenya Medical
Research Institute–Wellcome Trust
Research Programme second (7700
citations). The most cited paper was
‘The global distribution of clinical episodes
of Plasmodium falciparum malaria’ by
Professor Robert Snow and colleagues at
the Kenya Programme, published in Nature
and cited over 600 times.
Dondorp AM et al. Artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium
falciparum malaria. N Engl J Med 2009;361:455–67.
Neumann R. Publication analysis 1996–2007: parasitology.
Lab Times 2009;3:38–40.
In two related videos, we find out about
the London Pain Consortium, a network
of scientists and clinicians working to
eliminate chronic pain. Then we meet
a mother and daughter who visit a
Consortium member about a genetically
induced pain condition they seem to
share. Other videos include Oxford’s Dr
Helen McShane on tuberculosis, and
one on the debilitating condition sleep
apnoea.

Short-sighted view on sports
Scientists studying children from the
Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents
and Children found that short-sighted
children were less physically active than
those without short-sightedness. In the
study, researchers studied the short-
sightedness of nearly 5000 children aged
10, and fitted the same children with
accelerometers to measure their physical
activity at age 12.
Short-sighted children had lower total
activity, lower levels of moderate-to-
vigorous activity and were more sedentary
than those without short-sightedness.
Although short-sighted children may be
reluctant to join in with vigorous activities
if they wear glasses, adjusting for glasses
wearing in this study made little difference
to the results, indicating that other factors
may be responsible.
The authors suggest that interventions
targeted at short-sighted children are
required, to make them aware of the
risks of low physical activity, particularly
as there is evidence that childhood
behaviours can be carried into adulthood.
Deere K et al. Myopia and later physical activity in
adolescence: a prospective study. Br J Sports Med
2009;43:542–44.
Michael Flippo/iStockphoto
Gene links to brain tumour
The first genetic variants that increase
the risk of developing glioma, the most
common form of brain tumour, have
been identified by Wellcome Trust-funded
scientists. Researchers from the UK’s
Institute of Cancer Research, the USA’s
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
Center and colleagues identified five
common gene variants after studying the
genomes of over 4000 people with cancer.
Humans have two copies of each gene, so
a person may carry up to ten of the variants
associated with glioma. The researchers
found that the more variants a person
carries, the greater the risk – indeed, those
carrying eight or more variants are three
times more likely to develop glioma than
the general population.
Shete et al. Genome-wide association study identifies five
susceptibility loci for glioma. Nat Genet 2009;41(8):899–904.
Q&A
that in the future it might be possible
to use neuroimaging techniques to
invade people’s privacy and see what’s
going on in their mind. Another issue
is the development of DNA synthesis
techniques that might allow the creation
of viruses or bacteria that are human
pathogens for use in biological weapons.
Why worry about dual-use?
The ‘dual-use dilemma’ arises when
The problem of the misuse of science
an area of science has the potential
has attracted a lot of interest from
to be used to do both good and harm.
those working in areas such as peace
Tom Douglas recently completed a Trust-
studies. There has been an effort by
funded fellowship at the Parliamentary
academics and governments to develop
Office of Science and Technology, where
and strengthen chemical and biological
he produced a ‘POSTnote’ briefing
weapons conventions, and misuse is
document on this issue.
now on the agenda of science policy
makers and security policy makers.
What is the dual-use dilemma?
However, the dual-use dilemma isn’t
Traditionally, ‘dual-use’ was used to
something that ethicists have really
describe technologies with both military
thought about much in the past, even
and non-military applications, and
though it’s a practically important
it had positive connotations. More
problem that raises difficult ethical
recently, the term ‘dual-use dilemma’
issues. For example, it’s not at all clear
has been used to refer to the quandary
whether or to what extent scientists are
arising when scientific work can be used
morally responsible for how their work
in ethical or unethical ways, and it’s
gets used. There’s a clear opportunity
not clear whether the risk of misuse is
for ethicists to have an input now.
outweighed by the likelihood of good
uses or not. A classic example is nuclear
What’s next for you?
physics in the first half of the 20th
When I’ve finished my DPhil I’ll be
century, when scientists knew that their
starting a three-year Research Fellowship
work could be used for good (e.g. power
in Biomedical Ethics. The POSTnote,
generation and medicine) and for bad
being neutral, did not give any ethical
(e.g. nuclear weapons).
argument as to what should be done.
In my postdoc I’m going to look at some
What are the major issues today?
specifically ethical questions, including:
More recently, discussion has been
when, if ever, is it necessary to think
prompted by two studies published
about the risks of scientific work being
in 2001 and 2002 – one reporting the
misused; who should think about these
synthesis of polio virus, the other the
risks; and how should the risks and
genetic modification of the mousepox
benefits be balanced? I’m also looking
virus. These papers coincided with
forward to collaborating with colleagues
the events of 9/11 and prompted a
at Bradford, Exeter and Bath Universities
concerned response in the USA. There
who have recently been awarded a
was even some suggestion that scientific
Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics
journals might need to be censored.
Enhancement Award to study dual-use.
Now, many people believe that this
was an overreaction, and think that
What do you do
it is important to be careful when
outside of work?
introducing any new regulations, as
I play cricket and do
these could stifle scientific progress.
a bit of sailing and
hiking. I used to be a
What did you include in the POSTnote?
competitive runner
The note includes case studies – areas of
and still run a lot.
science that have raised concerns about
Tom Douglas’s POSTnote is at
misuse – and possible policy responses. www.parliament.uk/documents/
One issue revolves around the concern upload/postpn340.pdf.
WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 13
Meds behaving badly
Unwanted side-effects can be distressing,
harmful and costly consequences of many
common drugs. The Serious Adverse Events
Consortium, an international collaboration, is
leading the way in understanding the genetic
background to these reactions, and has recently
published its first results. By Chrissie Giles.
Medicines are meant to make us better,
but, for a small proportion of the
population, taking something as routine as
a dose of aspirin or a course of antibiotics
could trigger a potentially fatal reaction.
So-called serious adverse events are
severely debilitating or life-threatening
reactions to a normal dose of a drug,
and usually require the medication to be
stopped immediately.
Currently, it is almost impossible to
tell which people are prone to these
reactions, meaning that drug-induced
serious adverse events continue to injure
thousands across the world every year.
Enter the Serious Adverse Events
Consortium (www.saeconsortium.org),
an international collaboration founded
in August 2007 by Arthur Holden. The
Consortium brings together the Wellcome
Trust, medicines regulators, academic
researchers and representatives from ten
multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Something as routine
as a course of antibiotics
could trigger a potentially
fatal reaction
Its activities are based on the hypothesis
that there is some genetic basis to
drug-induced serious adverse events.
Although this is little understood so far,
Holden is confident about this approach.
“Serious adverse events lend themselves
beautifully to genomics: their phenotypes
[characteristics] are very clear, and you
don’t have a lot of the complexity seen in
studies that are looking for genetic links to
common diseases.”
14 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
Genome screen
“The typical way to find out if genetic
factors have a role in an outcome is to look
in families,” says Professor Lon Cardon. A
former Wellcome Trust Principal Research
Fellow and now Head of Genetics at
GlaxoSmithKline, Professor Cardon sits on
the Board of Directors of the Consortium.
“We don’t have that option here because
these adverse events are rare, and so we
hardly ever see them in families.”
The involvement of genetics in these
events is pure conjecture on some
level, he adds, although their nature is
“idiosyncratic enough” to be genetic. He
describes the results of the Consortium’s
research so far1 – which show a strong
link between a particular gene type and
liver damage caused by the antibiotic
flucloxacillin – as nothing short of
remarkable.
Published in Nature Genetics, this
research is the result of a genome-wide
association study, an emerging technique
that allows researchers to search for gene
variants associated with a particular
condition across the whole genome.
Drug-induced liver injury is rare,
which adds an extra level of complexity
to recruiting people for studies. What’s
more, the cases collected need to represent
people of different ethnic backgrounds,
to understand the role of ethnicity in
susceptibility to these events.
For the liver damage study, the
Consortium used cases collected
by academic researchers before
the Consortium was established.
Retrospectively collected samples are not
ideal: there is no set standard version
of how the event under investigation is
recognised and recorded in the patient’s
notes, and permission to obtain and use
blood samples from the patients must be
sought – a potentially time-consuming
and costly process.
To try to make sure that a particular
event is defined consistently by hospital
staff and researchers across the world,
the Consortium is launching the
Phenotype Standardization Project. It is
also looking into how to achieve real-time
identification of patients with a particular
adverse event.
“We’re experimenting at the moment,”
says Holden. “For example, we’re looking
to see if we can pull patients in from
pharmaceutical clinical development
trials.” He explains that, while there are
sensitivities to commercial pressures,
the opportunity to encourage different
companies to share information on
situations where these events occur,
early in the process, is too good to miss.
The development of nationwide
electronic patient records, as is planned
for the UK, could be a massive boost to
recruiting for research into serious
adverse events. It could
also, Holden hopes,
eventually help to
prevent the events
occurring.
“Eventually we could
be putting data
into an electronic
medical record
before people get
given drugs, to help
tailor the drug both
to the condition
and the patient.”
In translation
How else might a better understanding of
the genetics underlying serious adverse
events help to prevent them happening?
Well, as for many other research areas,
translating laboratory findings into
practice that will improve patient care
is a priority for Consortium members.
“It’s a global effort –
that’s the only way
we can crack this”
Munir Pirmohamed
Munir Pirmohamed is Professor
of Clinical Pharmacology at the
University of Liverpool and the NHS
Chair of Pharmacogenetics. An adviser
to the Consortium, he says that the
translatability of its findings depends on
how common and severe the individual
events being studied are. Still, he adds,
the Consortium’s work could mark the
first time that findings from genome-wide
association studies have been translated
into practical use.
Things look promising: there is already
evidence that knowledge of genetic variants
linked to serious adverse events can be used to
help to prevent them. In 2002, findings were
published that linked certain genetic variants
with susceptibility to a hypersensitivity
reaction following treatment with the
antiretroviral drug abacavir.
At a glance
Serious adverse events are:
• defined as severe, possibly life-threatening reactions to a normal
or ‘therapeutic’ dose of drug
• often due to an immunological response but can also be due to non-immune
processes, for example, those that trigger abnormal activity in the heart
• thought to have a genetic and an environmental component, i.e. are multifactorial.
This variant, HLA-B*5701, lies on
chromosome six, and is one version of
a key immune gene called HLA-B. In the
UK and across the EU, people are now
routinely screened for the variant before
being given abacavir. The frequency of
hypersensitivity reactions in those given
the drug has since dropped from 5–7
per cent to less than 1 per cent.2,3,4
In its paper on flucloxacillin, the
Consortium identified the same allele,
HLA-B*5701, as conferring susceptibility
to liver injury. However, this event
occurs roughly once in 10 000 cases, so a
predictive test may not be cost-effective.
“However, you could use it diagnostically,
to determine if a patient’s acute liver injury
is related to flucloxacillin, because of the
high negative predictive value,” Professor
Pirmohamed says.
The structure of the Consortium,
now moving into its second phase, was
informed by the SNP [single nucleotide
polymorphism] Consortium, which
Holden also organised and led. The
SNP Consortium was a not-for-profit,
international collaboration between the
Trust, academic centres and industry
established to identify common mutations
in human DNA.
“Serious adverse
events lend themselves
beautifully to genomics”
Arthur Holden
“For a long time, people have been
discussing the need for a multi-centre,
international collaboration to tackle
serious adverse events,” says Professor
Pirmohamed. “Nobody can have all the
expertise, and Arthur Holden has had the
foresight to bring together geneticists,
clinicians, epidemiologists, academics and
representatives from the pharmaceutical
industry. It’s a global effort – that’s the
only way we can crack this.”
References
1. Daly AK et al. HLA-B*5701 genotype is a major
determinant of drug-induced liver injury due to flucloxacillin.
Nat Genet 2009;41(7):816–9.
2. Rauch A et al. Prospective genetic screening decreases
the incidence of abacavir hypersensitivity reactions in
the Western Australian HIV cohort study. Clin Infect Dis
2006;43:99–102.
3. Waters LJ et al. Prospective HLA-B*5701 screening and
abacavir hypersensitivity: a single centre experience. AIDS
2007;21:2533–4.
4. Zucman D et al. Prospective screening for human
leukocyte antigen-B*5701 avoids abacavir hypersensitivity
reaction in the ethnically mixed French HIV population. J
Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2007;45:1–3.
More information at www.saeconsortium.org.
Getting serious
Common serious adverse events
include:
DILI (drug-induced liver injury):
Associated with over 30 medicines,
the severity varies but can result in
acute liver failure and death. Liver
toxicity is also the most common
reason for stopping clinical trials.
SSR (serious skin rash):
For the Consortium, this refers to
Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic
epidermal necrolysis – related rare
reactions that are associated with
over 200 medicines. They cause severe
blistering of the skin and mucous
membranes and can be fatal.
Hypersensitivity syndrome:
This affects the whole body, with
symptoms including fever, rash and
inflammation of internal organs
(such as hepatitis).
Cardiac arrhythmias:
These involve abnormal electrical
activity in the heart.
Angioedema:
Swelling of the lower layers of the skin.
WellcomeNews | Issue 60 | 15
Research
Round-up
Bone marrow, showing red blood cells. Ivor Mason
Measuring iron
Assessing iron deficiency is difficult
but now improved thanks to a new
protocol developed at the Malawi–
Liverpool–Wellcome Trust Clinical
Research Programme. Bone marrow
iron microscopy, the ‘gold standard’
method, is still highly subjective in
grading iron. The researchers have
developed a better way of examining
samples, assessing iron in bone-marrow
fragments, macrophages and red blood
cells. Phiri KS et al. J Clin Pathol
2009;62(8):685–9.
Cell sorted
Retromer is a cellular machine that
transfers material between two
specialised cell compartments: the
endosomal network and the Golgi
apparatus. Scientists have now
shown how retromer coordinates the
selection and movement of material by
associating with a specific molecular
motor. This insight may have important
medical implications, with growing
evidence for retromer’s role in tissue
and organ development and late-onset
Alzheimer’s disease. Wassmer T et al.
Dev Cell 2009;17(1):110–22.
iStockphoto
Language learning
A study by Professor Dorothy Bishop
and colleagues at the University
of Oxford shows how people good
at learning languages are better at
processing rapidly presented speech
syllables than poor language learners.
They conclude that language learning
depends on our ability to extract and
remember the important information
contained in a continuous and rapidly
changing stream of speech. Barry JG et
al. PLoS One 2009;4(7):e6270.
16 | WellcomeNews | Issue 60
Are kids best target for flu jabs?
Alexander Raths/iStockphoto
Targeting children may be the most
effective way to use limited supplies of flu
vaccine, according to research funded by
the European Union and us. Dr Thomas
House and Professor Matt Keeling from
Toxic models on the fly
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is
one of the most commonly used model
organisms in biology, and has been used
extensively to study bacterial infection.
Now scientists at the University of Bath
have found a way to use Drosophila embryos
to track the way bacterial toxins work in real
time at the critical early stages of infection –
a system that could prove useful in studying
other pathogens and their toxins.
The researchers looked at how embryonic
Drosophila haemocytes (part of the
organism’s immune system) responded to
disease-causing and non-disease-causing
bacteria, using time-lapsed microscopy.
While the haemocytes recognised and
ingested non-disease-causing E. coli
with no problems, the disease-causing
bacterium P. asymbiotica made them
instantly ‘freeze’ and caused significant
rearrangement of their structure.
The scientists were able to reproduce
this effect using a purified toxin found in
P. asymbiotica, by either injecting it into the
haemocyte or introducing it via bacteria
expressing the toxin gene. This, together
with studies of Drosophila mutants – such
as those with haemocytes deficient in their
ingestion machinery – suggests that the
entry of the toxin into the cell is key to its
method of action.
Vlisidou I et al. Drosophila embryos as model systems for
monitoring bacterial infection in real time. PLoS Pathog
2009;5(7):e1000518.
the University of Warwick used computer
modelling to predict the spread of
pandemic influenza and find ways to
control it effectively, particularly where
vaccines are in short supply.
They found that vaccinating key
individuals offered sufficient protection to
others in their household and was a much
more efficient and effective strategy than
vaccinating entire households at random.
“Our models suggest that the larger the
household – which in most cases means
the more children living at home – the
more likely the infection is to spread,” says
Professor Keeling. “This doesn’t mean that
everyone in the household needs to be
vaccinated, but suggests that vaccination
programmes for children might help
control a potential pandemic.”
This ‘herd immunity’ means that
significantly less vaccine would be required
to control the spread of the virus.
House T, Keeling M. Household structure and infectious
disease transmission. Epidemiol Infect 2009;137(5):654–61.
Just a fluke? Schistosome
genome sequenced
An international team including
researchers from the Wellcome
Trust Sanger Institute has
published the complete
genome sequence of
Schistosoma mansoni.
The parasitic worm
(known as a
blood fluke) causes
schistosomiasis, a
disease that causes
about 280 000 deaths in
sub-Saharan Africa alone
each year.
There is currently only
one drug used to treat the
disease, and there are growing fears
that the parasites will become
resistant to this. The researchers
have already used the sequence to
identify several potential new drug
targets.
“This genome
sequence catapults
schistosomiasis
S. mansoni flukes. research into
CDC/Dr Shirley Maddison
a new era,” said Dr
Matthew Berriman of the Sanger Institute,
who co-led the study.
Berriman M et al. The genome of the blood fluke
Schistosoma mansoni. Nature 2009;460(7253):352–8.
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