< Contents > Contents Please click on the > to go directly to the page. > Introducing the MRC >AchievementsIntroducing thetimeline MRC Achievements>1913 to 1940s timeline >1950s to 1980s >1913 to 1940s >1990s to 2006 >1950s to 1980s >1990s to 2006 > Leading research for better health >NobelLeading Prize resear timelinech for better health Nobel>1929 Prizeto 1952 timeline >1953 to 1962 >1929 to 1952 >1972 to 1984 >1953 to 1962 >1997 to 2003 >1972 to 1984 1997 to 2003 >MRC research over the decades MRC> From resear discochvery over to healthcare:the decades translational research > EvidenceFrom discovery for best to pr healthcareactice: clinical — translational trials research > EvidencePublic health for bestresearch practice: clinical trials > PubDNAlic revhealtholution research > ReducingDNA rev olutionsmoking: preventing deaths > ReducingTherapeutic smoking: antibodiespreventing deaths > TherapeuticReducing deaths antibodies from infections in Africa > ReducingPreventing deaths heart fromdisease infections in Africa > PrevMedicalenting imaging: hearttransformingdisease diagnosis > MedicalCutting childimaging: leukaemia transforming deaths diagnosis > Cutting child leukaemia deaths < Click on any link to go< directly Contentsto a page >> < Contents > < Contents > < Contents > < Contents > Leading research for better health The most important part of the MRC’s mission trials, such as those on the use of statins to lower is to encourage and support high-quality research cholesterol and on vaccines in Africa.The MRC with the aim of improving human health.The MRC is the UK’s largest public funder of clinical trials is committed to supporting research across the and it supports some of the most productive entire spectrum of the biomedical and clinical and ambitious epidemiological studies in the world, sciences. We are proud of our international including the UK Biobank. Figures published in 2006 reputation for achievement – from the introduction by the Office of Science and Innovation (formerly of penicillin and discovery of the structure of DNA, the Office of Science and Technology) showed that to the development of MRI scanners; from the the UK leads the G8 countries in the productivity creation of blockbuster antibody drugs to vital clinical of its biomedical and pre-clinical research. MRC research has: • Contributed to a reduction in the number • Revealed that a pneumoccocus vaccine tested of people who smoke from 45 per cent in The Gambia could save a million children’s in1974 to 26 per cent in 2003. Half of all lives in developing countries each year. smokers die as a result of their habit. • Led to the development of MRI scanners, • Shown that cholesterol-lowering statins which are used in 60 million medical can save 50,000 lives worldwide every year. investigations worldwide each year. • Shown that folic acid supplements could • Invented monoclonal antibodies, sparking significantly reduce the hundreds of UK a global industry that is expected to be pregnancies affected by neural tube defects worth £16 billion per year by 2010, giving each year – research which has led to rise to some of the UK’s most valuable fortification of 10 per cent of the world’s start-up companies, and earning the flour with folic acid. MRC almost £200 million in licence revenue • Promoted the use of insecticide-treated to be reinvested in medical research. mosquito nets, and revealed that they reduce • Virtually eradicated haemophilus influenzae the incidence of malaria – which causes over type B in Gambian children, with the potential a million deaths a year – by 63 per cent. to save hundreds of thousands of lives • Revealed that magnesium sulphate halves worldwide each year. the risk of eclampsia in pregnant women • Developed DNA chip technology, with pre-eclampsia, a finding that could save tens of thousands of lives globally which has spawned a £1.6 billion each year. a year global industry. • Shown that an abdominal aortic aneurysm • Increased the proportion of children screening programme – now under in the UK who survive leukaemia from consideration by the UK National Health 20 to 80 per cent. Service – could save 2,000 lives each year. < Contents > Benefits for human health The information in this pack is presented in three This pack presents a selection of key achievements different ways: by MRC-funded scientists since the MRC was founded in 1913. All have had major benefits for human health. • Achievements spanning the lifetime of the MRC, presented chronologically on the folder itself. Moving from a discovery to the application of that new knowledge in the form of treatments and interventions • Accounts of important areas of medical research that benefit people’s health can take many years of funded by the MRC, where the positive outcomes further research and development. It often depends are clearly evident today.These often span a long on a number of factors other than just research results. time period, because the key discovery may have For example, with the help of MRC funding, Sir Richard happened many years ago, and it has taken time Doll and his colleagues established the link between and further developments to show the full impact smoking and lung cancer as far back as the 1950s. on human health. Labelling of cigarette packets with health warnings started in 1971 and cigarette smoking began to decline • Details of our Nobel Prizes – 27 MRC-supported a few years later; but it is only now that Doll’s findings scientists have won Nobel Prizes since 1929, are being translated into laws banning smoking in 13 of whom were based at our Laboratory public places in the UK.These benefits to public health of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. stem from research that took place many years ago. Medical science has many other similar examples, some of which are described in this pack. Many medical advances are the result of research that crosses scientific boundaries. The MRC has always championed such multidisciplinary research, both in its grants to universities and its institutes and units. For example, our Nobel Prize winners Dr Max Perutz and Dr Francis Crick were physicists, as is Sir Peter Mansfield, while Sir John Walker’s original training was in chemistry. www.mrc.ac.uk | © Medical Research Council 2006 < Contents > 1984 Dr César Milstein and Dr Georges Köhler, MRC Laboratory of 1952 1960 Molecular Biology MRC Nobel Prize winners Dr Archer Martin, Sir Peter Medawar, The ability of antibodies to bind MRC National Institute Sir Hans Krebs MRC National Institute specifically to substances is very for Medical Research for Medical Research, Dr Frederick Sanger useful in medical research. Since the MRC was set up in 1913, 27 scientists in its units or supported by MRC Director 1962–1971 1972 2001 The invention of partition 1953 Professor Rodney Porter, 1980 Milstein and Köhler suggested Sir Paul Nurse grants have won Nobel Prizes, including 13 awarded to researchers at the MRC chromatography allowed Sir Hans Krebs, From his studies of skin grafting MRC National Institute Dr Frederick Sanger, the idea of making monoclonal and Dr Tim Hunt, mixtures to be separated. to treat soliders with burns antibodies – many antibodies MRC Cell Metabolism for Medical Research MRC Laboratory of Imperial Cancer Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.The MRC’s prize winners have been Methods for separating in the Second World War, of the same type – in order to Research Unit, Director Molecular Biology Research Fund substances are fundamental Medawar discovered ‘acquired Porter described the chemical diagnose and treat a wide array spread across the Nobel categories of Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry; all of 1945–1967 in chemistry; the first thing immunological tolerance’. structure of antibodies – the For his second Nobel Prize, of human diseases.They identified 1997 Nurse and Hunt identified their discoveries have had a momentous impact on human health. a chemist does is isolate the Krebs uncovered the citric acid This is the ability of a living thing body’s defence molecules – Sanger developed a technique a way to produce antibodies by Sir John Walker, elements of the cell cycle, substance that he or she is cycle – a series of chemical to overcome its normal tendency and their interaction with to determine the exact sequence fusing an antibody-producing cell MRC Laboratory of which coordinates processes interested in. Also, the technique reactions that takes place in most to reject another individual’s molecules from outside the of the building blocks – the bases with a tumour cell.This allows involved in cell division, such Molecular Biology These Nobel laureates include Professor James Watson, Dr Francis Crick and can be applied to disease plants, animals, fungi and many organs or tissue. Using rabbits, body, called antigens. Antibodies – in DNA. He used it to find out unlimited production of a as growth and chromosome Medawar showed that the are giant molecules in the blood. Walker solved the most complex Professor Maurice Wilkins for their world-famous discovery of the molecular diagnosis and forensic science. bacteria.These reactions involve the genetic sequence of a virus, particular type of antibody. duplication and separation. In its simplest form, which is the breakdown of proteins, fats rejection of skin grafts was Porter wanted to find out which was the first fully Antibodies have a wide range structure so far – that of Hunt, working on sea urchins, structure of DNA, and Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin – one