Issue 73, summer 2013 Wellcome NEWS ALL A MATTER OF TIMING Nancy Papalopulu talks about a life of cells, science and cycles.

PB | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 1 w

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The Monitor provides fresh insights into the public’s interest in, attitudes towards, and experience and knowledge of science.

This tracking survey represents the opinions of adults and young people in the UK. It aims to build a better understanding of the societal and educational context of biomedical research.

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24 science? The heart contents inside this issue

In brief Farewell to Wellcome News 4 Wellcome Trust appoints new Director 5 Funding news 6 Research news 8 In depth How I Got Into… citizen science: Dr Erinma Ochu 10 Prof. Nancy Papalopulu: A brief history of timing 14 Best of the blog: Rethinking mental health care 22 In the hot seat: Prof. Anke Ehlers 23 The Walport years: The ten-billion-pound man? 26 Prof. Mark Jackson: In search of stress 30 Opinion We need to encourage real science in schools 13 Appliance of science: Art can help people debate science 34 Picture features Close-up: Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan 20 Nuts and Bolts: The heart 24 From the Archive: TRP3 32

2 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 3 Wellcome NEWS Telling the stories of the Wellcome Trust’s work Farewell to Wellcome News Editor Chrissie Giles Assistant Editor Tom Freeman Writers Penny Bailey, Chrissie Giles, Michael Regnier, The way organisations communicate about life from a Wellcome Emma Rhule is changing. Smartphones, tablets Trust perspective. We welcome Design Anja Fouad Illustrations Bret Syfert and other devices mean that many suggestions for posts you’d like to Photography Ben Gilbert, David Sayer more people are online much more read, and we encourage you to share Publisher Mark Henderson of the time. The Wellcome Trust is your thoughts on the stories there Get in touch: adopting a ‘digital first’ approach, by commenting. You can also get in E [email protected] putting online at the heart of our touch with us through our Twitter, www.wellcome.ac.uk/wellcomenews philosophy and practice. Facebook and Google+ accounts. All images, unless otherwise stated, are from the Being ‘digital first’ doesn’t mean Anyone who is supported by a . You can get copies through Wellcome Images (wellcomeimages.org). that we will eschew print entirely. Wellcome Trust grant automatically Where printed materials are the receives Grantholders’ News, the Wellcome Trust most appropriate medium for a quarterly digest of funding We are a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human particular publication, then we will opportunities and deadlines, updates and animal health. We support the brightest minds continue to produce them. However, to grants and policies, and other in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, with the shift online in mind, this Wellcome Trust news. Browse the education and the application of research to improve issue of Wellcome News will be the archive at wellc.me/ZMvbfI. health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests. www.wellcome.ac.uk last, as we focus our efforts on a new We’ve loved working on Wellcome digital publication with wider reach News, which has enjoyed several This is an open access publication and, with the and broader focus. different incarnations since its exception of images and illustrations, the content may, unless otherwise stated, be reproduced free of charge This new project will bring launch in 1994 (read more about its in any format or medium, subject to the following biomedical science and the medical first,TRP3 , on page 32). One of the constraints: content must be reproduced accurately; content must not be used in a misleading context; humanities into context by telling particular joys has been the the Wellcome Trust must be attributed as the original compelling stories that explain and opportunity to meet and interview author and the title of the document specified in the attribution. The views and opinions expressed by writers explore issues. It will include many of the fascinating people within Wellcome News do not necessarily reflect those in-depth feature articles, graphics supported by the Trust, and spend of the Wellcome Trust or Editor. No responsibility is and film, drawing on Trust-funded some time in their laboratories, assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, research but not limited to it. Keep offices and clinics. negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of an eye out for the pre-launch blog, So, we’d like to say thank you to any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. ISSN 1356-9112. First published which should be live soon. On it you the hundreds of people who have by the Wellcome Trust, 2013. Wellcome News is © can follow – and influence – the contributed to the magazine, in any the Wellcome Trust and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK. The Wellcome Trust is course of the publication as it starts way, over its 15 years in print. And we a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 210183. to take shape. We want your ideas look forward to continuing to work Its sole trustee is The Wellcome Trust Limited, a about what we should cover, and how with you as we pursue exciting new company registered in England and Wales, no. 2711000 (whose registered office is at 215 Euston Road, we should cover it. ways to discover and share the most NW1 2BE, UK). Even though Wellcome News will fascinating, important and PU-5705/17.5K/06-2013/AF not be produced any more, there are compelling stories in science. several ways you can find out about the Trust’s activities and outputs. Chrissie Giles, Editor, and The Wellcome Trust blog (at the rest of the Wellcome News team. blog.wellcome.ac.uk) tells stories

Wellcome Collection is growing

This document was printed on material 50% made from 25 per cent post-consumer More space, new galleries and exhibitions. The creation of The waste & 25 per cent pre-consumer waste. improved facilities will result from Hub at will a £17.5 million investment in provide resources and a stimulating

Issue 73, summer 2013 Wellcome NEWS Wellcome Collection over the next space for interdisciplinary research A MATTER OF TIMING 12 months. exploring , health and Nancy Papalopulu talks about a life of cells, science and cycles. Stirling Prize-winning architects wellbeing. Wilkinson Eyre will transform the The development work begins venue. The Wellcome Library’s this summer and is due for iconic Reading Room will become completion in summer 2014. The an innovative space for public venue plans to remain open engagement, and there will be a throughout, with a flexible

Cover: Nancy major new thematic gallery programme of events and displays. PB | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 1 Papalopulu. See page 14. showcasing in-depth, year-long wellcomecollection.org/curioser

4 | Wellcome NEWS Wellcome Trust appoints new Director

“These experiences really opened my eyes to research,” he says. “That love of basic science through to pragmatic clinical research has inspired the rest I truly of my career.” To further his training in basic appreciate the science, Farrar secured a Medical value of basic Research Council Fellowship to do a PhD with John Newsom-Davis, Angela science feeding Vincent and Nick Wilcox in in to everything and at the University of California, San Francisco. “I learnt from them that you that becomes could combine a love of science and clinical, public medicine, and that the people who could help bridge the gap between health and basic science and clinical research translational were going to be crucial in the future.” , Director of the His own path looked set in his early medicine.” Wellcome Trust’s Major Overseas 30s, but Farrar describes a ‘road to Programme in , has been Damascus’ conversion: “I was giving a named as the next Director of the talk on my PhD work in Norwich. I from basic science and further towards Trust. He’ll take up this post in remember looking up at the audience international health and clinical October 2013. of British neurologists halfway research is absolutely unfounded. It was 18 years to the day since through the talk and realising that “I truly appreciate the value of basic Jeremy Farrar had begun working in I couldn’t see myself remaining in science feeding in to everything that Vietnam when his appointment as neurology in Britain for the rest of becomes clinical, public health and Director of the Wellcome Trust was my career.” translational medicine. It is not a made public in April. “I can honestly The next day, quite out of the choice of one or the other.” say I have loved every minute of my blue, he was approached about an He says his first priority as Director time in Vietnam,” he says, “so it was opportunity in Vietnam. He took it, will be to listen: “The Trust has been very emotional when I was allowed to and was appointed Director of the superbly led by over the let the team know the news.” Oxford University Clinical Research last ten years and I have never felt that As well as his role in Vietnam, Unit in Vietnam, which is funded the Trust needed a new Director to Farrar is also Professor of Tropical by the Trust and the Vietnamese come and change things for change’s Medicine and Global Health at the government. The Unit had opened a sake. A calm period of listening and , so he is no few years earlier, in 1991, and Farrar learning first is more in tune with stranger to the UK and its research credits much of his success there to my personality. community. But he readily admits that the continued support of its original “I’ll be exploring ways to extend the new role will be a “major change”, founders, Nick White, Tran Tinh Hien, existing partnerships and identify new adding: “Moving back to the UK after Debbie Waller and Nick Day. opportunities. There is so much many years in Asia will be a culture remarkable work going on, but still shock, a climate shock, and will New direction so much that needs to be done. And, involve a very different role.” There are many things to keep his crucially, all this work must be attention in the last few months before communicated in an open and International development he takes over at the Trust, not least the engaging way, so that we can inspire Farrar was born in Singapore and emergence of the H7N9 influenza the public and the next generation travelled the world with his parents virus in China and a novel coronavirus of young scientists. growing up, before coming to London in the Middle East. Nevertheless, “The great love of my professional to study medicine. His first experience Farrar says he has already noticed a few life is asking questions, challenging of research was working for Cheryll changes. “It’s remarkable how many dogma, trying to provide answers that Tickle as part of an intercalated degree friends I seem to have suddenly matter, and inspiring others to do the in cell biology. gained,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s same,” he says, “while retaining a sense After qualifying, his clinical an honour to be in this position and of humour and perspective. I hope I training was mostly in Edinburgh, I could not be more excited by the can continue to do all that as Director where, inspired by Charles Warlow, he challenge and the opportunity.” of the Trust.” specialised in neurology and spent a He stresses that media speculation year working in Melbourne, Australia. that he might move the Trust away

Summer 2013 | 5 FUNDING NEWS New Medical History and Right royal result Humanities Investigators announced The Royal Society of Edinburgh has awarded a Royal Medal to Medicine, historian Dr Alex Mold Professor Michael Ferguson will be exploring the changing place from the University of Dundee, of the public within public health in for scientific excellence. postwar Britain. Professor Ferguson has received In one of two joint Senior Wellcome Trust funding since Investigator Awards, 1988, and he studies Simon Swain (University of trypanosomes, the organisms Warwick) and Emilie Savage-Smith responsible for sleeping (University of Oxford) will be sickness. He also co-leads a drug unveiling the works of the discovery programme focused 13th-century Syrian physician Ibn on neglected diseases, supported by a Trust Strategic Abi Usaybi`ah with a translation and Award. study of his book The Best Accounts of the Classes of Physicians, covering Brightest brains 1700 years of medical practice. Congratulations to Professor The second round of our Investigator historian Professor Sarah Franklin Gero Miesenböck for winning Awards in Medical History and will be looking at the lessons to be The Brain Prize 2013. Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits Humanities was announced in learned from the introduction of in and Behaviour in Oxford (part- March, with four New Investigators vitro fertilisation, and Professor funded by the Wellcome Trust), and seven Senior Investigators Mark Jackson (University of Exeter) he is one of six researchers successful. plans to investigate changing sharing the €1 million award for They include Oxford philosopher concepts of balance in modern the invention and refinement of Dr Thomas Douglas, who will assess medicine (see page 30). optogenetics. This technique the role of neurointerventions in uses light to control genetically preventing crime. At the London modified neurons, helping to A 1946 public health notice. School of Hygiene and Tropical Wellcome Library understand the brain. Boosting research All 32 UK medical schools have Access to Nutrition Index published been awarded funds for activities that encourage In March, the first Access to Nutrition hope of changing consumer behaviour students to pursue scientific Index was published, assessing 25 of in the long term. research. These activities the world’s largest food and drink A follow-on Index will be published include research taster days, a manufacturers on a range of measures in 2015. Three Spotlight Indexes medical science week and a related to their products’ focus on specifically assessing food mentoring scheme. The awards nutrition and positive influence on manufacturers in India, Mexico and are made by the Academy of consumer choice. The-best performing South Africa will also be published Medical Sciences as part of companies were Danone, Unilever and this year. INSPIRE, a £1 million, five-year Nestlé, but they could still do much www.accesstonutrition.org/index-2013 scheme supported by the more to increase people’s access to Wellcome Trust. nutritious products. The food industry has a vital part to Tip-top PhD play in addressing the serious global Dr Helen Weavers won this year’s problems of obesity and undernutrition. Beddington Medal for the best Recognising this, and the need for an PhD in developmental impartial way of assessing companies’ biology. She discovered that tip cells, often considered to be commitment and actions to tackle these master regulators of organ problems, the Wellcome Trust teamed development, ­act as anchors up with the Bill and Melinda Gates during kidney development, Foundation in 2008 to fund the rather than leading growth as development of the Index. Our aim is they do in other organs. Read not to name and shame companies, but more on the Wellcome Trust to encourage best practice by blog: wellc.me/18r5Tuc encouraging debate and catalysing action within the industry, with the Wellcome Images

6 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 7 Health Innovation Challenge Fund

Accelerating innovation in

Digital artwork of a chemical reaction. patient health Anna Tanczos/ Wellcome Images

Advancing drug development This funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department Professor Paul Wyatt and the University of Dundee Drug of Health supports the creation and Discovery Unit have been awarded £6.5 million to further the development of innovations in development of new drugs. healthcare. New drugs to treat infectious diseases such as , and African sleeping sickness are urgently needed in We invite applications for funding in any low-income countries. Developing a new drug is a lengthy process, of the following areas of special interest: however. In particular, there is a bottleneck at the stage known as • clinical applications of genetics lead optimisation: converting molecules identified in the early stages of investigation into drugs suitable for clinical testing. • early detection and diagnosis of The Dundee Drug Discovery Unit will establish a new centre of chronic illness or long-term conditions excellence in lead optimisation for diseases of low-income • minimising the impact of trauma countries, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda and serious injury Gates Foundation. Its initial focus will be on tuberculosis, which is • informing clinical management responsible for over a million deaths around the world each year. through software-based analysis The award has been made through the Trust’s Seeding Drug of complex datasets Discovery initiative, which was established in 2005 to facilitate early-stage small-molecule drug discovery. It is one of our first • repurposing of and ‘portfolio awards’, created to allow greater flexibility in tackling medical devices. diverse disease areas. Apply by 2 September 2013.

www.wellcome.ac.uk/HICF Scheme to support research www.hicfund.org.uk on humanitarian crises

A programme to support research that will save lives in the aftermath of a humanitarian crisis – such as a flood, earthquake or civil war – was launched on 4 June by Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA), and funded equally by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Department for International Development. Up to £6.5 million will be available over three years for the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) programme, which aims to increase the level and quality of collaborative research on recognised public health challenges in humanitarian crises occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The programme is intended to lead to improved health outcomes and cost-effective improvements in relief efforts. Another key output will be improved ethical guidelines for those undertaking research in disaster and emergency environments, so that research projects can be approved in a timely way when, or even before, an emergency strikes. The application process will be discussed at meetings in New Delhi and Nairobi in July. www.elrha.org/work/R2HC

6 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 7 RESEARCH NEWS Pesticides limit learning in bees

TB setback Two studies, part of the Insect Pollinators Initiative, have shown Results from a phase IIb clinical that common pesticides affect trial of the most advanced tuberculosis vaccine candidate, honeybees’ ability to learn. MVA85A, showed that the Drs Christopher Connolly and immune response it triggered Mary Palmer from the University of was not enough to boost Dundee and colleagues examined protection in young children the effect on isolated bee brains of previously given the BCG neonicotinoids, used on crops, and vaccine. MVA85A was originally coumaphos, used in hives to kill developed by Professor Helen

the Varroa mite. They showed that Antagain/iStockphoto McShane, a Wellcome Trust the chemicals – in the same at the University of concentrations that are used in fields could profoundly impact pollinator Oxford. Further research will – affect the firing of neurons in areas survival,” said Dr Connolly. determine whether MVA85A can be improved, and whether it involved in learning and memory. The Insect Pollinators Initiative works in adults or in combination Drs Geraldine Wright and Sally is funded by the Biotechnology and with other vaccines. Williamson at Newcastle University Biological Sciences Research Tameris M et al. Lancet investigated the effect of these Council, the Department for 2013;381(9821):1021–8. pesticides on how honeybees learn. Environment, Food and Rural Using tests that mimic behaviours Affairs, the Natural Environment bees show when foraging, the Research Council, the Scottish Lofty ideals researchers found that exposure to Government and the Wellcome Our criteria for forming either or both of the pesticides Trust, under the auspices of the relationships may not be as impaired bees’ learning and memory. Living with Environmental Change strong as we think. Researchers “Together, these studies highlight partnership.

studied height differences in potential dangers to pollinators of Palmer MJ et al. Cholinergic pesticides cause heterosexual couples from the continued exposure to pesticides mushroom body neuronal inactivation in honeybees. Millennium Cohort Study. They that target the insect Nat Commun 2013;4:1634. confirmed that, in general, taller and the importance of identifying Williamson SM, Wright GA. Exposure to multiple people had taller partners, and cholinergic pesticides impairs olfactory learning and combinations of pesticides that memory in honeybees. J Exp Biol 2013 [epub]. that the man was usually the taller – though not by too much. These trends were weaker than people’s avowed preferences would predict, suggesting that we often compromise on traits Malaria vaccine has short-term effect associated with attractiveness when choosing a partner. the vaccine as part of an earlier Stulp G et al. PloS ONE phase II clinical trial. This follow-up 2013;8(1):e54186. showed a fall in malaria prevention, from 44 per cent in the first year to zero by the end of year four. Treating meningitis Many African children are Cryptococcal meningitis is repeatedly exposed to the malaria thought to cause 625 000 deaths parasite. The researchers found that a year in people with HIV across the vaccine was less effective in The efficacy of RTS,S, a new vaccine the world. The recommended children who were exposed to more to tackle childhood malaria, has treatment – amphotericin B plus malaria. Larger, ongoing phase III been shown to decline over time and flucytosine – had not previously trials will provide further insights been shown to reduce mortality, with increasing malaria exposure. into which populations of children but a new randomised controlled But despite the fall in protection, are likely to benefit most from the trial in Vietnam found that over four years, 65 cases of malaria vaccine. The potential of a booster patients taking it survived better were prevented for every 100 dose to sustain efficacy over time is than those taking amphotericin children vaccinated. also being assessed. B alone. No such benefit was Researchers from the KEMRI– seen with amphotericin B plus Wellcome Trust Research Olutu A et al. Four-year efficacy of RTS,S/AS01E fluconazole. and its interaction with malaria exposure. Day JN et al. N Engl J Med Programme in Kenya and from N Engl J Med 2013;368:1111–20. 2013;368(14):1291–302. the University of Oxford followed The leg of an Anopheles mosquito, a carrier of 320 children who had received malaria. Laura Holden/Wellcome Images

8 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 9 Promote growth up to age two, say researchers

Research on babies born in low- and In this work, an international team middle-income countries has shown used data from prospective birth cohort that increasing birthweight and studies based in Brazil, Guatemala, promoting gains in height in the first India, the Philippines and South Africa. two years of life are likely to lead to They used conditional growth analysis improvements in height and to examine the long-term effects of educational outcomes, and reduce the height gain and of weight gain relative risk of chronic disease in adulthood. But to height at different ages in childhood. promoting rapid gains in weight relative The researchers found that relative to height gain in mid-childhood and weight gain in children two years old or adolescence was found to raise the risk above was linked to higher body mass of disease in later years. index, body fat, blood pressure and Poor height growth in the first years plasma glucose concentration. They call of life is linked to impaired development for interventions to promote height and increased disease and mortality. Yet growth in infancy, rather than weight there are fears that ‘catch-up’ growth – gain in school-aged children.

rapid weight gain relative to height in Adair LS et al. Associations of linear growth and low-birthweight children – can be relative weight gain during early life with adult health and human capital in countries of low and middle

harmful in later life. on Flickr UNICEF Ethiopia income. Lancet 2013 [epub].

New genetic variants linked to cancer

More than 80 common genetic variants across five journals as part of the “We’re on the verge of being able to have been identified as contributing to Collaborative Oncological Gene– use our knowledge of these genetic the risk of breast, ovarian or prostate environment Study (COGS). Their work variations to develop tests that could cancer. Each variant has a relatively assessed genetic variants called single complement breast cancer screening small influence on its own but someone nucleotide polymorphisms, confirming and take us a step closer to having an with many of them is significantly more many already associated with these effective prostate cancer screening likely to develop cancer than someone cancers and identifying a further 49 in programme. without. The findings bring us closer breast cancer, 25 in prostate cancer and “We will be able to identify those to understanding heritable factors in eight in ovarian cancer. Some are who are at the greatest risk of getting the three most common hormone- associated with specific subtypes of these cancers and then target screening related cancers. cancer, or with more aggressive disease. tests to these individuals.” Scientists funded by the Wellcome Study author Professor Doug www..com/icogs/ Trust and Cancer Research UK Easton, a Cancer Research UK scientist published the research in 13 papers at the University of Cambridge, said:

Above: Prostate cancer cell. Anne Weston, LRI, CRUK/ Wellcome Images Left: Breast cancer cells. Annie Cavanagh/Wellcome Images

8 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 9

CAREERS

Dr Erinma Ochu Hwo I got into... Citizen science

Trained as a neuroscientist but with experience in television, film, public engagement and citizen science, Dr Erinma Ochu has had a remarkably varied career. She spoke to Michael Regnier about her work, which she describes as social innovation in getting the public involved in science.

’ve always loved science. being generated in laboratories is not do a citizen science experiment to mark I was the weird kid who just communicated but that there are the centenary of mathematician Alan collected newspaper opportunities for the public to engage in Turing in 2012, I leapt at the chance. articles about genes and the practice of science. Citizen science I coordinated Turing’s Sunflowers, a DNA and what the HIV presents the opportunity for the public mass participation experiment that virus looks like, thinking to shape research questions, collect data encouraged people to grow sunflowers one day I might find a cure and help analyse it. and count the spiral patterns in the for AIDS. I planned to I did a neuroscience PhD but seed heads. Lots of people joined in study genetics at university became less sure about a lab-based from all over the world and we built a but when my A-level biology career. I wanted to work in a way that community around the project. teacher told us no one knew was more connected with society. I Participation is an important way anything about the brain, I told my supervisor, Professor Nancy to learn how to do science. With the said: “I want to study that.” So I Rothwell, and she invited me to help sunflowers experiment, I became an switched to neuroscience. with preparations for her Christmas expert in counting these spirals in The most interesting aspect of Lectures at the . That sunflowers – you start noticing more my degree was my year out in industry, started me on the path from doing patterns and differences between them doing experiments every day, reading science to demonstrating science, and the more you do it. I really love that papers and figuring things out for then to getting people doing science about citizen science: it’s the chance to myself. I even had a couple of papers themselves. do science again. published, albeit as a result of trying out Along the way, I worked in the film Exploring the possibilities of what new things in the lab in my spare time. industry and the cultural sector. I’ve citizen science has to offer public Curiosity – wanting to always been interested in how the mind engagement with biomedical research find things out, wanting works and how fascinated we are by is part of what I’m exploring with to experiment – has got storytelling, so I got into making films. my Wellcome Trust Engagement me where I am today. It was part of the same curiosity that Fellowship, as is getting back into It’s a driving force led me to neuroscience in the first place. neuroscience and using storytelling. I’m in my career, both Then I had another chance to work with taking my experiences in biomedical in science and now Nancy, this time on the Manchester research, the cultural sector and public engaging the public Beacon for Public Engagement. I engagement, and exploring the social in science. As well as brought a social innovation approach and scientific value created when being fascinated by around actively engaging audiences diverse perspectives come together. science and what is from the digital and cultural sector and yet to be discovered, applied it to public engagement with all I believe that it is disciplines. incredibly important When MOSI (the Museum of Science that the knowledge and Industry, Manchester) wanted to

Summer 2013 | 11 12 | Wellcome NEWS Opinion “We need to encourage real science in schools” Dv r Da ID Colthurst, Science teacher

ive years ago, my wife was diagnosed Unfortunately, our students have found it very with multiple sclerosis. I was a difficult to convert their research into a format that research biochemist for 15 years is recognised by exam board marking criteria. Some before becoming a science teacher, so would argue that the reason the UK is slipping down I started thinking about whether we the international league table is because our National could do some novel research into Curriculum is too prescriptive – this is certainly a multiple sclerosis in my school, the Simon Langton challenge we have faced. Even though we are carrying Grammar School for Boys in Kent. My idea was to out genuine research, our model is not compatible investigate the role of a protein implicated in with the mark schemes. Exams were not the reason multiple sclerosis using genetically modified yeast. we started this research, but it is frustrating that With the support of my school and a collaboration our students cannot get the recognition that they with researchers at the University of Kent, the deserve for it. However, we are in conversation with Myelin Basic Protein Project (MBP2) was born. the exam boards and the Department for Education That was the easy part; securing funding was to address this. much harder. A typical response was “You must I never set out to shake up the British education be crazy – this is not what schools do!”, until I system but MBP2 may be a model for future change. approached the Wellcome Trust for a People Award. There are now five schools around England and their The impact of the project has been dramatic. university partners involved in the Authentic Biology Since the project started, the number of students project, each researching areas with personal studying A-level biology at this school has doubled significance. For example, a school in Tower and we now have 170 students working on MBP2. Hamlets, London, has devised a project to examine The opportunity to conduct original research has the causes of diabetes among their local population, inspired our students, with some even designing who are mainly of Bangladeshi origin and have a their own projects. For instance, one student has high prevalence of the disease. been using DNA analysis of bee pollen from our Our original MBP2 provided a template for school hives to identify the varieties of plant species student involvement in novel research. Our work the bees have visited. It has been great for our staff has shown people what school students can do, that too. They have been able to familiarise themselves this is a way that you can motivate both staff and with new techniques, enabling them students and increase the number of young people to teach with greater confidence. applying for science subjects at university. The question is: where can it go from here? Interested in being mentored? Contact [email protected] or see www.acmedsci.ac.uk/ mentoring-bookletFor more, for read a bookletDavid’s post and on video the Wellcome on the AcademyTrust blog atof wellc.me/V8tfjUMedical Sciences scheme.

SummerSpring 20122013 | 13

PROFESSOR NANCY PAPALOPULU A brief history of timing

Professor Nancy Papalopulu studies the growth of the nervous system in frogs. As in her career, Michael Regnier discovers, it’s all a question of being in the right place at the right time.

Xenopus laevis, the African clawed frog.

n 2006, Professor Nancy determine what they do, so you need to Thessaloniki, Papalopulu duly moved to Papalopulu decided to follow a cell’s decisions through time.” the UK to do a PhD in biology. “I had to leave the lab she had burn the midnight oil a lot in the early established in Decisions, decisions years to catch up,” she admits, “but I Cambridge ten years The history of Nancy Papalopulu’s eventually got to do what I wanted.” earlier and start pretty scientific career begins in high school, much from scratch with a at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, in Exciting times new lab in Manchester. It was the right Greece. She recalls one inspirational She joined a new lab at the Medical time, she says: “It was a good career biology teacher in particular: “Mr Research Council’s National Institute opportunity but it was also a new Mastrogiannis used to tell us that one for Medical Research in Mill Hill, north challenge, which I was really ready for. day humans would be able to grow eyes London. She was ’s first “It is very beneficial for a scientist to in the palm of our hands. I could not see graduate student and he recalls her love move. It shakes things up and a useful application for this but just the of science and curiosity about how stimulates people in new directions,” thought that we would understand things worked. “I was indeed fortunate she continues. “I would go so far as to development enough to direct it at will to have someone so intelligent, say there is no use learning a lot in one was absolutely fascinating and I wanted passionate and mature,” says Krumlauf, place unless you can put it to use in to do biology.” now Scientific Director at the Stowers another place.” Decision made. But biology was not Institute for Medical Research in Timing, location and the exchange seen as a good career choice in those Missouri. of information are just as important for days and if you had the grades that she “We had many wonderful the cells Papalopulu studies. Her had, you were expected to choose conversations about diverse areas of research follows the development of the medicine. However, she struck a deal science and life in general that served nervous system in Xenopus frogs, from with her parents: she would follow in to create a stimulating environment in fertilised egg cell to embryonic brain. her mother’s footsteps and do a the laboratory. I knew Nancy had a “We’re trying to understand how cells pharmacy degree, and if she still wanted promising long-term research future in decide to adopt a particular fate,” she to do biology after that, she could. front of her and I have been very proud explains. “Where the cells come from in After finishing her pharmacy to see her fulfil her potential.” the embryo and their history will degree at the Aristotle University of Papalopulu counts herself lucky too:

14 | Wellcome NEWS “Robb was very good at including us and stop proliferating and become which conduct electrical and chemical showing us that science is a community. specialised instead. This takes place signals through the body, or glial cells, Mill Hill in the late Eighties was really a in a coordinated fashion alongside which support and regulate the very exciting place to be: a number of patterning, but scientists looking at the neurons. However, some neural key discoveries were made around that two processes did not seem to talk to progenitors have to stay as they are, time, such as the mechanisms of action each other. dividing to replenish the reserves for of morphogens and activin. I was very “I like to make connections,” she later waves of differentiation. privileged to be a part of it, and it set says. “So I decided to look at how “If you have premature me off on the best possible foot in patterning influences the process of , you end up with fewer my career.” neuronal differentiation – this was the neurons by the end, so the nervous Despite the sense of community, she start of my fascination with timing. I system does not grow to its normal size became aware of a concurrent moved to Chris Kintner’s lab at the Salk and complexity,” explains Papalopulu. compartmentalisation within science. Institute in California. My parents were “On the other hand, if you have less With Krumlauf, she was investigating not so enthusiastic initially but I was differentiation, you also won’t get the role of so-called Hox genes in really excited about going quite far enough neurons and you may develop patterning – the way that cells choose away, to another part of the world.” tumours, so the balance is really different fates depending on where they important.” are in the embryo. Papalopulu was Finding the balance She says the Salk was a fantastic interested in the mechanisms of Early in life, the nervous system begins place to do science, albeit in a different neuronal differentiation, the process by as a group of progenitor cells. All have way from Mill Hill. Eventually, though, which individual cells decide whether to the potential to develop into neurons, she decided to come back to the more

Summer 2013 | 15 I’m fascinated by oscillations, so I see them everywhere, but I do think science goes in peaks.”

Left: Xenopus laevis embryos. Right: Nancy Papalopulu and colleagues in the lab.

“compact” environment of the UK. She neural progenitor cells run to different this fellowship planned out in set up her own lab with a Wellcome timetables. The reason seemed to be that time.” Trust Career Development Fellowship related to the cells’ sense of direction, or Woolner now has a Wellcome at the Wellcome Trust–Cancer Research polarity. This being a strength of the Trust–Royal Society Sir Henry Dale UK in Cambridge, Gurdon Institute, Papalopulu extended Fellowship and is setting up her own lab where she shared laboratory space with her research to the question of how upstairs from Papalopulu’s. She hopes Sir himself. polarity might produce heterogeneity to provide a similar style of mentorship: Sir John won the 2012 Nobel Prize – the different behaviour of similar cells “Nancy let me do my own thing but I in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the same location. had her support and I could go to her showing that all animal cells contain and discuss ideas, and she made sure I a copy of all the genes needed to make All change got to my goals of a good paper and a the whole organism. The finding After nearly a decade at the Gurdon, good independent project. You do have ignited research into cloning and, later, most of which was supported by a to plan ahead in science – timing is very stem cells. It was what had made Mr Wellcome Trust Senior Research important.” Mastrogiannis dream of eyes in Fellowship, Papalopulu moved to Like most principal investigators, his hands. Manchester. Still supported by the Papalopulu does not do experiments at Fellowship, she had a chance to rethink the bench herself any more, but she does Step by step and rebuild. “It was an opportunity to make a point of looking at the raw data Papalopulu says she learned a lot at try new things,” she says. “And it gave that comes out of her lab. “She will ask the Gurdon Institute, not least that me the confidence that if I could rebuild if you have a microscope on,” says Dr serious scientists do not need to take the team once, I could do it again, and Federico Dajas-Bailador, a postdoc soon themselves too seriously. “The Gurdon that allows you to take more risks with to set up his own lab in Nottingham. is a fun place to do science: it fosters a view to the future.” “Sometimes we try and finish the whole creativity by making sure that no one is The move went smoothly, both for experiment before discussing it with scary – a bit of self-deprecation is a great Papalopulu’s young family and in terms her! But she’ll come and say, ‘Take me to way of creating that environment. of recruiting a new team. For example, the microscope room.’” “Most of all, what I learned from Dr Sarah Woolner was doing John was his ability to take a complex postdoctoral research in the USA Highs and lows problem and reduce it to a series of looking at mitotic spindle assembly “I’m always happiest looking at people’s simple questions that one can address. during cell division. She was attracted data,” confirms Papalopulu. “It’s a His clarity of thought is incredible. to join the Papalopulu lab because of source of great emotional balance. I do Some people are naturally better at it their work on polarity and cell fate. the admin and the grant-writing and than others but as long as you enter “I came to visit, had a really good when I need to remind myself what science with open eyes and are able to chat and decided with Nancy to apply we’re here for, I can go and spend the take in different things from different for a Beit Memorial Fellowship,” day in the lab and that will make me people, you can develop these skills.” Woolner recalls. “I just came to talk to passionate about science again.” She was looking at what makes her and give a talk to the lab, but we got Her passion at the moment is

16 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 17 16 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 17 18 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 19 oscillation. Last year, she and colleagues developmental biology: “This dynamic published evidence of how fluctuating behaviour is drastically different to how levels of proteins can regulate cells. we have considered development in the Cellular levels of a protein called Hes1 past,” she says. “I’m fascinated by rise and fall many times a day, and this oscillations, so I see them everywhere, was known to stop neural progenitor but I do think science goes in peaks. cells from differentiating until the levels Something new arises, there is intense of Hes1 dropped below a certain focus and after a time, we feel we threshold. understand the process very well. They discovered that Hes1 interacts “But then something new comes with microRNA-9, another molecule again, just when you thought we being studied in the lab, so that the understood everything – and we production rates of the two rise and fall realise we have a lot of things to out of sync. However, whereas Hes1 is understand before we know how an efficiently cleared away from the cell, embryo builds itself.” microRNA-9 gradually accumulates. It Intriguingly, oscillations may also is when microRNA-9 reaches a certain represent a mechanism for counting threshold that it becomes able to stop biological time, which could underpin Hes1 production altogether, which most, if not all, developmental pushes the cell into differentiation. processes. “I’m beginning to suspect

there is a point in everyone’s career References On a wave when everything from the past comes Graham A et al. The murine and Drosophila homeobox This finding exemplifies a shift in our together,” says Papalopulu. “I may just gene complexes have common features of organization understanding of how cells work. What be entering this phase in my life. and expression. Cell 1989;57(3):367–78. Chalmers AD et al. Oriented cell divisions were once envisaged as basically linear Timing, balance and progenitor asymmetrically segregate aPKC and generate cell fate circuits of molecular signals are instead heterogeneity may well come together diversity in the early Xenopus embryo. Development starting to be viewed as dynamic into a single model, and that’s very 2003;130(12):2657–68. Woolner S, Papalopulu N. Spindle position in networks. The outputs of these gratifying.” symmetric cell divisions during epiboly is controlled networks evolve as the organism by opposing and dynamic apicobasal forces. Dev Cell develops, depending on how various • In May 2013, Nancy Papalopulu 2012;22(4):775–87. Bonev B et al. MicroRNA-9 modulates Hes1 ultradian parameters change. was elected a Fellow of the Academy oscillations by forming a double-negative feedback loop. For Papalopulu, this conceptual of Medical Sciences. Cell Rep 2012;2(1):10–8. shift marks another exciting period in

Nancy on… On Nancy… Job prospects: “I always tell undergraduates that the “It is truly impressive how she acts as a positive role model important thing is to find what you want to do, and if you are and has not only done exceptional science, but mentored good at it then the job will follow. Don’t decide what you and trained a new generation of scientists.” want to do based on the perceived employment market.” Professor Robb Krumlauf, Papalopulu’s PhD supervisor Recruitment: “I choose people I can happily spend a lot of “Nancy is a great mentor, she really focuses on making sure time talking to. If a candidate has a good CV but the every member of the lab is successful and not just a few.” conversation dies out and we are looking at our watches, Dr Andy Chalmers, University of Bath, former postdoc at the Gurdon Institute that is not a good sign! The give and take of ideas is the basis of developing a good project.” “She gave me a lot of intellectual freedom in my project but was also very helpful and supportive, particularly in terms of Career development: “I do not know anyone who does not career development: presentations, grant-writing and worry about their funding. As with biology, the key is timing: making contacts are key to academic success and yet few your output has to be there at the next grant assessment. It PIs teach them to students.” requires a lot of careful planning.” Dr Boyan Bonev, Sir Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, former PhD student in Manchester Location: “People tend to think that where they are is the centre of the universe, but if you move, you realise there is “Nancy is very enthusiastic but she can also be very tough. more than one centre. The idea that we just have centres of She is not the kind of boss who will forget about you when excellence and very little happening outside that is simply nothing is working. She’ll ask you why it is not working and not true.” how we can improve it.” Dr Federico Dajas-Bailador, postdoc in Manchester Patience: “My job as a mentor and supervisor is to support people when it looks like nothing is happening. There are “It’s important as a woman progressing in science to have a some incredible lows in science: most of the time things role model. Nancy has a family, she leaves the lab on time to don’t work and people get disillusioned. But if you stay in see them, but puts a lot of time into her research – it’s good science, you will be rewarded.” to see other women being successful and to realise you can do it.” Dr Sarah Woolner, Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University of Manchester, former postdoc in Manchester

18 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 19 20 | Wellcome NEWS closep -u

Wellcome Collection S ouzou: OUTSIDER ART FROM JAPAN

Wellcome Collection’s latest exhibition, questions about the category of Souzou, is the first major display of Outsider Art itself. The pieces were Japanese Outsider Art in the UK. created by 46 artists, all of whom are Outsider Art – work by artists who residents or day attendees at social have received little or no tuition, and welfare institutions in Japan, and all are perceived to inhabit the margins of of whom have been diagnosed with a mainstream society – has had a huge variety of cognitive, behavioural and rise in popularity over recent years. developmental disorders or mental ‘Souzou’ has no direct translation in illnesses. English but a dual meaning in Japanese: The exhibition was organised in written one way it means creation, and association with Het Dolhuys, the Left: clay sculpture by Shinichi Sawada. in another it means imagination. Both Museum of Psychiatry in Haarlem, the Above: one of 20 figures from ‘Girl’ by Keisuke Ishino. meanings allude to a force by which Netherlands, and the Social Welfare Below: some of the 300 obects made from twist ties by Shota Katsube. new ideas are born and take shape in Organisation Aiseikai in Tokyo. It the world. runs until the end of June and will It is a force very evident in the 300 be Wellcome Collection’s last major compelling ceramics, textiles, paintings, exhibition before its development sculptures and drawings showcased in project (see page 4) begins. our exhibition – and one that raises wellcomecollection.org/souzou

Summer 2013 | 21 O nLINE Highlights

BEST OF the blog Rethinking mental health care

Professor Vikram Patel, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and , proposes that mental health care in the world’s most developed countries could learn lessons from initiatives in some of its poorest.

The conundrum of mental health care provide appropriate medicines. to such reform4. As the cliché goes, in rich countries is that, despite the Recent innovations have used health is too important to be left to apparent richness of resources, so many other types of human resources, health professionals alone, and this is, I people with mental health problems from community health workers to would argue, even more true for mental (by one recent estimate, nearly half lay people, to provide psychosocial health care. in the USA1) do not access the care interventions with impressive results2. which we know can enhance their They offer a range of appropriate References chances of recovery. Likely explanations interventions, use familiar concepts and 1. Wang PS et al. Twelve-month use of mental health services in the United States: results from the National relate to the nature of mental health are convenient (even offered in patients’ Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry problems, beliefs about their causes homes or outside working hours). 2005;62(2):629–40. and treatment, and the costs and Practical and simple diagnostic 2. Kakuma R et al. Human resources for mental health care: current situation and strategies for action. Lancet inaccessibility of biomedical mental systems, such as the one employed by 2011;378(9803):1654–63. 3 health care. the WHO’s mhGAP initiative , are now 3. World Health Organization. mhGAP intervention My hypothesis is that lying at the being widely adopted in low-income guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings: mental heart of these factors is the remoteness countries precisely because they are health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). Geneva: of psychiatry. Interventions are heavily meaningful to non-specialist providers WHO; 2010. medicalised, do not engage sufficiently and local communities – and, I would 4. Patel V. Global mental health: from science to action. with personal and community argue, to most mental health specialists Harv Rev Psychiatry 2012;20(1):6–12. resources, are delivered in highly as well! specialised, expensive settings, and use None of these ideas are unique language and concepts which alienate to low-income countries, and several ordinary people. In all these respects, champions in high-income countries innovations to improve access to mental have worked tirelessly to improve access health care in low-income countries to mental health care by challenging This article was originally posted on ThInk, our blog about art, science and the brain. ThInk might inform a rethink of the way in the hegemony of a narrow biomedical was created to coincide with and complement which rich countries provide care. perspective. But mental health care is ‘Wonder’, a season of public events in March and April 2013 organised by the Wellcome Trust, At the core of these innovations still too heavily professionalised, and the Barbican and the British Neuroscience is a reassessment of who provides specialised, for the majority. Association. thinkneuroscience.wordpress.com mental health care. There are fewer Reforming mental health care, psychiatrists for the entire continent with the goal of improving access and of Africa, with a population of outcomes, requires a fundamental almost a billion, than in the state of review of our ideas of who should Massachusetts, with a population of less provide such care to communities, than 7 million. In such settings, the only and how. The innovations which are way mental health care can be delivered capturing the imagination of the young is through non-specialist workers, such discipline of global mental health offer as training primary care doctors to a window of hope for those who aspire

22 | Wellcome NEWS IN THE HOT SEAT

TREATING POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER PROFESSOR ANKE EHLERS

What drew you to this research? How is PTSD treated? I am intrigued by how much Our cognitive therapy programme psychological therapy can help people helps patients identify and change with very disabling anxiety disorders. I unhelpful ways of thinking about the became fascinated by the questions of trauma. We work with them to update why some people develop PTSD after their trauma memories with what they traumatic events, while others recover know now, so that these become less on their own, and why flashbacks threatening, and to respond to them in appear to come ‘out of the blue’ and a more helpful way. We help patients make them see, hear and feel things as learn to discriminate between the if the trauma was happening again in traumatic event and the triggers they the present. encounter in everyday life. These often have a sensory similarity to something How do you study it? from the trauma. For example, after a We conduct prospective studies to stabbing, people may respond to any identify risk factors for PTSD. We also shiny object or even the reflection of use a range of methods to investigate light on a window, as these may remind Characterised by distressing the nature of trauma memories and them of the assailant’s knife. flashbacks, post-traumatic their triggers. In one recently published Current treatment requires 12 stress disorder (PTSD) affects study, volunteers with no history of weekly sessions with a therapist. up to 8 per cent of the PTSD were shown narrated picture Randomised trials show that more than stories that were either traumatic or 70 per cent of patients with PTSD fully population at some point in neutral. In between pictures, images recover. We have been developing self- their lives. Emma Rhule spoke of innocuous objects such as an onion study modules that sufferers complete to Professor Anke Ehlers, a flashed up on the screen. We later at home, allowing us to halve the Wellcome Trust Principal asked participants to identify blurred number of face-to-face sessions. We are Research Fellow at the Institute pictures of these objects. Objects were now evaluating this briefer treatment. more readily identified if they had of Psychiatry, about new appeared in a traumatic context. We Can we prevent PTSD? treatments for PTSD. found similar results with people who Jennifer Wild and I have been had experienced trauma. It appears that collaborating with the London after trauma, some people’s perception Ambulance Service to identify of the world is fine-tuned to spotting predictors of psychological stress in reminders of the event. new recruits. Our aim is ultimately to develop a training programme for Who is most at risk? emergency service workers to decrease There is some evidence that people with risk factors for developing PTSD or a family history of anxiety or people other problems such as depression. In who have experienced other traumas general, people are very resilient even are at greater risk. However, a person’s to extreme stress, but no one is totally response during and after a traumatic immune. event is more important. For example, we have found that people who mainly Sündermann O et al. Perceptual processing during trauma, priming and the development of intrusive focus on sensory impressions like memories. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2013;44:213–20. sounds and colours during the trauma Freeman D et al. Paranoia and post-traumatic stress are at an increased risk of PTSD. disorder in the months after physical assault: a longitudinal study examining shared and differential Certain ways of thinking about or predictors. Psychol Med 2013 [epub]. responding to the trauma, such as dwelling on what they could have done differently, are also strong risk factors.

Summer 2013 | 23 nuts and bolts

ORGAN THE HEART

From broken hearts to the hard of heart, for centuries the heart was viewed as the seat of human emotion. Today, we know it has a central role pumping blood around the body. Emma Rhule provides a quick guide to this vital organ.

In 1628, an English physician called generate enough pressure to pump William Harvey published the first blood from the heart to the farthest detailed description of the action of the ends of the body. heart and the flow of blood around the Cardiac muscle cells have a natural body. It challenged many of his rhythm, but the sinoatrial node acts as a contemporaries, who believed that the pacemaker to ensure that they all beat lungs were responsible for moving blood in time. Diseases, drugs and genetic through the body. Of course, now we mutations can disturb the rhythm of know he was right. the heart and lead to a loss of Harvey was also right when he synchronicity, which can be fatal. hypothesised that blood flows through Harvey’s pioneering work was the body in a closed circuit. In humans, founded on thousands of dissections. this circuit is made up of two loops, Modern techniques allow researchers to known as the double circulatory system. learn ever more about the intricacies of The first, the pulmonary system, sends the heart. Blanca Rodriguez at the blood to the lungs, where it is loaded University of Oxford is using computer with oxygen, and brings it back to the simulations to unravel what is heart. Then, the systemic circulatory happening when rare heart events, such system sends the oxygen-rich blood to as arrhythmias, occur in humans. And fuel our nervous system, muscles and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, everything we do. similar to normal MRI but fine-tuned The human heart has two types of for the heart, allows clinical researchers chamber. Blood enters the atria before like Reza Razavi at King’s College passing into the ventricles. The thick London to visualise the living heart. walls of the ventricles are needed to

1 2 3 Sinoatrial node Right ventricle Bundle of His Known as the heart’s pacemaker, fibres will contract in a rapid, One of two large chambers Part of the heart’s electrical the sinoatrial node is a group of unsynchronised way – called responsible for pumping blood wiring system, the bundle of His specialised heart cells that fibrillation. Defibrillators, often around the body. The right transmits electrical impulses regulate the heartbeat by seen in medical dramas, are used ventricle pumps oxygen-poor generated by the sinoatrial node sending out electrical signals at to stop the chaotic heartbeat (deoxygenated) blood to the through the ventricle walls. regular intervals. If the rhythm is and allow the sinoatrial node to lungs. disrupted, the heart’s muscle regain control.

24 | Wellcome NEWS 6

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4 5 6 Mitral valve Left atrium Aorta As the left atrium contracts, the The atria are the entry point for The largest artery in the human mitral valve opens, allowing blood blood into the heart. The left body, the aorta carries oxygenated to flow into the ventricle below. atrium receives oxygenated blood out of the heart. It also flows If the valve fails to close properly, blood from the lungs. into the coronary arteries, supplying blood can leak back into the blood to the heart muscle. Fatty atrium. Known as mitral deposits in blood vessels can lead regurgitation, this can lead to to heart disease. Blockages that increased pressure in the atrium. reduce blood flow can trigger a heart attack (myocardial infarction) With thanks to or, if they affect vessels leading to Dr Kuberan Pushparajah, the brain, a stroke. King’s College London

Summer 2013 | 25 ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

THE WALPORT YEARS Teh ten-billion- pound man? Earlier this year, Sir Mark Walport stepped down as Director of the Wellcome Trust and took up his new role as the UK government’s Chief Scientific Advisor. We asked leading figures from science, the humanities, media and the arts to reflect on his achievements over the past ten years. By Michael Regnier. Interviews by Barry Gibb.

n 2006, a bundle of dirty People person existing partnerships and forge new old manuscripts showed In 2003, the world economy had been ones. He knew that the Trust could not up in an auction house. going through a slowdown, and difficult be successful if it tried to operate in They turned out to be decisions were the order of the day, both isolation. by , one of within the Trust and in its funding. Leaders of organisations that the great original minds From the start, however, Sir Mark worked with the Trust appreciated his of the 17th-century Royal focused on improving the quality of approach. Nobel laureate Harold Society. , Professor of support for people, even if he couldn’t Varmus, currently Director of the US Studies, and Lord Rees, the immediately increase the quantity. National Cancer Institute, says: “From then President of the Royal Society, ‘Supporting the brightest minds’ my perspective as someone who has run came to the Wellcome Trust to ask its became part of the Trust’s mantra and it some parallel institutions, Mark has Director, Sir Mark Walport, for help in meant providing increasingly effective done an extraordinary job in his ten purchasing the papers for the nation. support for people to do excellent years at the Trust. He has also been very “Mark looked us in the eye,” Jardine research. The culmination of this attentive to the context in which the recalls, “and said, ‘Half a million? We approach was the Trust’s Investigator Trust operates, especially interactions can do that.’” Awards, introduced in 2011, which with other countries, other agencies “The way Wellcome helped save the extended the level of support of and with an awareness of the Robert Hooke papers was a tremendous fellowships to researchers employed importance of science to society.” thing to do, a very imaginative gesture,” in universities and other research says Lord Sainsbury, who was the UK’s institutions. Research matters Minister for Science and Innovation The move away from funding Sir Mark became Director of the Trust from 1998 to 2006. “Mark has shown specific projects and programmes of in the same year that the gold-standard incredible leadership at the Wellcome research in favour of giving researchers human genome was published. He Trust, both in terms of maintaining longer, more flexible support was one of cannot take credit for the Trust’s extraordinarily high standards in the the defining policies of Sir Mark’s involvement in the Human Genome research, but also making certain that it leadership. As the Trust is a major Project, which began several years works well as an organisation.” funder of medical research, such earlier at what became the Wellcome On Sir Mark’s last day in the significant changes were controversial Trust Sanger Institute, but he can share Director’s office, the Wellcome Trust within the research community. a lot of credit for ensuring the Trust announced that its total charitable However, Sir Mark is a highly respected recognised the potential of genomics spend to date had passed £10 billion. member of that community and, even if and continued to catalyse and promote Over half was spent between 2003 and he didn’t persuade everyone that he was research in this area. 2013, the decade in which Sir Mark was right, he communicated his reasons As well as making a huge in charge, which means he outspent all with passion and precision. contribution in genetics and genomics, three previous Directors put together. Although not the first Director to the Trust has facilitated many But on his first day, he had initially been recognise the value of collaboration, Sir achievements in neuroscience, faced with the need to cut spending. Mark was especially keen to build on infectious diseases and basic biology. Its

26 | Wellcome NEWS support for neuroimaging has helped developed a more open attitude, led by transform the way we understand the Sir Mark’s example. Fiona Fox, Director brain over the last decade, while of the Science Media Centre, says: Trust-funded researchers in South-east “Science has lots of leaders who are He has also been Asia have played a leading role in quite faceless; Mark Walport is not that developing, implementing and kind of leader. He is bold, courageous, very attentive monitoring new treatments for malaria. brave, principled, outspoken, and he is to the context The Trust has also supported large, known as a leader of the scientific ambitious research facilities such as UK community.” in which the Biobank and the Institute. The Trust under Sir Mark has also Trust operates, Since 2003, there has been a notable looked to its responsibilities in the local expansion in the Trust’s work beyond community. Journalist and broadcaster especially research. Sir Mark oversaw new Jon Snow chairs a project running a day interactions with initiatives in education and public centre for vulnerable young people in engagement with science, including the Camden. “Mark ensured that other countries, foundation of the National Science neighbourhood outreach extended to other agencies Learning Centre to support teachers, us,” he says. “We have benefited from and the introduction of the Wellcome visits from Wellcome staff and funding and with an Trust Book Prize to encourage literary through the Trust’s ‘good neighbours’ awareness of authors to tackle medical issues. scheme. Mark has positioned the Thanks to public-facing activities Wellcome Trust in the community in a the importance like these, people are more aware of the way it simply wasn’t before.” of science to Trust and what it does. And it has done more to engage the public with science Leaving a mark society.” and medicine in general – not least at its Sir Mark succeeded Sir Harold Varmus own venue, Wellcome Collection, which as the UK government’s Chief Scientific opened in 2007. Advisor on 1 April 2013. He is now the “There is a particular kind of personal advisor on science, technology exhibition which is a Wellcome and policy matters to the Prime Sainsbury. “He may find it’s a bit more exhibition, about a certain kind of idea,” Minister and the Cabinet, and leads a difficult getting money out of the says Neil MacGregor, Director of the network of scientific advisors across all Treasury rather than giving it away, but British Museum. “Wellcome Collection government departments. I think he will do that with all the skill is now one of the major exhibition “The Wellcome Trust’s loss is the and leadership he’s shown at the venues of London. That’s a great people’s gain,” says Snow. “I think Mark Wellcome Trust.” achievement, and I know it is only a very will be a very good chief scientist, not small part of the grand ‘genome’ of because he is such a good scientist, but Mark’s career at the Trust but for the because he can actually communicate it On the following page, Sir Mark Walport museum community, it is a very and that will be a rare quality.” shares his own thoughts on ten years at the important part.” “I think he will make a great Wellcome Trust. In the media, too, the Trust has government chief scientist,” adds Lord

2003 2004 2006 2007 Mark Walport succeeds Trust moves HQ from 183 Artemisinin-based Wellcome Collection Mike Dexter as Director of Euston Rd to the Gibbs combination therapy opens the Wellcome Trust Building next door (ACT) recommended by the World Health Organization as best strategy for malaria treatment

Autumn/winterSummer 20122013 | 27 A fond farewell

Headlines are tricky things. On the one People enquiring about the Trust the translation of results from the hand, just a tiny number of words have often asked: “What keeps you and the frequently influence whether an article awake at night?” The answer is always sequencing of many pathogen genomes is read; on the other, they can the same: our financial asset, our into improvements in health. misleadingly encapsulate the contents endowment, which is crucial to I have moved from Director of the and bias how it is read. So it was with a achieving our mission. I am pleased to Wellcome Trust, with independence thoughtful and generous article by pay a public tribute to Danny Truell, and large financial assets, to UK Fergus Walsh on the BBC website, our Chief Investment Officer, the government Chief Scientific Advisor, entitled ‘The man who gives away investment team and our advisors on with an advisory role and minimal £600m a year’. There is no doubt that our Investment Committee. They have financial assets. But I hope that ten this headline was extremely effective, as collectively been responsible for my years at the Trust is rather good the article was viewed over 480 000 untroubled sleep as Director! Little preparation. In his 1954 book times. But I don’t think that those who did I think, arriving in 2003 following Government and Science, Don K Price receive funding from the Wellcome a major fall in the value of the wrote: “The foundation officials Trust believe they have been ‘given’ the endowment, that ten years later themselves, always on the look out for money – and everyone involved in the it would have increased by about new intellectual developments that may peer-review process knows the extent of £6 billion on top of our spend of over contribute to public affairs, thus make a the due diligence behind every funding £5bn in support of our mission. great contribution in the long run to decision. It has been an enormous privilege to public policy.” And, he noted, “they have The main role of the Director is to lead the Trust. I would like to take this exercised even greater influence on influence the Trust’s strategy and to opportunity to say thank you to my government almost absent-mindedly, work with many partners to maximise colleagues and to our many partners, by their support of scientific and the impact of our extraordinary particularly those we fund, who enable technical programs”. endowment and our other assets. us to achieve our mission of I have worked closely with Among those other assets, I would extraordinary improvements in human governments during my time at the highlight three. The first is our staff and animal health. Trust – on science and education policy – talented and creative people whose One of the best parts of the job was and on data sharing and national energy and devotion make the Trust to visit scientists and learn of their infrastructure through membership of run so effectively. Second, we have an exciting discoveries. It was always a the Council of Science and Technology. exceptional group of Governors, who humbling experience to visit the Major I look forward to working closely with provide the support and challenge that Overseas Programmes in Asia and the scientific community in the public is essential to the running of any Africa, and to appreciate their direct and private sectors to provide the best substantial organisation. And third, we contributions to improving the health advice to the government on all aspects have the amazing collections and of some of the poorest people in the of science, engineering, technology and library founded by Sir Henry Wellcome, world. It has also been an amazing social science, supporting development which provide the substrate for opportunity to chair the board of the of the best public policy. Wellcome Collection. Sanger Institute, which is spearheading Sir Mark Walport

2009 2011 2012 2013 Mark Walport knighted Trust celebrates 75th UK Biobank opens with Trust’s total spend to for services to medical anniversary data and samples from date surpasses £10bn; research 500 000 volunteers Sir Mark leaves the available for research Trust to become the UK government’s new Chief Scientific Advisor

28 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 29 28 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 29 MEDICAL HUMANITIES

PROFESSOR MARK JACKSON In search of stress

With degrees in and medicine, historian Mark Jackson researches topics as diverse as his background. He tells Emma Rhule about his new book, The Age of Stress, and his Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award to explore the concept of balance.

Mark Jackson’s views on stress changed after his house was flooded.

30 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 31 In January 2011, Professor Mark Jackson was no consistent single term. Selye Indeed, attempting to lead a stress-free and his family came home from their also introduced a distinction between life is itself stressful. It was from this Christmas holiday. A pipe had burst and eustress and distress – positive and idea of the search for stability that for three days, water had been running negative stress – and the idea that Jackson’s interest in the concept of through their house. Little was spared. everyone needs a bit of stress in balance, the subject of his recent Books, clothes, computers – all their lives. Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator destroyed. In total, nearly three- Award, emerged. quarters of the Jackson family home Stress to impress “Part of The Age of Stress looks at was ruined. They had no choice but to “Hans Selye used to say that ‘when you the way that people are struggling move out of the house for seven months are not stressed you are dead’,” says to control the world around them. while repairs took place. Jackson. Indeed, in the years after There are all these debates about how Up to that point, Jackson had been World War II, some doctors believed to maintain control under stressful sceptical of the idea of stress as the that a lack of stress was making people circumstances, with a big focus ‘modern plague’. “If you’d have asked me ill. There was a feeling that people on achieving equilibrium through 20 years ago if I thought that stress needed some real stress to be added into physiological and psychological existed, I’d have said no,” he admits. their lives in order to stimulate and balance.” Fast-forward to 2013 and Jackson’s latest encourage them. Yet what really intrigues him is what book, The Age of Stress: Science and the During the 1980s, the idea that he describes as the tension in Western search for stability, has been published. stress could be beneficial and promote medicine: “Balance is embedded as a “Ask me now,” he says, “and experience productivity led to an increased holistic concept – a balanced diet, tells me we get stressed and it can make commercialisation of stress, with books work–life balance. Most of Western us ill.” such as Peter Hansen’s The Joy of Stress medicine is moving towards a So how did a man who didn’t really teaching techniques for harnessing it. biomedical reductionist approach, yet believe in the idea of stress come to be At the same time, pharmaceutical we still keep hold of this notion of writing a book about it? “In 2006 I companies promoted sedatives and balance. Why?” wrote a book on the history of allergy. tranquilisers to vanquish it entirely. By When asked about his vision for the One of the things that came out was the time Jackson was starting to think next five years, Jackson says: “When I that many allergists after the Second about writing the book, he says, “this left medicine in 1997 one of my World War were using stress as a way to was headline news, the ‘’ of ambitions was that at some point in my explain certain patterns of allergic modern stress”. career I would try to integrate the disease,” Jackson says. What Jackson considers troubling is humanities back into science and He came across the work of Hans the shift towards ‘executive stress’ and medicine. Selye, considered by many to be the the way it has skewed the debate. “In the “I think we make too much of the father of stress research. And yet, Thatcher individualist era, being division between the arts and the Jackson found very little written about ‘stressed’ was, and still is, a marker of sciences. I don’t think there is much him. “I was able to find a couple of success. People forgot about the difference between what I did in the lab, papers about Selye in French and a few socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, what I did in the clinic and what I do as overview articles, but no clear historical poor housing and inadequate access to a humanities researcher. We are study of Selye’s place in the history of healthcare, that are still life’s major interested in knowledge – what’s the medicine and his work on stress.” stressors.” difference? We are all in the same boat.” From the 1930s onwards, Selye pioneered the popularisation of the On balance term ‘stress’ in a medical context. Before By the time he came to finish his book, this, what we would now think of as Jackson had concluded: “Stress is stress was variously referred to as something that we have to live with and fatigue, apathy or neurasthenia. Stress find ways to deal with; it is multifaceted, had occasionally been used but there complex and, ultimately, unavoidable.”

Win a copy!

Thanks to we have two copies of Mark Jackson’s book to give away. Just tell us: In which year did Hans Selye first publish The Stress of Life? Email your answer to [email protected] with the subject line ‘Stress competition’. One entry only per person. Competition closes 17.00 GMT, 26 July 2013, after which two correct entries will be randomly selected. The winners will be notified by email by 2 September 2013 and announced on the Wellcome Trust blog.

30 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 31 FROM THE ARCHIVE

Wellcome Trust Publication Trp3

32 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 33 Wish us luck as you wave us goodbye! To mark the last-ever Wellcome News, Chrissie Giles flicks through the first issue of its earlier incarnation, TRP3.

What is it? The first issue of TRP3, the esoteric original title of Wellcome News.

Why is it so special? It was the Wellcome Trust’s first quarterly publication, dedicated to communicating how the Trust spent its money on research and what grantholders were achieving with their awards. TRP3 issue 1 included articles on the newly constructed Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford, the potential of foresight as a tool for funding agencies, and a piece by Max Perutz on his efforts to deduce the alpha-helix structure of proteins. There was also a £25 prize for anyone who could explain how the publication’s name was derived. The tricksy title is related to amino acid nomenclature (of course!) and is basically a fancy way of abbreviating ‘Wellcome Trust’. If your biochemistry is a little rusty, ‘Trp’ is the three-letter code for tryptophan (also known as ‘W’), and ‘3’ is how scientists pronounce ‘Thr’ – the three-letter code for threonine (also known as ‘T’). The name lasted ten issues, before changing to Wellcome News.

Can I see it? Copies of TRP3 (and any of the 63 subsequent issues of Wellcome News) can be seen by anyone at the Wellcome Library, on request.

Want to know more? Find out more at encore.wellcome.ac.uk/iii/encore/ record/C__Rb1660253

32 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 33 Mark Neville Mark APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE “Art can help people visualise, debate and use science” MrkNvillea e , photographer

hotography can sometimes be book called Deeds Not Words, which combined my passive, creating a record without photographs with text about the technical aspects enough thought about how it of the case. The book was not sold but sent free to operates in the world. I try to push every local council in the UK. the boundaries of what a photograph Corby was a breakthrough case that brought can do beyond sitting on a gallery wall hard science to bear where before, the evidence had – sometimes that includes communicating science. been vague – but not all the findings were to be I went to Corby a few years ago to document its published. It was unthinkable to me that this curiously Scottish culture. In the 1930s, a Scottish information would not reach the people who deal steel company built a new mill in Corby and brought with toxic waste and land reclamation on a daily a lot of workers from Glasgow to staff it. The mill basis. The book was to arm them: to inform their has since closed but the town retained a strong work and help persuade their colleagues that this Scottish community – you’ll find Irn-Bru and job needs to be done properly. whisky-flavoured tea in the shops, and people speak I got some moving emails back, but nothing with a dialect that is almost Glaswegian. seemed to be changing. So curator David Campany As well as driving the town’s growth, the and I approached the Photographers’ Gallery about steelworks left a dangerous legacy that would come putting on an exhibition of photographs from the to redefine Corby. In 2009 an infamously contentious book to act as a platform for debate. The Wellcome High Court case began, as the families of local Trust is supporting a symposium on social children with birth defects tried to prove a link to documentary photography and its relationship with the way Corby Borough Council dealt with toxic biomedical issues, while a second symposium is waste left in the steelworks when it closed down. aimed at policy makers. The families eventually won their case, which It’s about raising awareness and taking some encompassed medical science, obstetrics, waste responsibility for our environment. Science often management and environmental science. I deals with abstract ideas, but biomedical science is interviewed many of the specialist witnesses at the all about people. Deeds Not Words is my attempt to same time that I was photographing the community. anchor science in something real – the photographs I made portraits of the children with missing or help us to visualise the science, and to talk about it deformed limbs but it was equally important to in a meaningful way. portray the whole community because, in fact, the case affected everyone. Deeds Not Words is at the Photographers’ Gallery I got a grant from the Wellcome Trust for a in London from 2 August to 29 September 2013.

www.markneville.co.uk/works/deeds-not-words | thephotographersgallery.org.uk/2013-programme

34 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 35 DIARY Courses, conferences and workshops Wellcome Trust Genome Campus At the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, unless otherwise specified. For more, see www.wellcome.ac.uk/ advancedcourses and www.wellcome.ac.uk/conferences

The Genomics of Common Diseases 2013 Conference, 7–10 September 2013, Keble College, Oxford

Cancer Pharmacogenomics and Targeted Therapies Conference, 15–17 September

Mouse Molecular Genetics Conference, 18–21 September

Mitochondrial Disease: Translating biology into new treatments Conference, 2–4 October

Infectious Disease Genomics and Global Health Conference, 16–18 October

Regenerative Medicine: From Biology to Therapy Conference, 30 October–1 November Mitochondrial Epigenomics of Common Diseases Conference, 7–10 November Disease: Molecular Pathology and Diagnosis of Cancer Course, 10–15 November Translating Proteomics Bioinformatics Workshop, 11–15 November biology into

Functional Genomics and Systems Biology 2013 Conference, 21–23 November new treatments

Genome-wide Approaches with Fission Yeast Course, 7–14 December

Fundamentals of Clinical Genomics 2014 Workshop, 14–17 January 2014 2–4 October 2013

Mouse Models of Disease: Using pathology techniques This exciting new Wellcome Trust to enhance phenotyping outcomes conference will bring together world Conference, 5–7 February 2014 leaders in the field of translational mitochondrial medicine. Alzheimer’s Disease in Down Syndrome: From molecules to cognition Abstract deadline: 16 July Conference, 27–29 March 2014 Registration deadline: 20 August

Chromatin: From nucleosomes to chromosomes Full details at: Conference, 30 April–2 May 2014

www.wellcome.ac.uk/conferences Images David Furness/Wellcome

Wellcome Collection events and exhibitions Euston Road, London. wellcomecollection.org

Thinking with the Body Exhibition, 19 September–27 October

Medicine Man and Medicine Now Permanent exhibitions

Event listings See website for details

34 | Wellcome NEWS Summer 2013 | 35 VISIT SOON WE’RE FREE

Slink to London

to find amphibian ancestors, chromosomes made from socks, a shrunken head and more

wellcomecollection.org

Exhibitions | Events | Library | Event Spaces | Café | Bookshop 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE wellcomecollection.org The free destination for the incurably curious

Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 210183. PU-5705.3/06-2013/AF