JUNE 2003 BROADSHEET - A Visit to the Babraham Institute
For our May meeting we were indebted to our member John Read and his family connection, and truly we were welcomed as part of the very friendly family of Babraham Hall in its beautiful Elizabethan style mansion and luxurious gardens on a lovely summer evening. Starting with a substantial buffet we were introduced by Dr Caroline Edmonds, Head of Corporate Affairs and Company Secretary to the history and purpose of the research before plunging into long corridors and multiple staircases following our lecturers into four different seminar rooms for the more detailed explanations of the work going on. Time did not allow us to attend more than two of the sessions each, but by sharing experiences in the final question and answer discussion at the end we were all able to get a flavour of the range of topics being studied at Babraham.
Dr Kenny Lang, General Manager of Discerna, gave us a brief overview of the technology and how Discerna became Babraham’s first spin out company. The initial concept for the company’s technology arose from a need to study a specific class of protein in bacteria. This was subsequently developed to become a new method called ribosome display technology which Discerna uses for the rapid selection and refinement of antibodies starting from their genetic material (The ribosome uses the DNA to form the new protein.) Much of the work has been patented in the developed world. Discerna’s future business development plans will include embarking on collaboration with major pharmaceutical companies to accelerate it’s therapeutic programmes. Discerna’s products will be focused on the oncology market with final product selection being made following rigorous market research. Work on antibody therapeutics is continuing.
Dr Mike Taussig, Chairman of the European Science Foundation Programme in Functional Genomics and Head of the Technology Research Group started with the completion of the Human Genome on 14th April this year. He explained how this came as a great surprise when only 30,000 or so genes were found compared with an expectation of 150,000. After all this was only very slightly more than a mouse! The DNA of 100 species have now been discovered, including viruses, e.g. influenza, and this has led to the discovery of the causes of 1200 out of the 7000 known genetic diseases. A future with personalised medicine to ward off genetic susceptibilities is on the horizon. – read all about it on www. functionalgenomics.org.uk
Dr Lill Martensson-Bopp, Project Leader of Developmental Immunology, dealt with stem cells from bone marrow, haematopoiesis and gamma globulin, as well as many other complex processes in the development of lymphocytes. The process of gene rearrangement was particularly impressive, the idea of putting all the useful sequences of the DNA helix together from their random positions between long sections of redundant sequences. The net result led to the alleviation of immune deficiency in children who otherwise had to be cocooned from light or normal atmosphere.
Dr Len Stephens, Project Leader, Inositide , “The Road From 800 Litres Of Pig Blood To The Hottest Target For Novel Anti-Inflammatories”. This very entertaining talk by he infectiously enthusiastic Dr Len Stephens lived up to its racy title. Skilfully avoiding offence, Len explained how he had to source his research materials in surreal visits to local abattoirs. Len and his team have spent some 10 years researching the activities of neutrophils, the white blood cells that hunt down and consume any bacteria and damaged cells in our blood stream. A remarkable video sequence showed how a passive neutrophil becomes an obsessive killing machine, hunting its targets down almost like a Pacman computer game. By understanding what spurs the neutrophils into action, the team have identified ways of inhibiting inflammatory reactions such as arthritis.Altogether a most interesting and instructive evening very much enjoyed by us all. - Nigel Wallace
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