RESEARCH HORIZONS In this issue REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH plus news and views from across the University

University of Cambridge research magazine www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 EDITORIAL KRISTIN GIUSSANI INSTITUTE POLAR RESEARCH SCOTT Welcome to the spring issue of Research Horizons at the start of a very special year for the University. From its early beginnings in 1209, when a small group of scholars settled in the city, to its current standing as one of the world’s leading universities, the University of Cambridge celebrates 800 years of outstanding research and scholarship this year. It’s a celebratory time too for Prenatal origins of heart Freeze Frame: through the Research Horizons magazine, as we disease eyes of the polar explorers branch out from print to web. Research Horizons Online will continue to bring you the latest in Contents research, discoveries and innovations but now in a fully searchable format, Research News 3–7 with links to related research Recent stories from across the University activities and resources across the University. Why not take a moment Spotlight: Reproductive Health 8–17 to visit the website at www.research- Reproductive health 8 horizons.cam.ac.uk and let us know Germ cells: the route to immortality 9 what you think? Rethinking the secrets of life: a code upon a code 10 And in a year when we look back The balance between mother and fetus in ‘no-man’s-land’ 12 to the birth of the University and Obesity and diabetes in pregnancy: a vicious circle? 13 ahead to a healthy future, what Prenatal origins of heart disease 14 better focus for our Spotlight section Doctor’s orders, Roman style 16 than Reproductive Health? Tying in Making visible embryos 17 with the Horizon Seminar on 1 April, this focus gives us the chance to find Preview 18–19 out about research in and around Fashioning the value chain this most fascinating of biological processes. Features 20–30 Three contributors to the Physics of Medicine 20 Spotlight section are shown on our Portus Project: bringing to life Trajan’s legacy 22 front cover: Professor Anne Ferguson- New hopes for the nervous system 24 Smith (left), Dr Miguel Constância The new geography of personality 26 and Dr Sue Ozanne. Their research The Large Hadron Collider: entering uncharted territory 28 exemplifies how fundamental studies Freeze Frame: through the eyes of the polar explorers 30 at the molecular level are linking to physiological and metabolic Inside Out: Dr Barbara Bodenhorn 31 outcomes with important clinical implications. At the heart of their In Focus: The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)32–33 work is a phenomenon known as epigenetics. The way that our DNA is Research Support 34–35 packaged is inherited from our News from Research Services Division 34 parents and their research is showing News from Cambridge Enterprise Ltd 34 that this has implications for Forthcoming events 35 development in utero and beyond. I hope that you find much to The Back Page 36 interest and entertain you Your way into Cambridge throughout this issue. Many thanks go to all our contributors.

Cover photograph of Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith (left), Dr Miguel Constância and Dr Sue Ozanne (Photographer: Keith Heppell). Edited by Louise Walsh. Designed by Cambridge Design Studio (www.cambridgedesignstudio.org). Dr Louise Walsh Printed by Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org). Editor ©2009 University of Cambridge and Contributors as identified. All rights reserved.

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Transforming Tomorrow: Exceptional gift 800th Anniversary of the for plant science University of Cambridge research centre This year the University celebrates a remarkable history of Cambridge will be home to a research and scholarship that began in 1209. new research laboratory for the study of plant development. The Gatsby Charitable Foundation has provided £82 million – the largest single gift received by the University since the launch of the 800th Anniversary Campaign – for a new building with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities situated in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CUBG). Due for completion in late 2010, The University of Cambridge has Examples of important new facilities that the Sainsbury Laboratory will house embarked on a year-long programme of will enhance Cambridge’s contributions 120 scientists, and 30 additional celebratory events to mark 800 years as a in research and teaching include the staff, to study plant development. seat of learning and academic research. Centre for the Physics of Medicine (see The Gatsby Charitable Foundation The activities aim to strike a balance page 20), purpose-built facilities for the has given a further £2 million to between commemorating the world- Institute for Manufacturing, the Hauser support research fellowships in the changing discoveries of the past, Forum (future home to Cambridge Department of Plant Sciences and celebrating the achievements of the Enterprise Ltd and associated activities) £2 million to fund the research of present and leaving a legacy for the and the new Sainsbury Laboratory David Baulcombe, Professor of future. for the study of plant development Botany, who was recently awarded A striking example of Cambridge’s (see right). A series of prestigious America’s highest research honour, academic achievements is the 83 Nobel professorships has also been endowed the Lasker Prize. prizes awarded to affiliates of the across a wide range of subjects including University for significant advances in The building will also provide a the Joseph Needham Professorship of home for the University Herbarium, physics, medicine, chemistry, economics, Chinese History, Science and Civilization, which contains over a million literature and peace. Cambridge ideas the A G Leventis Professorship of Greek pressed and dried plant specimens have shaped thinking across all the Culture and the Tata Steel Professorship from all over the world, including disciplines; Cambridge discoveries have of Metallurgy. changed our understanding of life, those collected by Charles Darwin ‘Cambridge has never stood still and matter and the universe. for almost 800 years has shown a on the Beagle voyage. This Highlighting the University’s remarkable ability to evolve to meet the collection is a key resource in our transformative research, a series of challenges and grasp the opportunities understanding of plant evolution podcasts, vodcasts and films – that the future presents. Cambridge- and biodiversity. ‘Cambridge Ideas’– will showcase educated graduates and Cambridge ‘This is one of the most exciting Cambridge academics nominated for projects with which my Charitable their ability to inspire, innovate, discover, research have frequently transformed the Foundation has been involved,’said engage and achieve. Visit the 800th world we live in,’said Professor Alison Lord Sainsbury. ‘I believe it will soon Anniversary website for more details. Richard, Vice-Chancellor of the University. become a world-class centre of An important component of the ‘The legacy of the 800th Campaign will anniversary has been securing the future be that Cambridge can make the excellent plant science.’ of education and research at the investments that will ensure that a Professor John Parker, Director collegiate University. In 2005, Cambridge hundred years from now our successors of the CUBG, added: ‘The Garden announced the public phase of the will be able to celebrate Cambridge’s looks forward in the 21st century to 800th Anniversary Campaign with the achievements with the same pride we maintaining its position with the ambitious goal of raising £1 billion feel today.’ study of plant diversity in the most towards this future. Over £800 million has modern way. The laboratory will be now been raised, funding new buildings, For more information, please visit dedicated to the advancement of posts, programmes and Cambridge’s the 800th Anniversary website curiosity-driven research.’ collections and architectural heritage, (www.800.cam.ac.uk) and the 800th as well as enhancing the financial Anniversary Campaign website For more information, please support available for students, both at (www.foundation.cam.ac.uk/800- visit www.botanic.cam.ac.uk undergraduate and postgraduate level. home.php).

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What do we think we are? MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY Would you like to hear the sounds deep within the body, consider the similarities between a funeral sculpture and the structure of DNA, or explore the classical idea of beauty?

‘Assembling Bodies’, a major new project but is also developing its own exhibition opening in March at the independent research,’explained Museum of Archaeology and Curator Anita Herle. ‘The intention is to Anthropology, challenges us to think build bridges between disciplines that in different ways about the human will lead to further study, as well as to body. The exhibition explores how provide a springboard for outreach bodies have been considered in events and artist workshops.’ different time periods, cultural One goal has been to showcase contexts and disciplinary perspectives, the extraordinarily rich and diverse as well as the technologies through collections within the Museum, the which bodies are made visible. University and the Colleges. Alongside The exhibition is part of a five-year, these fabulous artefacts will be cross-disciplinary research project – commissioned artworks, including ‘Changing Beliefs of the Human Body’ a unique collection of body maps – involving 15 researchers spread painted by the Bambanani Women’s across the Faculty of Archaeology and Group in Cape Town, South Africa, Anthropology, the Faculty of Classics, documenting the lives of women and the Museum of Archaeology and with HIV/AIDS, and a soundscape Body map created for the exhibition; these maps Anthropology. This ambitious of recordings from deep within are life-sized images that trace the contours of the programme is a comparative history, the body. painter’s body, articulating how they have been spanning 10,000 years, of how and ‘One of the fun things about this affected by HIV; the shadowy form of the person who has supported the painter hovers behind the why humans change what they exhibition is that when you put very image, indicating the crucial support needed from believe about the human body. Both different objects together you provoke others (painted by Nondumiso Hlwele, Bambanani the wider project and the exhibition new kinds of ideas,’said Anita Herle. Women’s Group, South Africa, MAA 2008.20) have been funded by the Leverhulme ‘There is an intellectual challenge ‘Assembling Bodies’ opens in Trust, with additional support for the implicit in the contrast for instance March 2009 and will run until exhibition provided by the Arts between a Malanggan mortuary November 2010 at the Museum of Council England (East) and the effigy and Watson and Crick’s structure Archaeology and Anthropology Wellcome Trust. of DNA. Unexpected juxtapositions (http://maa.cam.ac.uk). The exhibition ‘The exhibition incorporates stimulate us to think about the body is curated by Anita Herle with Mark findings generated by the larger in new ways.’ Elliott and Rebecca Empson. Research collaboration for mental health A new £23 million partnership brings together the National Health Service (NHS) with four University departments to improve mental healthcare. A partnership between the University, competition throughout England and and Director of the centre. Alongside the County Council and a range of Wales and review by an international the Department of Psychiatry, the Cambridgeshire and East Anglian NHS panel. partnership involves the Department healthcare commissioners and CLAHRCs are collaborative of Public Health and Primary Care, the providers has been awarded funding partnerships between a university and Engineering Design Centre in the for a Collaboration for Leadership in the surrounding NHS organisations Department of Engineering and Applied Health Research and Care focused on improving patient Judge Business School. A physical (CLAHRC). Hosted by the outcomes through the conduct and base is being established at Douglas Cambridgeshire and Peterborough application of applied health research. House, Trumpington Road, NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), the The Cambridge centre aims to test Cambridge, where both University CLAHRC is one of nine in the UK, and new ways of working in mental health the only one to focus on mental to see if they are effective and and NHS staff will work together. The health. appropriate for everyday use in the CLAHRC Board, chaired by Karen Bell, The funding comprises an award health service. Chief Executive Officer of CPFT, of £9.5 million by the NHS National ‘This will be a true collaborative involves all the partners in this Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to effort that efficiently and effectively innovative venture. match £13.5 million of aligned harnesses research findings to clinical funding from the NHS and County practice,’said Professor Peter Jones, For more information, please email Council. It was made following open Head of the Department of Psychiatry [email protected]

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Professor Ian Leslie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Funding for frontier research for Research, said: ‘This is a tremendous Five Cambridge scientists have won funding from the European success – not only can the Principal Research Council (ERC) that encourages applicants ‘to go Investigators now embark on ambitious beyond established frontiers of knowledge’. research of the highest quality but they have been given due recognition as The ERC recently 17.5% in Social Sciences and leading scientists in their fields.’ announced the Humanities and 10.5% in The ERC was established in 2007 by results of its first Interdisciplinary Research. The UK the European Commission and is pan-European won 59 grants, the highest number funded through the 7th Framework Advanced Grants to be awarded across 23 countries. Research Programme. In addition to the scheme, which In Cambridge, the five Principal Advanced Grants, the ERC also awards has a total budget Investigators who have won grants Starting Grants to support the next of €542 million. With the worth a total of approximately generation of research leaders; this year maxim ‘Bringing great ideas to life’, £8 million over five years are: eight were awarded to Cambridge the ERC encouraged researchers to • Professor Graeme Barker researchers. aim high, be adventurous and take (Department of Archaeology) By challenging Europe’s brightest risks in their proposals. The sole • Professor David Baulcombe minds, the ERC ‘expects that its grants selection criterion was scientific (Department of Plant Sciences) will help to bring about new and excellence: applicants were expected • Professor Tony Cheetham unpredictable scientific and to be the very best scientists, (Department of Materials Science technological discoveries – the kind scholars and engineers, with a and Metallurgy) that can form the basis of new track record of significant research • Professor Daan Frenkel (Department industries, markets, and broader social achievements. of Chemistry) innovations of the future.’ Over 270 grants were awarded: • Dr Alan Tunnacliffe (Department of 41.5% in Physical Sciences and Chemical Engineering and For more information regarding the Engineering, 30.5% in Life Sciences, Biotechnology) ERC, please visit http://erc.europa.eu Cool machines At about a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, a machine built by the Cold Atoms Group at the Cavendish Laboratory is one of the coolest places on Earth. DR MICHAEL KÖHL

Atoms collapsing into the quantum state known as the Bose–Einstein condensate According to the laws of explained Dr Köhl. ‘Experimentally, it only to absolute zero that have collapsed into thermodynamics, absolute zero became achievable a decade ago, but it the lowest quantum state. (–273.15°C) cannot be reached. has initiated a wave of research based on ‘The ultimate controllability of atoms However, Dr Michael Köhl’s group in the access to a microscopic understanding in these states makes us optimistic Department of Physics has developed a of quantum degenerate gases.’ about studying a whole range of laser-based method of cooling that has The Cold Atoms Group has built a phenomena linked to solid-state physics,’ achieved almost absolute zero. At these machine in which six interfering laser said Dr Köhl. ‘Such research might ultracool temperatures, atoms trapped beams are directed via a small army of provide solutions to unanswered in the machine come to a standstill, lenses through rubidium gas. The laser questions in condensed matter physics allowing researchers to study their light slows down the gas atoms, which and high-temperature superconductivity, quantum nature. are then subjected to evaporative as well as pave the way for quantum ‘The ability to control and cool cooling in a magnetic trap. For the first computers of the future.’ atoms by laser light has given a time ever in Cambridge, the group has completely new twist to the traditional recently demonstrated a Bose–Einstein For more information, please contact field of atomic physics in recent years,’ condensate – essentially, atoms at close Dr Michael Köhl ([email protected]).

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 5 RESEARCH NEWS

Ukrainian Studies launched in Cambridge A new initiative, the first of its kind in Europe, aims to deepen understanding of the language, literature and culture of Ukraine by advancing fresh and innovative approaches to research. Its territorial borders define the eastern Although the initiative focuses on boundaries of the European Union, and Ukraine’s language, literature and its state language is spoken by over culture, Finnin aims to foster a broader 40 million people worldwide. Yet exchange with researchers from various Ukraine, Europe’s second-largest country, disciplines that will enrich the study of remains a relatively unknown quantity in Slavic and Turkic cultures, as well as British universities. Now, thanks to a nationalism and post-colonialism. ‘The generous donation from Mr Dmitry historic permeability of Ukraine’s Firtash, Ukrainian Studies has been territorial, linguistic and ethnic borders launched in the Faculty of Modern and provides an opportunity for us to Medieval Languages under the explore the interdependency of the leadership of Rory Finnin, newly arrived cultures of Eastern Europe and the Black from Columbia University, New York. Sea region,’explained Finnin. ‘An Trained in comparative literature, Finnin interdisciplinary approach is being true centres his research on the interplay of to the region itself, whose historical Rory Finnin literature and national identity in Ukraine. reality is largely one of tolerance and ‘Ukraine is in an important cross-cultural penetration.’ country,’said Simon Franklin, Professor of geopolitical position at the crossroads Rory Finnin will work closely with Slavonic Studies in the Faculty of between East and West,’said Finnin. ‘It CamCREES, the Cambridge Committee Modern and Medieval Languages. ‘Not has a vibrant literary tradition and a lively for Russian and East-European Studies, only will it benefit Cambridge but it will culture which, since its independence in which facilitates interdisciplinary undoubtedly promote the study of 1991, has really begun to explore new collaboration among scholars of the Ukraine further afield, in the UK and directions. This is a very exciting time for region, as well as the Centre for Research beyond.’ scholars of Ukrainian literature and in the Arts, Social Sciences and culture, and it’s an excellent time for Humanities (CRASSH). For more information, please contact Cambridge to be formulating a ‘I am delighted that this initiative has Rory Finnin ([email protected]) or visit programme to study this remarkable given Cambridge an opportunity to www.cambridgeukrainianstudies.org.uk country.’ explore such a complex and fascinating *‘News flash!’

©STEFANIE REICHELT (WWW.STEFANIEREICHELT-PHOTOGRAPHYANDPRINTS.ORG) A boost for family research A team studying the psychological well-being of children created by assisted reproduction has been awarded a prize for their work.

A report on work carried out by the The CFR is based in the Faculty of Centre for Family Research (CFR) was Social and Political Sciences. ‘To be awarded the Fertility Society of awarded a prize for the best Australia (FSA) Exchange prize at the presentation at an international European Society for Human conference is a remarkable Reproduction and Embryology achievement for the Centre for Family conference in Barcelona. Research given that the competitors The research is being carried out by were largely from the biological and Polly Casey, Lucy Blake, Jennifer biomedical sciences,’said Professor Readings and Dr Vasanti Jadva, and is Golombok, Director of the CFR. ‘The led by Professor Susan Golombok. With award enabled the researchers to travel funding from the US National Institutes to Brisbane to present a paper at the for Health (NIH), the longitudinal study recent FSA conference.’ is looking at parent–child relationships For more information, please contact and the psychological well-being of Polly Casey ([email protected]). children in families created by surrogacy, egg donation and donor insemination. The study is also A full-length article on this study examining whether and when parents has been published in Research Horizons Online (www.research- ‘Life Race’ (etching based on scientific images) by decide to tell their children about Stefanie Reichelt, Cancer Research UK – Cancer horizons.cam.ac.uk). Research Institute their origins.

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Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 An interdisciplinary team has won the chance to participate in an international competition to design and build the best solar-powered home. A team of undergraduate and graduate versatility. Modularity permeates the In June 2010, the team will take the students led by Michael Ramage, entire design, requiring the team to IDEA Home to Madrid, where it will be University Lecturer in the Department of develop modular systems of energy judged by international experts and Architecture, and Dr Allan McRobie, production and consumption. visited by tens of thousands of Reader in the Department of The project is being visitors. ‘This is a remarkable Engineering, has started the countdown supported by ongoing opportunity to combine to unveiling a solar-powered home in research in the teaching with hands-on Madrid in 2010. Departments of learning, basic research Cambridge is one of 20 teams Architecture and with applied practice, chosen to compete in this international Engineering, and will and novel insight with competition, winning €100,000 towards use innovative experience,’said the project from the sponsors, the approaches developed Dr McRobie. ‘Following Spanish government. Although this is across the University, the competition we the first competition of its kind in such as photovoltaic will set up the home in Europe, it builds on almost a decade of cells, natural ventilation, Cambridge to monitor its competitions in the US sponsored by energy-efficient design and performance over three the US Department of Energy. computer-based monitoring. ‘The years so that it can continue to The team’s innovative proposal is the truly excellent designs are those that serve educational and research Integrated Design for Engineered combine cutting-edge technology with purposes.’ Architecture (IDEA) Home – a modular first-rate architecture,’explained Michael system that can adapt to changing Ramage. ‘Our ambition is to create a For more information, please needs and climates. The prefabricated home with outstanding performance on contact Michael Ramage design can be assembled in different energy efficiency, architectural and ([email protected]). Additional permutations and number, horizontally engineering design, sustainability and funding is being sought for this and vertically, giving maximum marketability.’ project. Building Physics and the Sustainable City A conference in March will examine the contribution that building physics, engineering, science and architecture can make to the sustainable city. By the middle of the century, it is Building Engineering Physics. ‘The field of from industry. ‘Building physics and expected that two-thirds of the world’s building physics covers a spectrum of energy-efficient cities is a growth area population will live in urban areas. A two- activities in the man-made and natural for the University,’said Professor Thomas. day conference ‘Building Physics and the environments that can provide ‘Through this conference, our intention Sustainable City‘, which takes place on information on how best to design is to encourage the research-active 17–18 March 2009 at the Department of sustainable cities that are comfortable community to develop a long-range, Engineering in Cambridge, aims to to live in.’ holistic approach for building physics examine how engineering can shape the The conference is sponsored by the and sustainable cities.’ architectural and urban forms of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the future. Departments of Engineering and For more information, please ‘In aspiring to a sustainable world we Architecture, and the BP Institute, and visit www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/events/ need to aspire to sustainable cities,’said brings together leading academic buildingphysics or email Randall Thomas, Visiting Professor for specialists and renowned experts [email protected]

More News stories published online… Magnetic secrets of the New Programme to facilitate Innovation nation Perseus Cluster: Top 100 Arctic geopolitics What is the relationship between Science Story After millennia of sea-ice in the Arctic innovation and business performance, Unravelling a 100-million-year-old Ocean, the region is becoming and how does this affect the national mystery about a giant galaxy deep in increasingly ice-free during the summer. economy? The new UK Innovation space has been listed one of Discover A new Programme aims to consider how Research Centre at Judge Business magazine’s Top 100 Science Stories an international decision-making School will study how innovation can of 2008. framework might operate for the Arctic. make businesses more competitive. Please visit www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk to view these stories and much more.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 7 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Reproductive Health The Horizon Seminar ‘Reproductive Health’ takes place on 1 April 2009. In this introduction, Professors Gordon Smith and Graham Burton reflect on how this field encompasses some of the most fascinating of biological processes.

The past 50 years have seen many advances Cambridge is making, as well societal and technological changes as to strengthen the links that are in reproductive health. The ready providing successful translation availability of hormonal between fundamental research and contraception has dramatically clinical outcomes. One such initiative altered reproductive behaviour; the that is fostering research collaborations normal place of birth has moved across the University is the recently from the home to hospital; launched Centre for Trophoblast Caesarean section, once the mode of Research, which aims to promote the delivery for a small proportion of study of placental biology. women, is the method of birth for Reproductive disorders and Professors approximately a quarter of the unsuccessful pregnancies cause great current generation; and the Gordon Smith (left) and distress to families. The societal and management of infertility has been Graham Burton health economic burdens are also transformed by in vitro fertilisation, substantial, ranging from the costs Professor Gordon Smith is at the with more than 10,000 children a Department of Obstetrics and year now being born in the UK as a associated with preterm births (estimated at $26 billion for a single year Gynaecology; Professor Graham result of this process. Burton is at the Department of of preterm births in the USA) through to Our understanding of the Physiology, Development and the costs of diseases later in life as a physiological, pathological and Neuroscience, and is Director of the result of intrauterine complications. clinical processes relating to Centre for Trophoblast Research. reproductive health has also Improving our fundamental The Horizon Seminar takes place at flourished. We now know that understanding of reproductive health, the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, certain genes we inherit from each and translating these basic insights into Cambridge, on 1 April 2009. parent undergo complex clinical intervention, clearly has For more information and to reprogramming during formation of enormous potential to impact positively book online, please visit www.rsd. the eggs and sperm, and play key on the rest of society. cam.ac.uk/events/reproductivehealth roles in regulating feto-placental growth. We have a deeper understanding of the immunological Participating speakers interactions that take place at the materno–fetal interface in the Professor Graham Burton, Dept of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience womb, and how these are vital for Dr Stephen Charnock-Jones, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology supporting the growth of the fetus. Dr Miguel Constância, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology We also know that growth Professor Doug Easton, Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology Unit, conditions in the womb can have Strangeways Research Laboratory long-term health effects, such as a Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, Dept of Physiology, Development and higher risk for diabetes, obesity and Neuroscience cardiovascular disease. Dr Dino Giussani, Dept of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience Many research departments Professor Ashley Moffett, Dept of Pathology across Cambridge have been Dr Sue Ozanne, Metabolic Research Laboratories, Institute of Metabolic Science instrumental in unravelling these Professor Gordon Smith, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology complex events. The Horizon event Professor Azim Surani (tbc), The Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon on 1 April aims to bring together Institute representatives to showcase the

8 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ©WELLCOME IMAGES, WELLCOME PHOTO LIBRARY/YORGOS NIKAS Germ cells: AZIM SURANI. REPRODUCED PROFESSOR WITH PERMISSION FROM the route to immortality How do cells become equipped to generate a whole new organism?

A fertilised egg is potentially immortal NATURE since it develops into a new organism that, in turn, can give rise to an endless (2005) 436, 207–213 series of generations. The precursors of sperm and eggs, known as germ cells, provide this enduring link between generations because they transmit the parents’ genetic information to the offspring. Precisely how these cells become equipped to reproduce a new organism – and the remarkable erasing Primordial germ cells (in red) and reprogramming steps that happen just after specification during this process – is being studied by Professor Azim Surani’s research in the embryo to form either testes or possible to make germ cells directly group in the Wellcome Trust/Cancer ovaries. Here, one of the most from pluripotent embryonic stem cells, Research UK Gurdon Institute, with extraordinary of events occurs that is or even from body cells such as skin funding from the Wellcome Trust and rather like wiping a hard disc clean and cells. This naturally raises the prospect the Biotechnology and Biological then reloading it with either a maternal that sperm and eggs could be Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). or a paternal operating system. developed directly from body cells in a The critical ‘re-setting’ event wipes culture dish. Such innovations might Backing-up the blueprint out all the pre-existing information and provide new opportunities for Even as the embryo implants in the ‘imprints’ that are normally associated applications in reproductive medicine, lining of the womb during pregnancy, with the genetic blueprint that carries including exploration of the basis for a founding population of germ cells is the instructions necessary to form the certain forms of infertility or the already being set aside within the whole organism. This associated underlying causes of cancers such as embryo for the next generation. It’s information, known as epigenetic testicular tumours. But they also raise very important that these cells maintain modification, is usually required to important ethical issues that will need the ability to form every cell type within interpret the genetic information to be addressed hand-in-hand with the organism – an attribute known as appropriately so that the right genes progress in the field. pluripotency and one that is quickly are selected for expression at the right lost from those cells that develop into time during critical cell fate decisions. the rest of the body (skin, neurones, The modifications are ‘imprinted’ and muscle and so on). Studies in Professor heritable, to denote their maternal or Surani’s group have discovered that paternal origin. these primordial germ cells develop in What the researchers at the Gurdon response to a ‘master regulator’ of germ Institute have discovered is precisely cell fate called Blimp1. This initiates a how the erasure process wipes out all special germ cell programme that at the pre-existing epigenetic information the same time represses all the other and imprints. This leaves the genetic potential cell fates in these cells, leaving information intact in preparation for intact the blueprint for creating any cell new instructions and imprints to be laid Professor Azim Surani in the body. down on top of the genetic information – a process that occurs during For more information, please contact Wiping the disc clean development of the eggs and sperm in the author Professor Azim Surani After Blimp1 has halted the march the growing fetus. ([email protected]) at the towards development into body cells, Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK the germ cells then proliferate and How to make eggs and sperm Gurdon Institute. This research was migrate into fetal gonads, which Our understanding of these processes published in Nature (2008) 452, develop independently at another site has now reached such a level that it is 877–881 and (2005) 436, 207–213.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 9 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Rethinking the secrets of life: a code upon a code Epigenetics is taking the biomedical research world by storm; three Cambridge scientists use examples from their own research to explain why.

Cracking the DNA structure in the early 1950s revolutionised the study of genetics in providing key information on how cells transmit information to the next generation. Five decades later, upon the publication of the draft human genome sequence, we entered the so-called post-genomic era. The ability to interrogate our complete DNA sequence has allowed a field of genomic medicine to emerge that has had profound promise for our understanding of genetic disease. ‘Large Chromosomes’ (etching based on scientific images) by Stefanie Reichelt, Cancer Research UK – Cancer Research Institute But our genomes constitute more than just the linear DNA blueprint. need arises; for example, during the DNA is bundled into three- An epigenetic voyage in space development of stem cells into particular dimensional chromosome structures. and time organ systems. If these natural This packaging is influenced by Epigenetic mechanisms of gene epigenetic processes occur improperly, molecular flags known as epigenetic regulation are important throughout major adverse health and behaviours modifications that are attached to the development, from when the sperm first DNA and to the proteins that can ensue. Epigenetic modifications meets the egg (fertilisation), through organise it into chromosomes. These therefore render our genomes early lineage decisions, to fetal chemical modifications (including functionally flexible, adaptable and development and postnatal life. Somatic methylation and acetylation) vulnerable. epigenetic modifications need to be determine whether parts of The study of the epigenetic control ‘reprogrammed’ in germ cells and also in chromosomes are tightly or loosely of genome function has led to the dawn early embryos so as to achieve packaged, which in turn influences of a new revolution that some have developmental pluripotency, whereby whether a gene has the potential to coined the ‘epigenomic era’. Professor cells can give rise to all the cells needed be switched on or off. Anne Ferguson-Smith (Department of in the developing fetus. This normally Remarkably, during cell division, Physiology, Development and results in epigenetic marks that are cells acquire the same epigenetic Neuroscience), Dr Miguel Constância different in some locations on modifications as their parent cell, (Department of Obstetrics and chromosomes inherited from eggs resulting in the heritable transmission Gynaecology) and Dr Sue Ozanne compared with those inherited from of these epigenetic states and a (Metabolic Research Laboratories at the sperm. ‘memory’ of a cell’s identity. Institute of Metabolic Science) are For 99% of genes inherited by the Epigenetic states, however, have studying epigenetic processes that embryo, gene expression can occur from inherent flexibility because they can confer long-term memory to genes under both the maternally and paternally undergo normal regulated change in the influence of the cellular environment, inherited versions. But the remaining 1% response to particular stimuli, to with far-reaching implications for human are ‘imprinted’, which means that only modulate gene expression as the reproduction and health. one of the two gene copies is expressed

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©STEFANIE REICHELT (WWW.STEFANIEREICHELT-PHOTOGRAPHYANDPRINTS.ORG) control of key aspects of mammalian investigating what the molecular physiology related to growth and mechanisms could be that connect the adaptations to feeding and metabolism. effects of maternal diet during Dr Constância’s group has recently pregnancy with gene expression in the described the effects of one gene that is offspring many years later (i.e. after many expressed only from the copy inherited rounds of cell division). Not surprisingly, from the father. The gene for insulin-like permanent changes in the epigenetic growth factor 2 (Igf2) operates in a vital marks on DNA, and therefore effects on area of the placenta where maternal and gene programmes throughout fetal blood mix and nutrients are development and into adult life, are exchanged, controlling the influx of emerging as a major player. For example, nutrients to the fetus. Igf2 also operates Dr Ozanne and Dr Constância have in fetal tissues to control the level of recently discovered that a reduction in demand for nutrients. These studies raise protein intake during pregnancy alters the novel concept that imprinted genes the epigenetic marks on the regulatory are key genetic regulators of the supply regions of important genes in the of, and genetic demand for, maternal pancreas, leading to differences in their nutrients to the mammalian fetus. This expression. may have implications for our understanding of the selective forces DNA wears Prada that led to the evolution of the process Epigenetic processes are not confined to of imprinting. nutrition and growth – many other The control of nutritional resources is systems under epigenetic influence are now known to apply to many other also now coming to light. These include epigenetically regulated imprinted the ability of plants to respond to genes controlling growth in the seasons, the capacity of chromosomes mother’s womb and also after birth. to segregate properly during cell Work by Professor Ferguson-Smith’s division, and many of the key changes group has looked in further detail at that occur in cancer and neurological such genes and has shown that disorders. It seems that our genetic imprinted genes can also influence future lies not only in studying the normal metabolism. skeleton that is our DNA, but also in understanding the epigenetic We are what we eat modifications that clothe it. The diet of an individual has important health issues at any stage of life – ‘we are what we eat’ after all. There is growing after fertilisation. The teams of Professor evidence from studies both in humans Ferguson-Smith and Dr Constância use and in animal models that maternal diet imprinted genes as tractable during pregnancy is particularly experimental systems for studying the important as it has major long-term epigenetic control of genome function health consequences, including risk of and its role in mammalian development. developing type 2 diabetes, heart Recently, Professor Ferguson-Smith’s disease and obesity – so in some ways team showed that a DNA-binding ‘we are also what our mothers ate’. This protein plays a key role in the has been termed the developmental Professor Anne programming of imprints, providing a origins of health and disease hypothesis. link between the underlying DNA Ferguson-Smith (left), It suggests that subtle differences in Dr Miguel Constância and sequence and the regulation of nutrition or other early environmental epigenetic marks. factors during fetal or early postnatal life Dr Sue Ozanne lead to permanent alterations in the For more information, please Parent power structure and function of important contact the authors Professor Anne Why do we need imprinting and what organs, leaving a legacy of disease Ferguson-Smith (afsmith@mole. are its evolutionary consequences? The susceptibility in later life. bio.cam.ac.uk; Department of Cambridge researchers have discovered Dr Ozanne’s group has shown that that the functional epigenetic reducing the protein intake of pregnant Physiology, Development and asymmetry that exists between the rodents leads to type 2 diabetes, obesity Neuroscience), Dr Miguel Constância genomes of the parents has important and premature death in the offspring. ([email protected]; Department influences during pregnancy and This is accompanied by permanent of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) and throughout life. These effects include changes in the expression of genes Dr Sue Ozanne ([email protected]; contributions to the allocation of regulating insulin production and action. Metabolic Research Laboratories, maternal resources – especially to the All three research teams are currently Institute of Metabolic Science).

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 11 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH The balance between ASHLEY MOFFETT PROFESSOR mother and fetus in ‘no-man’s-land’ New insights into pregnancy are resulting from research on the interaction between mother and fetus at the placental interface.

Professor Ashley Moffett’s research fetal trophoblast group in the Department of Pathology cells. These studies how the immune system acts receptors, known during pregnancy to establish and as KIR, are maintain a balance between the inherited as a different needs of the mother and her family of genes that Successful baby as it develops. If this is defective, differ widely between invasion of major problems of pregnancy arise, different individuals: in the placenta including recurrent miscarriage, other words they are into the wall of the uterus low birth weight, stillbirth and polymorphic. The molecules is finely pre-eclampsia. on the invading fetal trophoblast balanced cells recognised by KIR receptors are Degrees of invasion called MHC and these are also highly As many as 3–10% of births worldwide polymorphic. Indeed, MHC and KIR are are affected by pre-eclampsia, a encoded by the two most variable complication that is particularly polymorphic gene systems known in common in first pregnancies. Pre- humans. eclampsia develops suddenly towards Professor Moffett’s lab has typed Comparison the end of pregnancy and progresses the KIR genes in women with with their primate rapidly, causing death of the mother pre-eclampsia and compared them relatives indicates and her baby unless there is delivery by with those of mothers with normal that the human KIR and MHC gene emergency Caesarean section. The pregnancies. Results show that families have changed and expanded condition arises when the placenta particular combinations of maternal KIR since humans evolved. Part of this rapid (which is derived from the fetus) fails to genes and fetal MHC genes are change may have been dictated by the invade deeply into the uterus, so that associated with pre-eclamptic potential dangers of human the proper connections with the uterine pregnancies. Similar findings were reproduction – fine-tuning is needed to arteries that provide essential oxygen found in women with repeated early achieve a birth weight not too large to and nutrients to the fetus are not miscarriages where the placenta fails to prevent delivery through the female established. A fine balance exists in this establish proper connections with the pelvic outlet and yet large enough for ‘no-man’s-land’ – too little invasion uterine arteries early in gestation. How the baby to survive once born. means the fetus will be starved, too these genetic findings translate into a much invasion is detrimental to the biological understanding of mother. placentation is now under active Placental trophoblast cells are at the investigation. interface between the placenta and uterus; as they migrate through the Brainy humans walk upright uterine wall they come into contact Curiously, pre-eclampsia is unique to with cells of the maternal immune humans and is absent even in the great system. The maternal cells that appear apes; is this related to the particular to be especially important in regulating type of placenta that humans have the degree of invasion are uterine evolved? There are selective pressures natural killer (uNK) cells. Work in associated with both the constraints Professor Ashley Moffett Professor Moffett’s lab has been looking imposed on the pelvis by walking at what determines which way the upright and the acquisition of large For more information, please balance tips and how uNK cells might brains, which requires a longer period contact Professor Ashley Moffett both assist and hinder placentation. of development in the uterus. These ([email protected]) at the specifically human attributes have Department of Pathology. This Mix and match placed unique demands on the system research is funded by the The group’s focus has been on the that regulates the balance in utero Wellcome Trust and the Centre for receptors on uNK cells that recognise between the mother and her fetus. Trophoblast Research.

12 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/VLADIMIR VLADIMIROV Obesity and diabetes in pregnancy: a vicious circle? A complex interplay of prenatal and postnatal factors determines the risk of childhood obesity and diabetes during later life.

Intrauterine exposure to diabetes normal. Futhermore, although maternal originally established with European during pregnancy – either because the glucose levels in late pregnancy are an Union funding by Professor Ieuan mother already has diabetes or because important determinant of body fat at Hughes in the Department of gestational diabetes is triggered by the birth, over the first two years of life Paediatrics and now funded by the pregnancy – increases the risk that the this relationship tends to decline MRC. The group is looking at the effects baby will develop weight gain and and, by the age of two years, the of feeding regimes, including breast, insulin-resistant (known as type 2) pre-pregnancy BMI of the mother bottle and early introduction of solids diabetes later in life. Because these is the more important determinant and cows’ milk, as well as measures of babies are themselves likely to be at of offspring weight. satiety, to determine hormonal markers increased risk of gestational diabetes, of differential weight and height gain. the population risk for type 2 Feeding on demand The aim over the next five years is to diabetes could accelerate in just a Maternal weight gain and genes arrive at a full evaluation of these complex prenatal and postnatal few generations. The problem is predisposing to type 2 diabetes may determinants of obesity risk in compounded by maternal obesity and not be the only factors determining childhood and type 2 diabetes risk in there is evidence from some high-risk gestational diabetes risk in mothers. later life. The accurate prediction of risk populations that only modest increases Professor Dunger and Dr Clive Petry, might lead to the development of new in maternal obesity may be enough to with support from an MRC project intervention strategies that will reduce precipitate gestational diabetes. grant, have also found evidence that the vicious circle of maternal obesity fetal genotypes associated with and diabetes risk in future generations. High BMI increased fetal growth may modify the Recent research in the Department of metabolism of the mother. It seems Paediatrics and Medical Research likely that these effects are a result of Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit led the fetus trying to boost its own by Professor David Dunger and Dr Ken growth by increasing nutritional Ong has shown that high maternal demand through the secretion of body mass index (BMI) increases the placental hormones into the maternal risk of obesity in offspring. In circulation. The important inference collaboration with colleagues in here is that if some fetal genotypes Uppsala, Sweden, the group is looking influence the risk of maternal at variations in maternal glucose and gestational diabetes then, in combination with increased rates of lipid metabolism during pregnancy Professor David Dunger (left) using state-of-the-art cold-isotope maternal obesity, this could contribute techniques. These complex to the current worldwide epidemic and Dr Ken Ong of diabetes. physiological studies are being carried For more information, please out at the Wellcome Trust Clinical contact the authors Professor Research Facility on the Cambridge Baby growth David Dunger ([email protected]) Biomedical Campus at Addenbrooke’s The group has also identified rapid and Dr Ken Ong (ken.ong@ Hospital. postnatal weight gain as a major risk mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk) at the The findings show that maternal factor for adult obesity and risk of type Department of Paediatrics. Dr Ong obesity and insulin resistance are 2 diabetes. To explore this further, the is also at the MRC Epidemiology determinants of fetal and newborn investigators are using the Cambridge Unit, Institute of Metabolic body fat, even where glucose levels are Baby Growth Study of over 1000 infants, Science.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 13 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Prenatal origins of heart disease Studies in La Paz, the highest city in the world, are helping to uncover a link between prenatal conditions and heart disease in later life.

Heart disease is the greatest killer in the nutrient supply across the placenta as a UK today, accounting for four in every risk factor. But nutrient supply is just 10 deaths and imposing a substantial part of the story. How much oxygen is burden on the nation’s health and available to the fetus is also a wealth. The concept is familiar to us all determinant of growth and the risk of that traditional risk factors, such as adult disease. Dr Dino Giussani’s smoking and obesity, and genetic research group in the Department of makeup increase the risk of heart Physiology, Development and disease. However, it is now becoming Neuroscience is asking what effect apparent that a third factor is at play – a reduced oxygen has on fetal developmental programming that is development by studying populations predetermined before birth, not only by at high altitude. our genes but also by their interaction with the quality of our prenatal Lessons from high altitude environment. Bolivia lies at the heart of South America, split by the Andean Cordillera A biological trade-off into areas of very high altitude to the Pregnancies that are complicated by west and areas at sea-level to the east, adverse conditions in the womb, such as the country extends into the as happens during pre-eclampsia or Amazon Basin. At 400 m and almost placental insufficiency, enforce 4000 m above sea-level, respectively, physiological adaptations in the unborn the Bolivian cities of Santa Cruz and La child and placenta. While these Paz are striking examples of this adaptations are necessary to maintain difference. viable pregnancy and sustain life before Pregnancies at high altitude are birth, the adaptations come at a cost, subjected to a lower partial pressure of claiming reduced growth as a oxygen in the atmosphere compared biological trade-off. In fact it’s more with those at sea-level. Women living at than just growth that is affected – we high altitude in La Paz are more likely to now know that the trade-off extends to give birth to underweight babies than the development of key organs and women living in Santa Cruz. But is this a systems such as the heart and result of reduced oxygen in the womb circulation, which increases the risk of or poorer nutritional status? cardiovascular disease in adult life. The research team studied birth Overwhelming evidence in more than a weight records from healthy term dozen countries has linked pregnancies in La Paz and Santa Cruz, development under sub-optimal especially from obstetric hospitals and intrauterine conditions leading to low clinics selectively attended by women birth weight with increased rates in from either high- or low-income adulthood of coronary heart disease backgrounds. High-altitude babies and its major risk factors – showed a pronounced reduction in hypertension, atherosclerosis and birth weight compared with low- diabetes. altitude babies, even in cases of high The idea that a fetus’ susceptibility maternal nutritional status. Babies born to disease in later life could be to low-income mothers at sea-level also programmed by the conditions in the showed a reduction in birth weight, but womb has been taken up vigorously by the effect of undernutrition was not as the international research community, pronounced as the effect of high with considerable efforts focusing on altitude on birth weight; clearly, fetal

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KRISTIN GIUSSANI oxygenation was a more important markers of cardiovascular disease, it was determinant of fetal growth within discovered that growth restriction at these communities high altitude was indeed linked with Remarkably, although one might cardiovascular defects – shown by an assume that babies born to low-income increase in the thickness of the walls of mothers at high altitude would show the chick heart and aorta. the greatest reduction in birth weight, these babies were actually heavier than Bringing the Andes to babies born to high-income mothers at Cambridge high altitude. It turns out that the To have hopes of clinical intervention, difference lies in ancestry. The lower we need to understand why reduced socio-economic groups of La Paz are oxygen should be a trigger for a almost entirely made up of Aymara prenatal origin of heart disease. Indians, an ancient ethnic group with a Towards this goal, the group’s most history in the Bolivian highlands recent data studying rat pregnancy spanning two millennia. On the other complicated with reduced fetal hand, individuals of higher socio- oxygenation have indicated that the economic status in Bolivia represent a adverse effects on cardiovascular largely European and North American development may be secondary to a admixture, relative newcomers to high disturbance known as oxidative stress. altitude. It seems therefore that an The body normally produces by- ancestry linked to prolonged high- products of oxygen called free radicals altitude residence confers protection and, unless these are neutralised by against reduced atmospheric oxygen. antioxidants, they cause damage to Do these early influences of cells. If oxidative stress is the underlying oxygenation feed through to increased cause of cardiovascular defects, this risk of cardiovascular disease? A large- offers the highly interesting possibility scale, five-year study to determine this of using antioxidants to treat has been initiated in the two cities that pregnancies complicated by reduced will link birth weight data with oxygen delivery to the fetus, be it at measurements of cardiovascular health sea-level or high altitude. This may halt and disease in Bolivian high- and the development of heart disease at its lowlanders. But an early indication has very origin, bringing preventive been supplied by a somewhat unlikely medicine back into the womb. source: Bolivian hen eggs.

Mountain chicks Dr Giussani’s group has discovered that they can replicate the results found in Andean pregnancies in eggs: fertilised eggs from Bolivian hens native to sea- level show growth restriction when incubated at high altitude, whereas eggs from hens that are native to high altitude show a smaller growth restriction. Using hen eggs has allowed the researchers to accomplish Dr Dino Giussani something that would take generations of migration in human populations to For more information, please demonstrate: moving fertilised eggs contact the author Dr Dino Giussani from hens native to high altitude down ([email protected]) at the to sea-level. This not only restored Department of Physiology, growth, but the embryos were actually Development and Neuroscience. larger than sea-level embryos Research described here was incubated at sea-level. And, sponsored by the British Heart importantly, when looking for early Foundation, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Lower levels of oxygen in the womb – (BBSRC), Lister Institute of whether caused by conditions like pre- Preventive Medicine, Royal Society eclampsia or simply by living at high and Wellcome Trust. Dr Giussani is altitude as for these Bolivians – enforce physiological adaptations in the unborn a member of the Centre for child and placenta Trophoblast Research.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 15 REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Investigating the reproductive health of A fresh dialogue Doctor’s people who lived 2000 years ago is not As the last point suggests, this is a work an easy task; but it is an important one. aimed at the elite of Rome; the bulk of Rome under the Empire was the first the urban poor would not have been orders, mega-city, reaching around a million able to afford the time or expense inhabitants at its height. Gaining insight required to pursue Soranus’ instructions into issues such as just how risky on the diet, exercise, bathing and Roman style pregnancy and childbirth were for massage regime to be followed by a women in Imperial Rome, and the pregnant woman. And perhaps they Rebecca Flemming from the chances of any child surviving a year, let even followed the prescriptions of his Faculty of Classics works with alone five, is crucial to understanding rivals. Can we move from advice to ancient texts on health and both the structure and the texture of what actually happened, from ancient Roman society. The extent to which the reproduction. treatises to demographic patterns on city’s population was sustained only the ground? This is beginning to through very high levels of immigration happen, as new scientific techniques rather than by being able to reproduce aimed at extracting a range of data itself must have had very considerable about diet, lifestyle, disease and well- social and cultural consequences. The being from ancient skeletal remains are rates of infant mortality, on the other developed, the results of which can be hand, will have impacted heavily on compared with the teachings of the practicalities and meanings of ancient physicians. Data recently family life. derived from isotopic and dental analysis of skeletal remains from ancient What the ancients knew Rome, for example, have proved Ancient medical texts offer one consistent with the written advice of avenue for research into these key the Roman doctors that encouraged issues. The most detailed discussion of mothers to introduce solid foods after reproduction and female health to six months and complete weaning survive from the Roman Empire soon after two years. belongs to the physician This kind of dialogue between Soranus of Ephesus, who ancient materials and modern practised at Rome in the techniques and models needs to be late 1st and early developed and expanded. Research 2nd century AD. into ancient reproductive health Though scornful of requires an interdisciplinary approach, a anatomy (he bringing together of scholars in the considered it ‘useless’), fields of ancient medicine and historical Soranus shares the demography, as well as experts working general classical view with the new scientific analyses. Dr that the fetus is Flemming is currently helping to build nourished through the up such a broad and collaborative vessels of the umbilical approach in Cambridge – an approach ©WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON cord, and supports those that promises further progress in these who argue for the crucial areas of understanding. existence of two embryonic membranes, attacking those who contend there is just one. Nor is this the only ancient medical dispute he becomes involved in – his treatise is highly polemical throughout. Soranus also offers advice (and criticism) on everything from the best time for intercourse if the aim is conception, to infant weaning and teething, covering Dr Rebecca Flemming topics like the (exacting) care to be given during pregnancy and birth, For more information, please contact the best swaddling techniques, and the author Dr Rebecca Flemming Roman votive how to choose and manage a wet- ([email protected]) at the Faculty of offering nurse. Classics.

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DEUTSCHES HYGIENE-MUSEUM, DRESDEN recently as 250 years ago human development was nowhere to be seen. How were embryo images made to represent some of the most potent biomedical objects, and subjects, of our time? The story begins with a sketch of the variety of views of pregnancy and the unborn before developing embryos were first drawn at the end of the 18th century. We then see how, during the 1800s, medicine and biology exploited technical innovations to produce pictures and models that communicated new attitudes to childbirth, evolution and reproduction. In the 20th century, these became the dominant representations of pregnancy and prominent symbols of biomedical hope and fear. Head modeller Ella Lippmann making model embryos at the German Hygiene Museum for The exhibition contextualises such education in public health some time before 1945 icons as the German Darwinist Ernst Haeckel’s allegedly forged illustrations and the Swedish photographer Lennart Making visible embryos Nilsson’s ‘Drama of Life Before Birth’ on a A new online exhibition explores the visual culture of embryology 1965 cover of Life magazine. It also interprets over 120 now little-known as part of a research initiative on the history of reproduction. drawings, engravings, woodcuts, oil Reflection on generation goes back to strength in the history of reproduction paintings, frescos, wax models, X-rays antiquity, but the term ‘reproduction’ through studentships, research leave and ultrasound scans. By depicting gained wide currency only during the and events. Seminars, workshops and imaging technologies and people age of revolutions around 1800. conferences have generated lively local, engaged in image production (see ‘Generation’ was the all-encompassing national and international conversations, picture), the web pages emphasise the process by which new creatures came and created new cross-disciplinary work of making visible embryos. into being and in which the human initiatives such as the Cambridge Wherever we stand in today’s debates, it acquisition of a rational soul was the Interdisciplinary Reproduction Forum, a should enrich our understanding of crucial event. ‘Reproduction’ was more graduate/faculty research group at the embryos, and of reproduction more narrowly framed, and soon became a Centre for Research in the Arts, Social generally, to explore how these icons topic of scientific research, a target of Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). have been made. medical and agricultural intervention, Current work covers topics as diverse and a project for pressure groups and as consultations about childbearing in states seeking to improve the quantity astrological casebooks, controversies and quality of populations. In the over Darwinism, the hospitalisation of modern era, reproduction has been childbirth in the 20th century and the made increasingly independent of sex. advent of in vitro fertilisation. The history A group of medical historians in the of embryo and fetus, and especially their Department of History and Philosophy visualisation, is a major focus and the of Science (HPS) is studying these subject of the main outreach activity of changes. Under the theme ‘From the award – ‘Making Visible Embryos’, an Generation to Reproduction’, and funded online exhibition by Drs Tatjana Buklijas by a Wellcome Trust Enhancement and Nick Hopwood. Award, Drs Nick Hopwood and Lauren Kassell and Professors John Forrester, Jim An online exhibition Dr Nick Hopwood Secord and Nick Jardine are Images of human embryos are investigating how our world of everywhere today: in newspapers, For more information, please contact reproductive practices, controversies clinics, classrooms, laboratories, baby the author Dr Nick Hopwood and, not least, images was made. albums and on the internet. Debates ([email protected]) at HPS. about abortion, evolution, assisted ‘Making Visible Embryos’ is at From generation to conception and stem cells have made www.hps.cam.ac.uk/visibleembryos reproduction these representations controversial, and the HPS History of Medicine Since 2004, the Enhancement Award but they are also fairly routine, and we programme is at has enabled the researchers to build tend to take them for granted. Yet as www.hps.cam.ac.uk/medicine

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 17 PREVIEW ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/CARLA LISINSKI

FASHIONING THE VALUE CHAIN

Changes in the clothing industry have fashioned a new look for how manufacturing and retail is managed globally.

Twenty-five years ago, the clothing globalisation and particularly how are important (in terms of import volume) industry in the UK, the USA and other they managing the fragmented value sourcing countries: China, Turkey and western countries was very different to chain? To research this question, a Romania. We explored the geographical the industry we see today. Production collaborative project ‘Globalising and organisational aspects of the was organised almost entirely within Behaviour of UK Firms in a Comparative clothing value chain. And we asked the respective country and companies Context’ has been undertaken jointly by how managers configure the value employed a very large, semi-skilled a team in the Cambridge Centre for chain and whether relations with labour force. The ‘value chain’ – the Business Research, based at Judge contractors in different parts of the activities from conception of the Business School, and the Industrial globe are organised in nationally product, through its production, to its Performance Center at Massachusetts distinctive ways. final sale that add value at each stage Institute of Technology (MIT). Financed Even within such a highly globalised of the chain – was overseen by skilled by the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), industry as clothing, we discovered managers, technical experts and the project focused on pharmaceuticals, that the configuration of the value designers. Today, outsourcing and publishing and – the focus of our book chain is still influenced by the social offshoring have reshaped the industry, – textiles and clothing. institutional context of our firms’ home just as they have reshaped many other country. Highly distinctive product industries worldwide. Depending on Fashioned by nations paradigms were retained by companies the management strategy adopted, Much of our research was conducted in from Germany, the UK and the USA, many companies have relocated several the ‘field’ – in Britain, the USA and determined by the material and the steps in the chain to low-wage Germany – carrying out in-depth, human resources that firms can access; countries around the globe, and today qualitative interviews with top by the capabilities developed as a only 10–20% of clothing is managers/owners of clothing, textile result; by the regulatory climate; and by manufactured in western countries. and retail companies, as well as the nature of consumer demand. How are companies responding industry experts. We spoke to suppliers German clothing firms produce to the pressures associated with to our western firms in three very mainly branded clothing for the

18 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 PREVIEW upper-middle market, destined for ‘manufacturers’ still retain some older and more conservative influence and relations are more consumers both at home and in cooperative. These divergent power Europe. UK companies concentrate relations, in turn, determine the degree more on middle and lower-middle of adversarialism present in global market private-label fashion clothing for networks. the younger consumer and they mainly service the domestic market. US A much-copied pattern clothing firms pursue yet another In the context of a globalising strategy, combining the production/in- economy, research into the clothing licensing of branded and private-label industry has granted us many valuable clothing. They serve a diversified mainly insights, from the dynamics of global middle to lower-middle market, with production to the changing geo- more classical fashion and fashion basic political and regulatory frameworks that garments. The export performance of shape the globalisation process and US firms is not as good as German entrench polarisation between firms’ but is better than that of UK firms. developed and developing countries. These diverse strategies, in turn, The clothing industry was the first to affect the divergent relations engage in large-scale outsourcing and established with suppliers in low-wage as such provided a template that many countries. In order to achieve control, National Capitalisms, Global Production other industries have since copied. buyer firms seek to integrate their Networks: Fashioning the Value Chain in the Ironically perhaps, the fashion industry suppliers to differing degrees. This is UK, USA, and Germany by Professor Christel is sometimes regarded as an Lane and Dr Jocelyn Probert will be published expressed through more relational in spring 2009 by Oxford University Press ‘unfashionable’ industry to study, yet it contracting by German firms, market- retains an enduring fascination for type arms’ length relations by US firms, companies to a very significant degree scholars of value chain dynamics and and by British firms taking a position and partly explained their relatively comparative capitalisms. between these two extremes. One high mobility between sourcing notable exception to national influence countries and contractors. They have is evident in the management of labour, not, however, afforded the western where low costs and a low incidence clothing industries the protection they of unionisation in supplier countries were intended to provide. Instead, they provided the impetus for outsourcing have drawn more and more developing in the first place. countries into the industry, greatly intensifying global competition and its Protection versus competition harmful effects on labour. Our book was conceived as a multi- level study, encompassing various Retail dominance geographical and political-regulatory According to our research, the levels, and designed to capture the dominant position in the value chain complexity of this globalised industry. has been assumed by the fashion The global production networks of retailers, owing to the high levels of western buyer firms are highly dynamic capital concentration in retail and and have been influenced, though not because of their greater closeness to always in the intended direction, by final consumers. Electronic point-of-sale frameworks seeking to protect the US technology provides retailers with and European industries, such as the superior knowledge of the quantity 1995 Agreement on Textiles and and, particularly, the quality of demand. Clothing. Following the end of this This dominance expresses itself in the Professor agreement and consequent abolition of retailers’ ability to determine pricing, Christel Lane (left) and export quotas for developing countries lead times and the modalities of Dr Jocelyn Probert on 31 December 2004, the networks clothing delivery, as well as production have become increasingly influenced quality. Their much increased influence by the competitiveness of their over western middleman suppliers. ‘manufacturers’ is passed on by the We enquired how national, latter to contractors in developing For more information, please contact institutional and political contexts have countries who, in turn, pass on the book’s first author Professor shaped competitiveness, as well as competitive pressures to labour, the Christel Lane ([email protected]) explored how contractors view the relatively defenceless social group at at the Department of Sociology. relationships with their various national the end of the chain. Again, national Dr Jocelyn Probert is at the Centre buyer firms. We found that regulatory differences prevail. In the less highly for Business Research, based at frameworks channelled the activities of concentrated German retail sector, Judge Business School.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 19 FEATURES

Physics of Medicine The Grand Opening of the Centre for the Physics of Medicine in December 2008 marked a major development in bringing together researchers working at the interface of physical sciences, life sciences and clinical sciences. Centre for the Physics of Medicine; the sculpture on the top floor celebrates the discovery of the structure of DNA by physicists at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory in 1953

Medicine and biology have long the many biomedical departments and meet, discuss and develop common benefited from fundamental research institutes across the University. terms of reference. An important advances in physics. Whether it’s the Building on this, the vision of the dimension will be the training of a new tools of diagnosis and treatment Physics of Medicine initiative has been generation of young researchers to be (from X-rays to lasers), or to draw physics more deeply into the familiar with a broad range of understanding the structure and life sciences by creating an environment approaches and capable of working at organisation of biological systems, where researchers from these different the interface of disciplines. As research the association between the fields can work together. groups develop within the Centre, and disciplines has broken new ground The first step of the University’s collaborations reach out across the time and again. For Cambridge, this investment in Physics of Medicine has University, a host of exciting new interaction holds a special, historical just been completed with the building opportunities will be nurtured that will significance: the momentous of a new research centre on the West push boundaries in the physics of discovery of the double helical Cambridge Site, adjacent to the medicine as never before. structure of DNA by physicists at Cavendish, and the appointment of four Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory in lecturers in experimental biomedical 1953 transformed our understanding physics, Drs Jochen Guck, Pietro Cicuta, of the building blocks of life. The Ullrich Keyser and Julian Huppert. The breakthrough gave birth to the new building, comprising state-of-the- entirely new discipline of molecular art laboratory space and core facilities, was opened on 16 December 2008 and biology and, in effect, the founding will house researchers from different in 1962 of the Laboratory for disciplines alongside a core from the Molecular Biology on what is now Department of Physics. the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Diversity of science is expected to In 2009, we stand once more at the be associated with the enterprise. To dawn of a new era and witness the underpin this, and to ensure Professor founding of a new laboratory, one representation from the different Athene Donald that will give structure and direction academic communities, the initiative is to the interaction between overseen by a steering committee For more information, please contact physicists, biologists and clinicians. comprising the School Chairs of Physical the author Professor Athene Donald Sciences, Clinical Medicine, Biological ([email protected]), Director of the Building a future Sciences and Technology. Physics of Medicine Initiative, or visit Over the past decade, an increasing Construction of a second phase of the Physics of Medicine website crossover in goals, philosophy and the building is planned. Currently (www.pom.cam.ac.uk). Professor techniques has been emerging awaiting funding, this will provide office Donald has recently won the between researchers in the and teaching space, as well as prestigious 2009 L’Oreal UNESCO Department of Physics and those in additional areas where researchers can Women in Science Award for Europe.

20 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 FEATURES CHARLIE WHINNEY ASSOCIATES (CREATORS OF THE SCULPTURE) Research at the interface

Although the Centre for the Physics of Medicine is still in JOCHEN GUCK its infancy, it is already creating new collaborations between researchers across the University. Projects are under way in the fields of stem cell research and pathogenic infection, and additional collaborations are constantly being instigated. Stem cells Dr Jochen Guck (Department of Physics) is developing optical tools based on the use of laser beams that cause cells of any kind to deform. Different cells Cell sorting by optical deformation

respond in different ways – it’s even possible to distinguish cancerous cells CICUTA PIETRO AND ATHENE STEVENSON PETER DONALD SERENA BEST AND RUTH CAMERON PHIL JONES from healthy cells as they pass through the beam. Optical deformation is opening up an alternative solution to conventional methods of cancer diagnosis, and holds promise as a means of sorting stem cells using physical information derived at the single-cell level.

Professor Ben Simons (Department of Physics) and Dr Phil Jones (Hutchison/MRC Research Centre) are applying approaches in theoretical physics to analyse experiments studying stem cell fate during the maintenance of the epidermal skin layer. The modelling work has shown that the standard dogma about epidermal maintenance (involving the existence of so-called transit amplifying cells) is false, and provides an alternative framework that no Skin cell clones for studying stem cell fate longer requires ongoing stem cell proliferation.

The process by which a ‘pluripotent’ stem cell commits to becoming a particular type of cell depends on the stiffness and three-dimensional structure of the substrate (or scaffold) to which it is attached. Several collaborating groups are working on the design of tissue scaffolds and the nature of cell–scaffold interactions: Dr Serena Best and Dr Ruth Cameron (Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials), Professor Wilhelm Huck and Dr Melinda Duer (Department of Chemistry), and Professor Eugene Terentjev and Professor Athene Donald (Department of Physics). Through collaboration with researchers within the Stem Cell Initiative, including Professor Fiona Watt and Ceramic scaffold for orthopaedic applications Professor Roger Pedersen, the possibility of control over the stem cell differentiation process using appropriately designed scaffolds can be explored.

Pathogenic infection Bacterial interactions between cells and respiratory tissues are being studied by Dr Pietro Cicuta (Department of Physics) and Dr Clare Bryant (Department of Veterinary Medicine), and Dr Julia Gog and Professor Ray Goldstein (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics), using a combination of mathematical modelling, optical tweezers and real-time imaging. Optical tweezers are used to manipulate beads coated with a variety of biologically relevant materials. By directly visualising how the cell engulfs the Cells spreading on a topographically beads and how this process is affected by the nature of the coating, researchers patterned substrate hope to gain new insight about the infection process. Mathematical modelling is directed towards understanding fluid dynamics in the respiratory tract in the vicinity of the tiny ‘hairs’ that clear bacteria during infection.

Professor Athene Donald is collaborating with Professor Duncan Maskell (Department of Veterinary Medicine) to pioneer novel methods of imaging bacterial pathogens. Bacteria are being imaged using the new technique of environmental scanning electron microscopy, which permits imaging while the bacteria are still viable. The aim is to obtain higher resolution images of a living pathogen than is currently possible with conventional light microscopy and to analyse how bacterial shape may change during the life cycle. Trajectories of tracers on beating cilia

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 21 FEATURES

topographical development of this ALL IMAGES BY HEMBO PAGI/PORTUS PROJECT PORTUS immense site, as well as to provide information that will help the Italian PROJECT: authorities manage it effectively. BRINGING Gateway to Rome According to ancient texts, the TO LIFE construction of Portus was initiated by the Emperor Claudius, inaugurated by the Emperor Nero and enlarged by the TRAJAN’S Emperor Trajan. In the 1st century AD, Claudius ordered the construction of a LEGACY great harbour and the digging of canals to drain the land at the mouth of the River Tiber. But it wasn’t until the early 2nd century, when Trajan constructed a hexagonal harbour basin and huge warehouses a little inland, that Portus became the main thoroughfare of imports from the Empire. Marble, glass, metalwork and foodstuffs arrived on ships from Egypt, Africa and the Mediterranean provinces bound for the Imperial city. Under Trajan’s rule, the area due south of Portus in the Tiber delta was transformed into an artificial island defined to the east and south by the River Tiber, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and to the north by a canal. A road traversed Isola Sacra, linking Portus with the adjacent city of Ostia, and along the road grew a major cemetery. By the 6th century, however, the once bustling, cosmopolitan Portus had had its day, as Rome and her Mediterranean trade declined. Gradually, the mausolea, paintings, inscriptions, Above and right: Members of the research sculptures and mosaics of the necropolis team excavating and surveying the site were buried by sand dunes.

Excavation and geophysical survey are uncovering the secrets A hidden gem of an exceptionally diverse Imperial Roman landscape. Although records show that Portus, the great sea-port of Imperial For the past decade, a project aimed antiquarians and archaeologists have Rome, is regarded as one of the most at answering many of the key questions studied the ruins of Portus since the significant civil engineering works of the surrounding this important site has been 16th century, and a substantial part ancient world and yet, through a carried out by a collaboration between of the Isola Sacra necropolis was combination of historical circumstances, the Universities of Cambridge and excavated in the 1930s, the site has been effectively closed to study it has been the subject of surprisingly Southampton, and the British School at through most of the 20th century. little archaeological research. The port Rome, in collaboration with the A major issue for the Italian antiquities area spans more than 2 km by 1 km and Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici agency has been how to manage and features a unique hexagonal harbour di Ostia and the Duke Sforza Cesarini. preserve this monumental landscape, basin covering more than 32 hectares, The latest stage of the project began in which sits within an area of intensive itself equivalent in size to a middle- 2007 with funding from the Arts and modern development immediately ranking Roman city. And stretching out Humanities Research Council (AHRC), adjacent to Rome’s main airport at from Portus lies an even larger area of and combines a new survey using Fiumicino. In the 1990s, they acquired archaeological interest – Isola Sacra – an geophysical techniques with excavation much of the site to develop it as an artificial island created by Emperor Trajan of the core of the complex. Through this, archaeological park, opening up the on which is sited one of Italy’s best the project aims to gain a fuller area to new research such as the preserved Imperial Roman cemeteries. understanding of the historical and Portus Project.

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Excavation and survey left behind as the Tiber delta expanded discoveries are sure to follow over the The excavation led by Professor Simon westwards. Importantly, these join with next two seasons of fieldwork. However, Keay and Dr Graeme Earl from the those previously discovered in the survey it is already apparent that the integrated University of Southampton is applying an of Portus to the north, demonstrating methodology being used – the integrated suite of techniques not widely conclusively that no former east–west geophysical survey to enhance used on complex Mediterranean sites, river channel existed in this area before understanding of the area’s layout including digital recording and the canals were dug in the 1st century. together with the excavation of visualisation. A particular focus has been Overlying this sequence of geological individual buildings and material culture an area between the Claudian and deposits are three different Roman – is yielding a breadth and depth of Trajanic harbour basins that is helping to landscapes. First, a settlement and knowledge not previously available. In disentangle the structural sequence that buildings appear to be limited to the the process, this exceptionally rich and runs from the 1st to the 6th century AD. north margin of the island, along the challenging site is also providing young It has already revealed unexpected course of the canal, and include marble academics and students from a range of details about the Claudian harbour, as wharves and a bridgehead settlement countries with experience and training well as information concerning the opposite Portus. Second, there is a series in site and survey techniques, electronic system for providing fresh water for ships of land boundaries which imply that data capture and the identification and to use at sea. The excavated finds much of the island was given over to analysis of artefacts, fauna and botanical (including marble and pottery) hold agricultural exploration, presumably to remains. great potential for writing the economic provide foodstuffs to the populations of and social history of the port, thereby Ostia and Portus. Finally, there are the making an important contribution to our funerary landscapes. These include both understanding of its role in relation to the dense concentration of tombs Ostia, Rome and the Roman beside the road across the island as well Mediterranean. as a smaller number of monuments Professor Martin Millett from overlooking the Tiber. The latter continue Cambridge’s Faculty of Classics and Kris the pattern observed in the survey Strutt from the University of further north, and reflect the use of the Southampton are directing the Tiber as an artery for communication – geophysical component of the project. the Roman dead were buried in tombs The new survey is attempting to cover all that were designed to be seen by Professor Martin Millett the areas of the Roman landscape on travellers, whether travelling by road or Isola Sacra that have not been built over. by river. For more information, please contact The first results from 2008 (covering the author Professor Martin Millett about a third of the island) are already Future fieldwork ([email protected]) at the Faculty of proving their worth. They show a Both the excavation and the survey are Classics or visit the Portus Project sequence of relict pre-Roman coastlines in their early stages and further website (www.portusproject.org).

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 23 FEATURES

Cambridge neurologists have rejected as foreign when given to shown that an antibody used patients. Because the drug destroys to treat leukaemia also limits white blood cells, it has been principally used to treat adult leukaemia, a disease and repairs the damage in in which abnormal white blood cells multiple sclerosis. build up and fatally ‘crowd out’ normal, healthy blood cells. This lymphocyte- Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects almost destroying ability is now being 100,000 people in the UK and several exploited to destroy the perpetrators million worldwide, many of whom of havoc in MS. develop the illness between the ages of Surprisingly, given that the drug is 20 and 40. Individuals at first experience known to destroy white blood cells, episodes that transiently disturb infections were only slightly more functions that healthy people take for common after treatment with Campath. granted: seeing, walking, feeling, Instead, the development of another thinking and emptying the bladder. autoimmune disease – usually affecting Later, the episodes are replaced by the thyroid gland – proved to be the secondary progression and, as the major, and unexpected, complication. disabilities mount up, the illness begins to threaten many aspects of daily living. MS results when the body mounts All in the timing an autoimmune attack on nerve fibres, Although Campath’s potential as a New particularly targeting the myelin sheath treatment for MS was first considered that envelops them and interfering with 18 years ago in Cambridge, early the passage of the nerve impulse attempts to treat patients who had through the spinal cord and brain. The already reached the secondary hopes prime orchestrator of this damage has progressive stage failed to improve their been identified – a type of white blood worsening disabilities. It seems that it’s cell known as the T cell – but exactly all in the timing. The results of this latest how tissue injury occurs, why there is a study have shown that the drug must be given early, before the destruction of for the characteristic relapsing–remitting pattern followed by secondary the myelin sheath has advanced to the progressive disease, and how to treat the point that secondary damage to the illness effectively, have remained elusive. underlying nerves continues unabated. Not only does this strategy head off nervous Made in Cambridge sustained accumulation of disability but it also allows some existing damage to The results of a recent study raise new get better, a factor not seen in any hopes for patients with MS. A three-year, previous clinical trials. Expectations are Phase 2 clinical trial with Alemtuzumab system high that the Phase 3 trials, now in (also known as Campath), in which over progress, will lead to drug registration 300 patients were treated, showed that within a few years. not only was the advance of disease halted but, remarkably, many patients started to get better – perhaps due to brain repair. Professor Alastair Compston and Dr Alasdair Coles in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences found that the drug reduced the relapse rate by an additional 74% compared with the standard treatment, and the risk of accumulating fixed disability also fell by 71%. These results provide a new installment in what has been a Professor Alastair Compston fascinating history for an antibody made For more information, please contact in Cambridge in 1979 by Professor the author Professor Alastair Compston Herman Waldmann in the Department ([email protected]) of Pathology. Campath was the first at the Department of Clinical antibody to be ‘humanised’ – a Neurosciences. This research was Damage to the nervous technique pioneered by Dr Greg Winter published in New England Journal of system lies at the root at the Medical Research Council Medicine (2008) 359, 1786–1801 and of the devastation caused by multiple Laboratory of Molecular Biology that was funded by Genzyme and Bayer sclerosis and minimises the risk of the drug being Schering Pharma AG. Parkinson’s disease

24 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 FEATURES

DR JON HERAS, EQUINOX GRAPHICS (WWW.E-NOX.NET) The way a common virus hijacks Pro-life therapeutic the cell it infects could hold the With recent funding from the Michael J clue to combating Parkinson’s Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, disease. Professor Sinclair’s group is now investigating how to translate the basic Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most virological function discovered in HCMV common neurodegenerative diseases in into a novel therapeutic. the elderly population. Usually diagnosed Experiments are being designed in after the age of 50, PD has a prevalence collaboration with Dr Roger Barker and that is rising as the average population Professor Maria Grazia Spillantini at the age increases, with about 120,000 people Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair, part of currently affected in the UK. The disease the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, results from loss of the cells that produce with the aim of preventing dopamine, a chemical that relays signals neurodegeneration in models of PD by from one neuron to another in the brain. delivering the viral RNA directly to the Without this neurotransmitter, debilitating brain. Such approaches are difficult as the neurological symptoms ensue, including brain is protected by the blood–brain impaired walking, talking, swallowing barrier, which restricts the passage of and speech. various chemicals and microscopic Although the processes leading to objects (such as bacteria) from the blood neuronal death in PD are not fully to the brain. However, some viruses such understood, indications from experiments as rabies are not only able to overcome with neurotoxins point towards a role for this barrier but can also specifically target mitochondria, the energy-producing neuronal cells by expressing a protein powerhouses of cells. It seems likely that that binds to them; even a small the neuronal cell death and degeneration polypeptide fragment of this protein is of neurological functions are a result of sufficient. impaired mitochondrial function, The researchers have generated a particularly of an enzyme known as complex comprising the HCMV RNA and Complex I that provides the first step in the rabies polypeptide, and results are the chain that coverts food energy into already indicating that it protects chemical energy. neuronal cells in the Petri dish from cell death. By engineering this polypeptide to Protecting the powerhouse bind RNA even more tightly, the hope is Cell death isn’t always a bad thing. Timely that it might deliver its RNA cargo to the brain after injection into the bloodstream. and regulated cell death is crucial for the This would be a fascinating example of correct development of some tissues and translational biology – taking is also an important defence mechanism observations of the basic molecular against invading pathogens. For this analysis of virus infection and extending reason, many viruses have evolved them to therapeutic solutions for ways to keep cells alive until the viral neurodegeneration. replication cycle is completed. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a type of herpesvirus, is an expert at this. Because HCMV needs 4–5 days to complete its replication cycle, it encodes several pro- life genes that hijack cellular functions to keep the cell alive throughout the stresses of the infection cycle. Molecular virologists in Professor John Sinclair’s group in the Department of Medicine have long been interested in the machinations of this virus. Recent research took a surprising turn when they discovered that one product of HCMV – Professor John Sinclair a piece of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that doesn’t even encode a protein – targets For more information, please contact mitochondria and protects Complex I the author Professor John Sinclair from stress-induced dysfunction. Could ([email protected]) at the this viral RNA protect neuronal cells from Department of Medicine. Part of this the type of neurodegeneration observed research was published in Science in PD? (2007) 316, 1345–1348.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 25 FEATURES

The new geography of personality

The study of personality can be traced Jason Rentfrow Dr Sam Gosling, at the University of back over two millennia but it wasn’t explains how Texas, aims to examine geographic until the early 1990s that an empirically analysis of over variation in personality. In a large-scale derived framework for studying project partially funded by the US personality became widely accepted in three-quarters National Science Foundation (NSF), data the scientific community. Decades of of a million collected by online survey from over research involving hundreds of online surveys three-quarters of a million individuals in thousands of individuals revealed five has been used the USA revealed that personalities are broad dimensions of personality. These to build a not randomly distributed but are so-called Big Five dimensions – clustered into distinct geographic Extraversion, Agreeableness, ‘personality patterns. Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and map’ of the USA. It seems that residents of the Intellect – provided a basic model for Mid-Atlantic and New England states conceptualising and measuring are relatively stressed, irritable and personality. depressed, whereas West Coast residents We know a fair amount about the are more emotionally stable, relaxed and antecedents and consequences of the calm than the rest of the country. The five dimensions. Evidence from studies two coasts are quite similar on other of identical twins suggests that the Big traits, though. Traits associated with Five have a substantial genetic basis. intellect, such as creativity, imagination, There is evidence that the dimensions and openness, are higher in the exist in different parts of the world. Northeast and West Coast than in the And numerous studies have shown Central and Southern states, where that differences between individuals people are more pragmatic, are associated with important life straightforward and traditional. outcomes, from academic and Compared with the rest of the country, occupational success, to marital residents of the Central and Southern stability and physical health. states are also more neighbourly, friendly One question that we know less and generous. about concerns the geographic One particularly important discovery distribution of personality. Are the Big is that the prevalence of certain Five personality dimensions evenly personality traits is associated with a distributed across the globe, or are they range of important geographic geographically clustered? National and indicators. In states where rates of regional stereotypes would have us neuroticism are high, life expectancies think that there are important are short and rates of cancer, heart geographic personality differences. But disease, stroke and diabetes are high. In do such stereotypes have any basis in such places, residents are also less reality? socially connected than in regions where people are more emotionally Mapping personality stable. In regions where intellect is high, Ongoing research by Dr Jason Rentfrow, more patents are produced per capita at the Department of Social and and more people work in the arts, Developmental Psychology, and technology and R&D than in places

26 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 FEATURES INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY TORONTO RAPOSO, PROSPERITY THE MARTIN DR KEVIN STOLARICKDR KEVIN AND PAULO

Personality heat maps showing the geographic distributions of the Big Five dimensions: left to right, Neuroticism, Intellect, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extraversion; areas in red have high concentrations of each trait and areas in blue have low concentrations where intellect is low. The prevalence of given region. Climate, for instance, has a Indeed, it makes sense that more traits associated with agreeableness, significant effect on the types of innovation and discovery occurs in such as warmth, generosity and activities in which people within a places with high concentrations of friendliness, is linked to lower crime rates region can engage. In warm climates intellectual people because pushing – people are more trusting in safe people spend more time outside and knowledge to the limit requires curiosity places. have more contact with larger varieties and imagination. It also makes sense of people than those in colder climates. that rates of disease and mortality are Do birds of a feather flock Research on seasonal affective disorder lower in places where people are together? indicates that in regions that receive emotionally stable because psychological health is a key One explanation for the geographic little direct sunlight during certain parts determinant of physical health. But clustering of personality traits is selective of the year residents are prone to which came first? migration – the idea that people choose depression and anxiety. Aspects of a This research, like most, raises more to live in places that meet their needs. region’s physical environment might not questions than it answers. Are regions Concerns about safety, job opportunities only shape the psychological like magnets, attracting certain people and the quality of schools factor into characteristics of the residents, but and repelling others? Or, are they like some people’s decisions about where to might also provide incentives for settling melting pots, infusing the beliefs, values live. So it’s reasonable to expect that or migrating. and customs of their inhabitants? We aspects of personality also filter into the don’t yet know the answers to these decision. Consider, for instance, the Magnet or melting pot? questions, but the new geography of finding that large cosmopolitan cities Understanding regional personality personality provides a map that may have disproportionately large numbers differences can inform our knowledge of direct us to the answers. of people who are open, creative and what makes regional development tick – intellectual. It’s likely that such people why it is that some regions prosper migrate to cosmopolitan cities precisely while others struggle. Social scientists because those cities afford a multiplicity have argued that technology, human of choices with which to satisfy their capital and community are essential needs for stimulation and diversity. ingredients for economic and social Another explanation is social prosperity. But it now appears that we influence. There’s a wealth of empirical have another set of useful ingredients evidence that attitudes, opinions and with which to work. It will be informative emotions are contagious. So it is to examine how the Big Five are conceivable that the clustering of distributed in other countries and neuroticism, for instance, is a result of whether the processes connecting traits emotional contagion. In places with and geographic indicators are similar. disproportionately large numbers of Personality captures an individual’s Dr Jason Rentfrow people who are anxious, irritable and behavioural tendencies, emotionality tense, others ‘catch’ some of that and capacity to acquire new negative affect simply through regular information. It has been shown to For more information, please contact. predict important life outcomes, such as contact Dr Jason Rentfrow A third explanation is environmental occupational success, longevity and ([email protected]) at the influence. As in the case of social social connectedness. So it’s not too far Department of Social and influence, features of the physical fetched for the aggregate personalities Developmental Psychology. Dr environment could affect the of thousands of individuals to play a Rentfrow is also a member of the personalities of individuals within a significant role on a geographic scale. University’s Psychometrics Centre.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 27 FEATURES THE ATLAS EXPERIMENT AT CERN HTTP://ATLAS.CH

Cutaway of the ATLAS detector, showing the signals from The Large Hadron Collider: particles leaving the LHC beam upstream of the entering uncharted territory detector

The world’s most expensive scientific instrument will be ready for full experiments in 2009; Andy Parker describes Cambridge’s role in constructing and using the machine that hopes to understand the universe.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is fundamental particles is due to the budget of £2.6 billion, it is officially the becoming a rare example of a scientific long-sought-after Higgs mechanism. world’s largest experiment. project that needs no introduction – According to the Standard Model of Cambridge has been involved from the recent publicity when the machine particle physics, the Higgs mechanism the beginning, when Professor Andy was turned on has ensured a celebrity explains how mass-less particles Parker, now head of the High Energy rating as high as the Hubble Space acquire mass and, for the theory to be Physics Group at the Cavendish Telescope, perhaps even rivalling the correct, the hypothetical Higgs boson Laboratory, attended the first meeting latest reality TV show winners! But few particle must be shown to exist. in 1989. Since then, with funding from perhaps understand the scale of the The aim also is to search for the Science and Technology Facilities challenges posed by the project. phenomena beyond the Standard Council (STFC), a technical team has Accelerating beams of protons to Model: seeking to explain why the had responsibility for designing the within a whisker of the speed of light, universe contains so little antimatter; silicon sensors used to measure around a tunnel the size of London searching for supersymmetric particles, particles emerging from the collisions. Underground’s Circle Line, in a vacuum which may be a source of dark matter; The team, led by Professor Janet Carter as empty as intergalactic space and and even exploring whether we live in until September 2008 and now led by colliding them together every 25 a universe with hidden dimensions. Professor Parker, also designed and built nanoseconds to re-create the With these advances, it may even be some of the complex electronics conditions just after the universe possible to create and study tiny black needed to read out the detectors, and was formed is just the start… holes within the laboratory. is responsible for the software used to get the data safely recorded. Hunting for Higgs An extraordinary The scientific goals of the LHC are collaboration Data deluge extremely ambitious – no less than the The figures associated with the design, On 10 September 2008, the Cambridge untangling of some of the longest build and implementation of the LHC physicists, along with a huge global standing mysteries of physics relating are truly spectacular: involving an audience, awaited the switching on of to the innermost structure of matter. estimated 3000 research scientists, at the particle beams at CERN (the One of the key endpoints is to 300 universities, spread across 111 European research laboratory in determine, finally, whether the mass of nations and with an approximate Switzerland) and the first successful

28 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 FEATURES attempt to bring protons around the Cambridge. Users can submit their jobs universe. Hypotheses will be confirmed full circumference. Within a few days, to analyse the data to their local or dashed, exotic new particles and the first collisions had been successfully computers and the Grid software will dimensions may be found; and, if we’re recorded; however, a faulty electrical automatically send the work to a lucky, we may discover something that connection between two of the computer anywhere in the world that not even the theorists have predicted. accelerator’s magnets then temporarily can access the data needed and return halted further beams. The accelerator the results. The user has seamless will be restarted in 2009 and access to all the processors and a Cambridge has been preparing for the distributed datastore capable of deluge of data expected to flow out holding 15 million gigabytes each year from the LHC. for the 15-year lifetime of the project. Current estimates rate the data flow The Grid facility in Cambridge, known as fast enough to fill a DVD every 2.5 as CamGrid, is providing a powerful seconds. To absorb this tsunami of computational tool for university bytes, computers around the world members not just in high-energy have been linked into a ‘Grid’ of over physics but also in many other 100,000 processors to crunch the data departments. into meaningful information for the scientists to inspect. Data will cascade Professor Andy Parker from the ‘Tier 0’ centre at CERN to 11 To infinity and beyond ‘Tier 1’ centres based at national It is difficult to predict what will be For more information, please contact supercomputer institutes, and from discovered when the protons start the author Professor Andy Parker there to 140 ‘Tier 2’ centres, grouped colliding again at the LHC. But what is ([email protected]) at the into 38 federations covering 32 certain is that the results will transform Cavendish Laboratory, Department countries and hosted by universities like our fundamental understanding of the of Physics.

Centre for Scientific Computing

High-level computing of the sort required to analyse data created by the LHC is embedded in many research activities in the physical and biomedical sciences. It might be driven by the ability to collect enormous datasets, such as for the LHC, or by a requirement to analyse huge gene banks or medical records as quickly as possible, or to process data delivered from satellites or environmental sensors.

In Cambridge, high-level computing resources have been brought together under the Centre for Scientific Computing (CSC) with the goals of linking research projects in diverse disciplines, encouraging the sharing of resources, consolidating intellectual activities and transferring skills.

CSC is a federated initiative that encompasses the High-Performance Computing Service (HPCS), which is one of the largest academic supercomputers in the UK; the eScience Centre, which supports eScience projects involving scientists and industry using Grid-enabled applications (e.g. CamGrid) in the Cambridge region; and teaching at the MPhil level.

For more information, please contact CSC Director Professor Mike Payne ([email protected]). Coming soon in Research Horizons: ‘Supercomputing at the HPCS’.

CamGrid

CamGrid is a distributed computing resource in which the processing capacity of desktops or dedicated machines across the University is put to use at times when the machines lie idle. In operation since 2005, CamGrid now links spare capacity equivalent to approximately 1000 machines in 12 different departments.

As well as ramping up for the LHC, the data-sharing and massive processing capability of CamGrid has been used in multiple ways in Cambridge: by the Unilever Centre to explore the structure of molecules; by the Department of Earth Sciences to determine the properties of materials under the enormous pressures and temperatures at the Earth’s core; and by the Department of Pathology for phylogenetic analyses to address how eukaryotic cells evolved from their prokaryotic ancestors.

For more information, please contact eScience Centre Director Mark Hayes ([email protected]).

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 29 FEATURES

SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE POLAR RESEARCH SCOTT undertaken on various trips to the poles, since these were central to some of the earliest understandings of how the human body reacts to low temperatures. This type of research has diverse applications, from improving the provision of emergency medical aid during natural disasters to designing medical supervision for ultra-endurance sports. Freeze Frame Growing public interest in changes to the polar ice caps, as well as the forthcoming centenaries of the ‘Heroic Age’ expeditions, have provided the impetus for SPRI to promote research into its collections. In so doing, this visual archive will be accessible to a global audience, from schoolchildren in Nunavut and northern Greenland investigating their polar heritage, to university researchers with an interest in the development of polar technologies, physiology at low temperatures or the changing shape of the cryosphere. Dr Wilson at the sunshine Digitisation of related documents – Freeze Frame: through the recorder; one of Herbert Ponting’s photographs from personal journals and official expedition eyes of the polar explorers Scott’s British Antarctic reports – will provide historical and Expedition, 1910–1913 cultural context. Many of the images are unpublished, having been rediscovered An ambitious project is making accessible some of the most within private albums and personal important visual resources for research into international collections. A series of interpretative polar exploration. web pages and e-learning resources will provide access to these hidden The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) The collection includes photographer collections for all educational levels. holds a unique photographic collection Herbert Ponting’s entire visual archive The hope is that Freeze Frame will that documents over a century of (some 1700 glass plates) taken on encourage users to discover polar journeys to the Arctic and Antarctica – Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Expedition environments through the eyes of two of the last great wildernesses on (1910–1913) to reach the South Pole. those who dared to venture there. Earth. The archive is among the richest Also featured are images from Ernest in the world for the study of polar Shackleton’s valiant attempt in 1915 to HARTLEY MARTIN environments but is extremely fragile, achieve the first land-crossing of the and for the past two years a team at Antarctic, and the only known SPRI have been working to capture daguerreotypes of Sir John Franklin and and preserve over 20,000 of their his crew, taken in 1845 prior to their photographic negatives. Now nearing fateful voyage in search of the completion, the JISC-funded project will Northwest Passage. be available online as Freeze Frame, opening up this unparalleled resource Promoting research to those wishing to discover the history The collection provides a record of the of polar exploration for themselves. living conditions and the scientific efforts of the men involved in polar Heather Lane The heroic age exploration. This is an invaluable Spanning 1845–1982, the images resource to researchers who are For further information, please represent the great wealth of history of interested in exploring the history of contact the author Heather Lane exploration and embrace some of the extreme physiology and human ([email protected]), most iconic photographs of their time: endurance, such as Dr Vanessa Heggie Librarian and Keeper of Collections, the men, their ships, sledges and from the Department of History and Scott Polar Research Institute. Freeze skidoos; tents, huts and rations; Philosophy of Science. Dr Heggie will be Frame (www.freezeframe.ac.uk) was equipment for survival and for scientific using the Freeze Frame materials as she funded by the Joint Information investigation; as well as stunning images starts work on a project examining the Systems Committee (JISC) and will of the Arctic and Antarctic landscapes. experiments and observations that were be launched on 1 March 2009.

30 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 INSIDE OUT Dr Barbara Bodenhorn At first glance, reasons for researching locations as different as the Arctic and Mexico are not self-evident. But comparison is at the core of Social Anthropology and, for Dr Barbara Bodenhorn, a dual focus on these remarkably different environments is shaping a cross-cultural exchange programme between young members of three indigenous communities.

Dr Barbara Bodenhorn, Newton Trust scientific research is simultaneously Lecturer in the Department of Social understood by scientists, local experts, Anthropology, has an association with teachers and students. the Inupiat (Inuit) communities of the Alaskan Arctic that stretches back almost Have you ever had a Eureka moment? 30 years. Having lived and worked there, Occasionally people make throwaway she returns often to learn how the comments that stop you dead in your Inupiat engage successfully with their tracks (in fact these frequently become environment – social, political and titles of my papers!). My first ‘Aha!’ moment physical. Her current interests lie in how happened in 1979 when an Inupiat whaler these communities perceive and adapt said that the whale ‘gives itself up to the to environmental changes as they whaling Captain’s wife’. The major continue to work towards shaping their stereotype of Eskimos is that they are the own futures. most male-dominated of hunter-gatherer Exploring these ‘roots of success’ groups and, yet, Inupiat whalers regard the sound megalomaniac but to emphasise extended to Mexico in 2004. A six-year whale as giving itself as a gift to the that I want my work to require something interdisciplinary project was launched to community via the Captain’s wife. With this of who I am. You spend most of your life explore environmental knowledge in one comment, everything fell out of place working, so it’s vital that there’s a real ‘so forest communities with Dr Laura and I realised my assumptions about what?’ element to what you do. It’s Barraza, a specialist in environmental hunting as well as gender had been wrong. important to me that my relationships education from the Universidad As an anthropologist this is what I look for make a difference to what I’m doing. Nacional Autónoma de México, which – what surprises me, what doesn’t fit, what People in the Arctic communities know me funded the project. The researchers challenges received wisdom. as Barbara, who happens to be an particularly focused on adolescents: their anthropologist, and I think this must help knowledge of the environment, their What’s the best piece of advice you’ve my credibility when I talk to them. My appreciation of community ever been given? research has always included local membership, and their sense of the That you have to be realistic about what it collaboration, with a specific goal that future. is you can know based on what you’ve there is a local end benefit – whether it’s Since 2006 this project has learned. This was advice I was given by an facilitating environmental education expanded to include an innovative Inupiat woman when I was writing a classes taught by local folks, or promoting exchange programme, funded by the US report and feeling the pressure to recognition of local expertise. The National Science Foundation, between generalise. She brought me down to Earth ‘so what?’ of it all is as much about what students from the North Slope of Alaska by telling me not to get fussed about happens locally as whether I’ll get a and two forest communities of Mexico. discovering the nature of the world, but publication out of it. Recently back from taking the Alaskan instead to stay focused on being true to the students to Mexico for a month, Dr information I had gathered. What is your favourite research tool? Bodenhorn is delighted with the Mainly, it’s being able to talk to people. But foundational and transformative If you could wake up tomorrow with I think any kind of social science depends potential of the interchange: ‘Through a new skill, what would it be? on the dedication to use as many tools as hands-on work with scientists and Recently I’ve thought that perhaps I’d like to possible – combining personal in-depth community elders, these young people be a volcanologist. All the regions I study interviews with listening to people, taking gain new understanding of global are profoundly affected by seismic activity part in what they do, analysing census processes, enrich their appreciation of and I’m fascinated by volcanoes, in terms data and going into the archives to find their own local communities, and of what they can do and how people think letters written 100 years ago. What establish enduring bonds with young about them. anthropology has to offer is the possibility people whose worlds are very different of working in the same communities for from their own.’As well as providing What motivates you to go to work years – as well as having the chance to students with unique learning each day? work in a different part of the world opportunities, these ‘temporary It’s the thought that I am doing something altogether. With any luck, that means your communities of knowledge’ underpin an in which it makes a difference that I’m the initial impressions and assumptions will anthropological examination of how one who’s doing it. I don’t mean that to get dashed to bits!

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 31 IN FOCUS Electricity Policy Research Group The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) supports research from across the social sciences, from Towards a sustainable sociology to anthropology, through energy economy to statistics, methods and computing. Research in the Electricity Policy The ESRC’s aim is to equip the UK with the knowledge and evidence needed to Research Group (EPRG) is prosper in a demanding and unpredictable world: whether it’s tackling economic and social problems, making the most of business opportunities, improving the providing world-class analysis impact of education strategies, or understanding global uncertainties. for an industry faced with major A third of the ESRC budget (£56 million in 2007/2008) is allocated to changes in the years ahead. postgraduate studentships, to strengthen future research by training the next generation of social scientists, and nearly two-thirds (£105 million in 2007/2008) is As global energy resources decline and allocated to research. concerns over climate change increase, Cambridge benefits from ESRC support across many departments. The two how the UK and other countries produce projects highlighted here are the Electricity Policy Research Group (EPRG) and the and supply electricity has become of Gender Equality Network (GeNet). Other examples of some of the larger ESRC- critical importance. In Cambridge, the funded projects in Cambridge include: EPRG is a focus for applied • A three-year, £1.1 million project is exploring the potential of emerging semantic interdisciplinary research into the web technologies to support teaching and learning. Jointly funded by the ESRC electricity supply industry. and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the The EPRG was launched in 2005 with Technology Enhanced Learning Programme, the ‘Ensemble’ project is led by £2.38 million funding under the joint UK Dr Patrick Carmichael in the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Research Council initiative ‘Towards a Technologies (CARET). Sustainable Energy Economy (TSEC)’, • Issues of international collaboration, knowledge transfer and capacity building in which is supported by the Economic and biomedical science and bioethics are being addressed by a three-year study in Social Research Council (ESRC), the the Department of Social Anthropology led by Professor Marilyn Strathern and Dr Monica Konrad. The ESRC has contributed £1.2 million to support the study. • The Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study, led by Professor Per-Olof Wikström in the Institute of Criminology, has been awarded £2.6 million over five years to contribute to a better understanding of the causes of young people’s involvement in crime. • A £2.5 million, five-year grant ‘Conflict in Cities’ led by Dr Wendy Pullan in the Gender equality in Department of Architecture is investigating how cities that have been torn modern times apart by ethnic unrest or war may regenerate. • The Centre for Public Health Research Excellence in Diet and Physical The largest multidisciplinary Activity at the Institute of Public Health is providing the evidence base for research network of its kind improving diet and physical activity across the population. Funding was provided in the UK is investigating under the umbrella of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC), a why gender equality is still partnership of funders administered by the ESRC, which together have invested a pressing social issue in £20 million over five years to establish five Centres of Excellence in the UK. • The UK Innovation Research Centre (UK IRC) is a recently announced the 21st century. collaborative venture between the Centre for Business Research at Judge The Gender Equality Network (GeNet) Business School and Imperial College Business School to research into how links academics from eight UK institutions innovation can make businesses more competitive. The Centre is part of a wider who are conducting empirical research initiative that will receive £5 million over the next five years from its partner on gender equality. Funded since 2004 funders, which includes the ESRC. with £3 million from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the For more information on these and other ESRC-funded projects, please visit Network is coordinated by Professor www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk Jackie Scott, from Cambridge’s

32 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 IN FOCUS

Engineering and Physical Sciences other universities, the Group numbers in Commenting on the EPRG, Professor Research Council (EPSRC) and the Natural excess of 30. Newbery said: ‘We are delighted to have Environment Research Council (NERC). The Group’s contribution to the TSEC been given this extraordinary The remit of this initiative is to find initiative addresses three key themes: opportunity to contribute to a major UK reliable, affordable, safe and low-carbon delivering reliable and safe energy in a initiative. It allows us to engage in and ways to supply the growing demand for liberalised market (Professor Newbery influence an energy policy debate that energy. and Dr Michael Pollitt); investigating the will have impact for the next 50 years.’ Electricity policy research in benefits of strategically deploying new Cambridge in fact stretches back to 1990, low-carbon energy technologies and at the very start of the liberalised UK the economic impact of carbon emission electricity industry. Since then, policies (Dr Karsten Neuhoff); and Cambridge researchers have benefited researching social and political attitudes from almost two decades of support to energy policy, as well as governance from the ESRC and, with the launch of processes (Drs William Nuttall and the EPRG, have formed one of only three David Reiner). energy research groups in the UK to be A key component of the Group’s awarded ESRC Research Group status, research – the ‘feet-on-the-ground’ aspect giving them the stability of five years of as Professor Newbery puts it – is funding. engagement with stakeholders through Professor David Newbery, Director of the Energy Policy Forum, directed by Professor David Newbery the EPRG, leads a core research team of Dr Pierre Noël. By bringing together 12 from the Department of Economics academics with leaders in the electricity For more information, please contact and Judge Business School. Together industry, regulators and policy makers, the Professor David Newbery with PhD students and Associates from Forum encourages the identification of real- ([email protected]; departments across Cambridge and world problems and plausible solutions. www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk).

Department of Sociology in the Faculty people’s aspirations for gender equality? understanding of gender equalities, what of Social and Political Sciences. How do families trade off conflicts choices we make as adults, and how we ‘Society today is witnessing an between time and money? What steps might shape our children’s lives at the ongoing paradigm shift in gender have corporations taken to support start of the 21st century.’ relations,’said Professor Scott. ‘We have equity goals? gone beyond the male breadwinner/ In Cambridge, Professor Simon female homemaker post-war family. Deakin, Programme Director in the Dramatic changes have taken place in Centre for Business Research at Judge the workforce and enormous progress Business School, is addressing gender has been made in policy, but a gap inequality through progressive human remains in women’s attainment in the resource management in the workplace. world of paid work, and this relates to the And Professor Scott is examining shifts unequal division of unpaid work in the in public opinion about women’s home.’ work–family balance. Nine projects funded through the ‘I’m a tremendous fan of Network Network ask questions such as why has grants,’said Professor Scott. ‘From the very the gender wage gap proved so difficult start, all members bought into the goal Professor Jackie Scott to overcome? Do women who play an of talking to each other, informing each equal role in the workforce do so at the other’s work and contributing to joint For more information, please expense of family life? How have career outputs. The Network has given us the contact Professor Jackie Scott paths for men and women changed critical mass and diverse expertise ([email protected]; across the generations? What are young needed to create a really strong factual www.genet.ac.uk).

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 33 RESEARCH SUPPORT

NEWS FROM RESEARCH SERVICES DIVISION Research Horizons is now online! New Director of RSD important it is to provide an accessible and lively means of promoting the breadth and depth of its research to our many sponsors, industry, government, other academics and the general public. By launching the magazine online, we can bring the latest research to a global audience and provide a resource for those interested in discovering what cutting-edge research at Cambridge has to offer.’ Martin Reavley, Director of RSD, An online version of Research Horizons added: ‘We view showcasing the went live last month – providing you excellence of the University’s research with a fully searchable archive of the capabilities to an external audience as Martin Reavley became Director of RSD material we’ve published during the an important component of our on 1 October 2008. Prior to this past two years. With links between activities in RSD. It’s a natural extension appointment he had been the First articles and external resources, of our role in helping academics to find, Bursar of King’s College. Since Research Horizons Online is a rapid and secure and manage research funding graduating in Modern Languages from user-friendly means of accessing and form partnerships with industry.’ King’s in 1976, he has held several information about research across the financial posts in commerce, including University of Cambridge. Please visit Research Horizons a position as Finance Director with Kesa Professor Ian Leslie, Pro-Vice- Online at www.research-horizons. Electricals plc. Edna Murphy, who Chancellor for Research, commented: cam.ac.uk and let us know what served as Acting Director for the past ‘The University recognises how you think. two years, is now Deputy Director.

NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE ENTERPRISE LTD A novel way to model endometriosis A recently patented invention holds promise for understanding a debilitating disease that affects two million women in the UK. Modern women will on average The wide range of symptoms make mechanism that is thought to underlie experience a total of 400 menstrual it difficult either to define the underlying the human disease, allowing scientists cycles. This is an unnatural state for cause or to identify a model that drug to investigate the cellular and molecular women, as Dr Stephen Charnock-Jones, companies could use to develop drugs. mechanisms responsible. This is a from the Department of Obstetrics Ethical considerations limit research in significant step forward as the model and Gynaecology, explained: ’The humans and primates; although some will help in the screening and natural state for woman during the mouse models exist, each has significant development of new therapeutics. child-bearing years is either pregnant limitations and, as a result, disease A solution will not be found or lactating. It is only with the studies are difficult to undertake and overnight. The condition imposes a introduction of birth control and a results are hard to interpret. significant burden on the sufferer decrease in infant mortality that a Dr Charnock-Jones and colleagues because surgical and medical modern woman can control her have generated a novel endometriosis treatments are only moderately fertility and also expect to see her allograft mouse model, recently effective. However, for the millions of children reach adulthood.’ patented through Cambridge Enterprise women who suffer worldwide, there is For many women, this increase in Ltd, in which cells are sourced from a now a glimmer of hope. menstrual cycles is associated with genetically modified mouse and additional distress due to endometriosis, transplanted into another mouse. After If you are an employee of the a disease in which endometrial tissue – implantation, the hormone-treated University and would like advice on the lining of the uterus – also occurs endometrial tissue grows and the the patentability and commercial outside the uterine cavity, most recipient mouse develops characteristic opportunities for your invention, commonly within the pelvis. endometriosis lesions and associated please contact Cambridge Endometriosis is found at a higher blood vessels. Enterprise (Tel: +44 (0)1223 760330; frequency in patients presenting with For the first time, this model of email: [email protected]. infertility. endometriosis reproduces the ac.uk; www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk).

34 | Issue 8 | Spring 2009 RESEARCH SUPPORT

FORTHCOMING EVENTS: SAVE THE DATES! 9–22 March 2009 ‘Centuries of Science’ Cambridge Science Festival The Cambridge Science Festival 2009 celebrates centuries of Cambridge science as part of the University’s 800th Anniversary year. A series of free events will encompass science and technology past, present and future, including hands-on family fun and a lecture series for adults. Family events include the ever popular ‘Crash, Bang Squelch’ in which students from CHaOS demonstrate over 50 experiments. The Festival also hosts a ‘Superheroes of Science’ musical lecture with the Intercontinental Music Lab singing songs about scientists with lots of surprises. Festival speakers include David MacKay, Ben Goldacre and David Spiegelhalter.

The full programme will be available at www.cambridgescience.org from January 2009, or please email [email protected] to request a printed programme. PROFESSOR ANDYPROFESSOR WOODS, BP INSTITUTE 17–18 March 2009 ‘Building Physics and the Sustainable City’ Department of Engineering, Cambridge By the middle of the century, it is expected that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. What are the implications of this rapid urbanisation? How can urban planners cope with this growth? What environmental, institutional, social and cultural issues need to be addressed to ensure that we create truly sustainable cities? Experimental model of A two-day conference at the Department of Engineering in Cambridge aims to natural examine how engineering can shape the architectural and urban forms of the future. ventilation in buildings Please visit www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/events/buildingphysics or email [email protected] for further information.

©WELLCOME IMAGES, WELLCOME PHOTO LIBRARY/YORGOS NIKAS 1 April 2009 Horizon Seminar ‘Reproductive Health’ Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge Improving our fundamental understanding of reproductive health, and translating these basic insights into clinical intervention, has enormous potential to impact positively on the rest of society. The past 50 years have seen many societal and technological changes in this field. This Horizon Seminar will showcase the latest University research on epigenetics, the fetal origins of disease, placental biology and reproductive medicine. By exploring factors that influence the growth and development of the fetus, the Seminar will examine how what happens before birth can continue to affect our health and well-being throughout adult life.

Please visit www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/events/reproductivehealth or email [email protected] for further information.

5–10 July 2009 The Darwin 2009 Festival This year is the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work On the Origin of Species. This Festival is a tribute to one of the world’s most influential scientists: it will be a celebration of the science, society, literature, history, philosophy, theology, art and music arising from the writings, life and times of Charles Darwin. Talks, exhibitions and workshops will explore the past, present and future of the natural world in the light of evolutionary understanding. Festival speakers include Sir David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins, Ian McEwan and Dame Gillian Beer.

Please visit www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk for full details of events and to book tickets.

Issue 8 | Spring 2009 | 35 THE BACK PAGE

All materials in Research Horizons, including but not limited to text, data, designs, logos, illustrations, still Your way into Cambridge images, are protected by copyright, design rights, database rights, trademarks and other intellectual Research Horizons is produced by Research Services Division property and proprietary rights. (RSD) at the University of Cambridge. The materials in Research Horizons are either owned by the University of Cambridge or have been If you have an enquiry relating to the magazine, please contact: licensed by the owners to the University of Cambridge for inclusion in the publication. Dr Louise Walsh, Research Horizons Editor Contributors to this publication have asserted Tel: +44 (0)1223 765443 their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Email: [email protected] Patents Act 1988 to be identified as authors of their respective works. Except for the purposes of private study and noncommercial research or ‘fair dealing If you would like information on research funding or working with the for the purposes of criticism or review’ as permitted University, please contact: under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, RSD General Enquiries this publication or any part thereof may not be Tel: +44 (0)1223 333543 reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing Email: [email protected] of the University of Cambridge and the authors of contributions as identified. If you have a more general media enquiry, please contact: Requests for further reproduction or reposting or reproduction for commercial purposes should be The Office of Communications addressed to the Editor, Research Horizons, Tel: +44 (0)1223 332300 Research Services Division, University of Cambridge, Email: [email protected] 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1SB, UK; email [email protected] Research Horizons has made all reasonable Please also visit our websites: efforts to ensure that the reproduction of all University of Cambridge: www.cam.ac.uk content in this publication is done with the full Research Services Division: www.rsd.cam.ac.uk consent of copyright owners. Research Horizons Research Horizons Online: www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk would be grateful to hear from intellectual property rights owners who are not properly identified in the publication so that Research Horizons may make the necessary corrections. Are there areas of research that you would like to see covered in Research Horizons? We welcome suggestions, feedback and comments: ©2009 University of Cambridge and Contributors as please send ideas to the Editor at [email protected] identified. All rights reserved.