̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Duncan Maskell

Reducing the rise of antibiotic resistance

lw355 — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 12:00:01 +0000

Rising resistance to antibiotics is a worrying prospect, but a success story happening across the farms of the UK gives hope that something can be done.

Proposals for the regeneration of Old Press/ Mill Lane receive strong support

pbh25 — Thu, 10 May 2018 09:15:53 +0000

During March and April, a full public consultation was held on their proposals for a masterplan that will transform an important quarter of the city and draws residents, students and visitors into the area. ̽��ֱ��masterplan was originally called for in the City Council’s Supplementary Planning Document of 2010 and includes the creation of new areas of public open space on the riverfront and provides exciting retail and leisure opportunities.

̽��ֱ��consultation included two days of public exhibitions held at the university Centre on Granta Place in late March. Key members of the project team were present to answer any questions about the scheme, and it gave the opportunity to feed back to the ̽��ֱ�� and the Colleges on the proposals, including key aspects such as the creation of public open space on the riverfront through the demolition of the Laundress Lane Warehouse.

̽��ֱ��results of the feedback have shown that there has been strong support in general for the proposals. In responding to the consultation questionnaire, 95% felt that the exhibition had been useful, with 90% agreeing that regeneration of the area was important. Importantly, having reviewed the plans, 79% of respondents wanted to see the creation of a new area of public open space through the removal of the Laundress Lane Warehouse – this option was first reviewed in the 2010 Supplementary Planning Document that called for a Masterplan. In addition, although in the city council’s control not the ̽��ֱ��’s, 81% supported the removal of the boatshed on Granta Place – both of these proposals open up public access to the river and significantly improve views over Coe Fen.

Duncan Maskell, the ̽��ֱ��’s Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor, said, “We are very pleased that, overall, the proposals in the Masterplan were supported by 77% of respondents – this is a very high number for regeneration projects and reflects the public and stakeholders’ desire to see high quality regeneration of the area.”

This masterplan, which sets out general development parameters, will be followed by full planning applications that provide more detail around traffic control and architectural treatment. ̽��ֱ��first of these full applications will come from Pembroke College later this year and will provide more details about the block bounded by Mill Lane and Little St Mary’s Lane.

Although the consultation is now closed the proposals are still available to view on the project website at www.opml.sitedevelopments.cam.ac.uk or alternatively you can contact us via email at consultation@opmlcambridge.co.uk if you have any further comments/questions.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, together with Pembroke, Darwin and Queens’ Colleges have revealed the strong level of support for their plans to regenerate the Old Press / Mill Lane area.

We are very pleased that, overall, the proposals in the Masterplan were supported by 77% of respondents – this is a very high number for regeneration projects and reflects the public and stakeholders’ desire to see high quality regeneration of the area.

Duncan Maskell, the ̽��ֱ��’s Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor

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Food poisoning: the bacteria lurking in your chicken

amb206 — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 12:52:44 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

Poultry is an important source of protein; almost half the meat we eat in the UK is chicken. And the popularity of chicken is rising: it’s convenient, tasty and cheap. On average we eat around 190g per person per week. Poultry, however, harbours a hidden problem. Around two-thirds of raw chicken sold by British retailers is infected with bacteria called Campylobacter.

Campylobacter is ubiquitous in the environment. All chicken flocks, large or small, factory-farmed or free range, are susceptible to infection. ̽��ֱ��bacteria have the ability to survive the production chain from farm to fork.

Adequate cooking, however, kills the bacteria and makes chicken safe to eat. Consumers are advised not to wash chicken before cooking and to follow basic hygiene rules when handling raw chicken.

If Campylobacter is ingested by humans, it can lead to diarrhoea. Four out of five cases of food poisoning in the UK can be traced to poultry; sickness from Campylobacter costs the economy an estimated £900 million each year. Recovery can take a week or more, and infection with the bacteria is also associated with serious complications – including reactive arthritis and Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

These facts are the driving force behind research being undertaken by microbiologists Dr Andrew Grant, Professor Duncan Maskell and their groups at the Department of Veterinary Medicine. “Campylobacter is the leading source of bacterial gastroenteritis, affecting half a million people and killing an estimated 100 people each year in the UK,” says Grant. “This is why it’s a major target for research efforts.”

Poultry is big business. Production units supplying the major supermarkets can house 50,000 birds or more. Even when stringent biosecurity measures are taken, incursions occur when barriers are broken. “It takes just a couple of bacteria, or perhaps even one, entering a unit for a flock of thousands of birds to be infected in less than a week,” says Grant. “ ̽��ֱ��chicken gut is the ideal vessel for Campylobacter to flourish. Transmission is guaranteed by a continual process of consumption and excretion known as coprophagy.”

There are no vaccines – either for poultry or humans – to protect against Campylobacter. ̽��ֱ��ubiquity and resilience of Campylobacter jejuni (the strain that colonises poultry and causes most gastroenteritis in humans) have prompted a government-led push to reduce the level of infection by developing ways in which to contain, and ultimately eliminate, its presence in the nation’s most popular meat.

“We need to look at the problem both on an industry-wide scale and on a microbial scale. ̽��ֱ��first approach involves working hand-in-hand with producers and processors and the second working in the lab to understand the structure and behaviour of Campylobacter,” says Grant.

“Working with the industry, we’re building a picture of the highly dynamic process of transmission from one bird to another and also at the ways in which Campylobacter is spread during slaughtering and processing. In the lab we’re looking at how we can manipulate Campylobacter so that it can’t spread – essentially we’re trying to identify and target its Achilles heel.”

One avenue being explored is the identification of the Campylobacter genes required for chicken colonisation, which could make good targets for therapeutic intervention. Another approach is to disarm Campylobacter by altering its characteristic shape from spiral to rod-shaped. Once rod shaped it loses its ability to colonise chickens and cause disease in humans.

Scientists working on Campylobacter face formidable challenges. Highly successful in the environments where it thrives best, the bug is difficult to culture in the lab where scientists need to work with live bacteria.

In the food production and retailing sectors, a reluctance to take ownership of the problem has led to lack of investment in measures to address an issue that each sector sees as the other’s problem. ̽��ֱ��profit margins made by farmers are tiny – as low as one or two pence per bird produced. ̽��ֱ��onus therefore is seen to lie with processors and retailers to invest in intervention and control strategies.

There is a mounting sense of urgency in the drive to eliminate Campylobacter from the nation’s food chain. Incidents of Campylobacter food poisoning are continuing to rise. Around 75,000 cases per year are ‘culture confirmed’ and, due to under-reporting, the true total is estimated to be equivalent to at least 460,000, and possibly 750,000, cases.

“Campylobacter found in raw chicken sold to consumers is generally on the surface of the birds, which means that adequate cooking quickly destroys the bacteria. But we now think that it might be entering chickens’ muscle tissue and internal organs,” says Grant.

“Infection by Campylobacter is considered to be the most prevalent cause of bacterial diarrhoeal disease worldwide. Compared to many other pathogens we know comparatively little about the bacteria and there are still many more questions than answers. There is a need for alternative strategies to reduce Campylobacter in chickens and Campylobacter-induced disease burden in humans.”

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: D is for a creature that prowls the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, confronts students in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and was a fertile symbol for medieval poets.

Inset images: Raw chicken in a pot (eltpics); Campylobacter jejuni (Andrew Grant).

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, C is for Chicken – a popular source of protein that carries a hidden hazard in the form of Campylobacter.

In the lab we’re looking at how we can manipulate Campylobacter so that it can’t spread – we’re trying to identify and target its Achilles heel

Andrew Grant

U.S Department of Agriculture

Broiler chickens

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Pig-borne disease jumped into humans when rearing practices changed

cjb250 — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 09:00:00 +0000

Almost every pig carries harmless strains of the S. suis bacterium – such strains are known as ‘commensal’ strains. However, a more virulent group of strains of the bacteria also exist, which cause disease in pigs worldwide and are a major driver of antibiotic use for prevention. Increasingly, this group of strains is also implicated in serious human diseases such as meningitis and septicaemia.

In order to understand the genetic basis of disease in S. suis, an international study, led by the Bacterial Respiratory Diseases of Pigs-1 Technology (BRaDP1T) consortium, examined the genomes of 375 clinical samples from pigs and humans from the UK and Vietnam and combined these with data already published on 15 S. suis genome sequences and draft genomes from around the world. They found that the commensal strains and disease-causing strains differed genetically; in particular, the disease-causing strains have between 50 and 100 fewer genes than the commensal strains.

Dr Lucy Weinert from the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, first author of the study, says: “It seems that the loss of genes is associated with causing disease. This is something we see quite often in bacteria, but for reasons that are unclear. One possibility is that the missing genes are those that hinder the function of newly-acquired virulence factors in the genomes.”

By examining the S. suis’s ‘tree of life’ – which looks at how the bacteria have evolved over time – the researchers were able to show that the emergence of a group of strains causing meningitis in pigs and the human form of the disease dates back to the 1920s, when pig production was intensified with the introduction of wide-scale indoor rearing of meat-producing pigs in larger groups, supported by government schemes that favoured larger producers with regular throughput. However, despite having jumped the species barrier from pig to human, the bacteria do not appear to have adapted to infect humans.

“A group of more virulent strains seem to have emerged at around the time the pig industry changed, and it is these strains that mostly cause disease in pigs and humans,” says Professor Duncan Maskell, Head of the School of the Biological Sciences at Cambridge.

“Human S. suis disease in the West is extremely rare, but is seen more frequently in south east Asia. It is most likely spread to humans through poor food hygiene practices or other environmental factors. This emphasises the importance of monitoring such practices and putting policies in place to reduce the risk of the spread of infections between species.”

̽��ֱ��study was primarily funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Reference
Weinert, LA et al. Genomic signatures of human and animal disease in the zoonotic pathogen Streptococcus suis. Nature Communications; 31 March 2015

̽��ֱ��most virulent strains of Streptococcus suis, the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in adult humans in parts of southeast Asia and in pigs around the world, are likely to have evolved and become widespread in pigs at the same time as changes in rearing practices, according to research from an international consortium published today in the journal Nature Communications.

A group of more virulent strains seem to have emerged at around the time the pig industry changed, and it is these strains that mostly cause disease in pigs and humans

Duncan Maskell

Balint Földesi

Pig Head

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Grants take Cambridge in Africa Programme to next level

th288 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:44:30 +0000

̽��ֱ��36-month award approved by the Carnegie Corporation's Board of Trustee, alongside the four-year grant made by ̽��ֱ��Alborada Trust, will significantly enhance the funding already provided by the Isaac Newton Trust, the A.G. Leventis Foundation, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge for the establishment of the Cambridge-Africa Partnerships for Research Excellence (CAPREx).

CAPREx aims to strengthen Africa's capacity for sustainable excellence in research through close collaborative work with the region's most talented individuals.

Building on successful partnerships with the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana and Uganda's Makerere ̽��ֱ��, CAPREx's goal is to widen the scope of engagement to include the whole of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and involve a greater number of higher education institutions in Africa.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has a long and rich tradition of research in Africa, although most of it had previously depended on discrete collaborations between individuals or specific academic departments.

A more joined-up strategy has recently emerged for holistic engagement with African universities, based on existing initiatives such as THRiVE (Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence in East Africa) and MUII (Infection and Immunity Research Training Programme), both sponsored by ̽��ֱ��Wellcome Trust.

These capacity-building programmes focus on PhD and postdoctoral researchers in health-related disciplines. Young African researchers are matched with leading Cambridge academics who provide mentorship and support.

Fellows spend up to one year of their research programme at their Cambridge mentor's laboratory. Supervisors or mentors from Cambridge and Africa take part in exchange visits to provide maximum support and mentorship.

Other successful Cambridge initiatives include the Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme at the Centre of African Studies, supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust and the A.G. Leventis Foundation.

Focussing on research in the humanities and social sciences, this programme brings up to five African scholars to Cambridge each year for a six-month visiting fellowship, with the aim of enhancing the participants' research profiles.

Such programmes, which illustrate the depth and breadth of Cambridge's current engagement and expertise, make the proposed Cambridge-Africa Partnership unique.

̽��ֱ��newly awarded funds will help in providing further support and training to African researchers (at doctoral, post-doctoral and early-mid career levels) in an even wider range of subject areas, and across more countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

̽��ֱ��'Cambridge in Africa' programme is led by Professor David Dunne (Department of Pathology), with input from Professors James Wood and Duncan Maskell (Department of Veterinary Medicine) and Professor Megan Vaughan (Centre of African Studies), and support from Dr Pauline Essah.

It works in partnership with African universities and research institutes in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, among others.

Professor Dunne, who has collaborated with colleagues from African institutions for over three decades, said: "I am delighted that we have received generous funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and from ̽��ֱ��Alborada Trust to support our Cambridge in Africa Programme.

"These funds will provide a step change in the level of support available for African academics to engage with Cambridge and build on our successful experience with a number of Wellcome Trust African Institution capacity-building programmes.

" ̽��ֱ��building of relationships has proved beneficial for both African and Cambridge research. ̽��ֱ��generous financial support will be used by Cambridge and its African partners to train the best and brightest African researchers, and to help them to develop their research careers."

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said: "I am delighted at the award of the grants for this major and imaginative programme which brings together academics from Cambridge and Africa.

" ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� very much values these links and these awards will help us to build further and deeper institutional relationships in order to help the development of higher education. "

For further information about the Cambridge in Africa Programme, contact Professor James Wood (jlnw2@cam.ac.uk) or Dr Pauline Essah (pae21@cam.ac.uk).

Picture Caption: Dr Robert Tweyongyere, MUII fellow, working in Professor David Dunne's laboratory, Cambridge, August 2011

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge's wide-ranging and long-term strategy of engagement with African higher education institutions moved into its next phase following the recent announcement of a $1.2 million grant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and a $1 million grant by ̽��ֱ��Alborada Trust.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� very much values these links and these awards will help us to build further and deeper institutional relationships in order to help the development of higher education

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

Carnegie Alborada Grants

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Field to fork: safeguarding livestock health

lw355 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:45:03 +0000

About 17 billion chickens, almost 10 billion pigs, and nearly 2 billion each of cattle and sheep were produced as livestock worldwide in 2009. And, by 2050, demand for livestock is projected to double. With the added strain of increasing meat production on resources such as land, water, crops and energy, it’s vital to maximise the ‘output for input’, as Professor Duncan Maskell, Head of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and Marks and Spencer Professor of Farm Animal Health, Food Science and Food Safety, explained: “How you should apportion crops between food for animals and food and fuel for humans is a complex question, so it’s crucial to ensure that resource input counts in terms of output of meat, and one of the main moderators of this relationship is animal welfare, especially in terms of infectious disease.”

Viral epidemics can sweep through livestock, and endemic diseases such as respiratory infections can affect the rate at which animals grow. A further risk to food security is posed by bacterial infections of livestock that contaminate meat and cause food poisoning.

Research at the Department of Veterinary Medicine is tackling disease on all of these fronts in what Professor Maskell has described as “a perfect marriage between fundamental biological research and applied clinical outcomes.”

‘Flu-free’ chickens

A breakthrough was announced earlier this year that could prevent future bird flu outbreaks from spreading within poultry flocks. Dr Laurence Tiley, in collaboration with researchers in the Roslin Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh, produced the world’s first genetically modified chickens that prevent the spread of avian influenza.

Since 2003, over 300 million poultry have been culled as a result of influenza outbreaks, and in some countries the virus is now endemic in wild bird populations. Preventing virus transmission in chickens would reduce both the economic impact of the disease and the risk for people who are exposed to the infected birds.

̽��ֱ��scientists introduced a new gene that manufactures a ‘decoy’ molecule into the chicken genome. In a clever move to confuse the flu virus into ignoring its own replication needs, the decoy mimics an important control element of the virus and diverts the viral replication machinery away from its own genetic material.

“Because the control element is absolutely conserved across strains, we expect that the decoy will work against all strains of avian influenza and be difficult for the virus to evolve around,” said Dr Tiley, whose research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Although the birds become sick themselves, they don’t transmit the infection to other chickens, even those without the decoy molecule.

“At this stage, the chickens are not intended for consumption,” Dr Tiley added. “This genetic modification is a significant first step. Our objective now is to develop chickens that are completely resistant to avian flu.”

Threats from the wild

Viral epidemics are not just a concern in livestock, but also in relation to wildlife, as Professor James Wood explained: “Often, emerging infectious diseases originating from wildlife are a particular challenge because little might be known about the virus, how it’s transmitted to livestock and humans, or the potential for epidemics to spread.”

Nipah virus, for example, was first recognised in 1999 when an outbreak causing severe inflammation of the brain occurred in pigs and pig farmers in Malaysia. When the source of the virus was traced, it was found to be on fruit contaminated by infected fruit bats, the natural host of the virus.

“Bats epitomise the growing challenges associated with the spread of wildlife diseases,” added Professor Wood: “They are associated with a wide range of viruses, live in close proximity to animals and humans, and many important puzzles remain about the social, environmental and biological dynamics that shape pathogen transmission.”

̽��ֱ��first steps to remedy this lack of information were taken last year when a unique network was created comprising experts from institutions worldwide including collaborators in Bangladesh, Ghana and Kenya. ̽��ֱ��consortium was funded by a Catalyst grant from the Medical Research Council and three other research councils.

“ ̽��ֱ��network has a long-term aim of creating vitally needed interdisciplinary knowledge,” said Professor Wood, one of the leaders of the network, “as well as pioneering interventions geared to enabling bats, animals and people to co-exist with reduced disease risk.”

Super-vaccination at one sniff

Respiratory infections in pigs are a major animal welfare issue and cost the pig industry millions of pounds each year. An innovative project has begun the process of developing a ‘super-vaccine’ to guard against infection by the bacteria that are responsible for the most serious infections.

Funded with £5.6 million from the BBSRC, the consortium links experts from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Imperial College London (the project co-ordinator), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Royal Veterinary College.

Dr Dan Tucker, who together with Professor Maskell leads the Cambridge component of the five-year project, explained why these infections matter so much to food security: “When a pig gets sick it diverts its energy away from growth to fighting off the infection. This requires treatment with antibiotics and decreases the efficiency with which vegetable protein is converted into kilograms of meat.”

̽��ֱ��goal is to create a single super-vaccine that can be administered by nasal spray and protect against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Haemophilus parasuis, Mycoplasma hyopneumonia/hyorhinis and Streptococcus suis. “Our gold standard would be to create a live vaccine based on a mutated version of one of these bacteria that no longer causes the disease, and then engineer it to display portions of the other three bacteria so that a strong immune response is made to all,” said Dr Tucker.

High-throughout sequencing in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is enabling the scientists to assemble the largest ever sequenced collection of these bacteria. ̽��ֱ��team has begun to identify which genes need to be ‘knocked out’ to provide a live vaccine – information that will also help in understanding why some strains cause more virulent disease than others.

Alongside vaccine development, a diagnostic kit will be developed to detect all four pathogens in less than six hours. ̽��ֱ��goal is to have a diagnostic test and potential vaccine ready for field trials at Huazhong Agricultural ̽��ֱ�� in China within three years.

Safety first

Diseases can also be spread by meat. Although the global incidence of food-borne illness is difficult to estimate, up to 30% of the population in industrialised countries may be affected each year according to the World Health Organization.

Salmonella and Campylobacter – two of the most common sources of food-borne disease – are the basis of multiple research programmes at the Department of Veterinary Medicine, such as the research led by Professor Maskell. His team has particularly focused on understanding the dynamics of the interactions of bacteria with their animal hosts.

“Thanks to the completion of genome sequences for many of the chief culprits and the advent of high-throughput sequencing,” said Professor Maskell, “the door has been opened on many of the secrets of how pathogens such as salmonellae cause disease.”

“We are committed to maintaining strong basic research, but do this in the context of finding improved intervention strategies,” he added. “Health standards and life expectancy have gone up globally, and a large part of this is better nutrition. At many levels this means more meat and high-protein food. One key aim of our research is to provide the fundamental knowledge and clinical tools to keep livestock healthy and our food safe.”

For more information, please contact Professor Duncan Maskell (djm47@cam.ac.uk) at the Department of Veterinary Medicine.

Veterinary research in Cambridge is spearheading a new generation of preventive methods to protect livestock from disease.

One key aim of our research is to provide the fundamental knowledge and clinical tools to keep livestock healthy and our food safe.

Professor Duncan Maskell

Norrie Russell, ̽��ֱ��Roslin Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh

Genetically modified chicken

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Towards a ‘super-vaccine’ for swine bacterial diseases

bjb42 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:27:59 +0000

Among the most serious diseases in pigs are those that are caused by bacteria that live in their throats, airways or tonsils and can cause severe lung infections such as pneumonia. Infected animals either die quickly or fail to grow normally, resulting in substantial economic costs to the worldwide pig industry and adding to food security concerns. Because the infections are difficult to diagnose, and current vaccines have limited efficacy, antibiotics are now in widespread use in efforts to reduce infection.

A new five-year, £5.6 million grant awarded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under its strategic longer and larger grant (LoLa) scheme, which supports research projects requiring ‘big’ science approaches and longer timescales, aims to develop a new vaccine and a diagnostic tool to combat the four most common bacteria that cause infections in pigs.

̽��ֱ��grant has been awarded to a consortium of researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Royal Veterinary College, as well as Huazhong Agricultural ̽��ֱ�� in China, and involves three UK government-funded agencies. ̽��ֱ��consortium also receives support from Pfizer Animal Health.

‘This combined expertise has generated a new opportunity that is highly synergistic and where real progress is possible,’ said Professor Maskell, Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and leader of the Cambridge component. ‘It’s also a perfect marriage between fundamental biological research and applied clinical outcomes.’

‘As a first step, we are isolating bacteria from pigs and assembling the largest ever sequenced collection of these types of bacteria,’ explained co-investigator Dr Dan Tucker. ‘From this, we’ll design and assemble appropriate super-vaccines and single-platform diagnostic tests. Crucially, these will immunise and test pigs for all four pathogens at the same time.’ In the final year of the project, field trials will be carried out in China, where dedicated facilities for this type of work are already set up.

Commenting on the timeliness of the BBSRC funding, Professor Maskell added: ‘Technical innovations and the availability of genome data have progressed to such an extent, and continue to do so, that only recently has it become possible to embark on this type of programme to find effective vaccines and diagnostics.’

For more information, please contact Professor Duncan Maskell (djm47@cam.ac.uk), Marks & Spencer Professor of Farm Animal Health, Food Science and Food Safety at the Department of Veterinary Medicine (www.vet.cam.ac.uk/).

A new multidisciplinary research programme aims to develop a single vaccine that will combat four major respiratory pathogens of pigs.

It’s a perfect marriage between fundamental biological research and applied clinical outcomes.

Professor Duncan Maskell

̽��ֱ��Pug Father from Flickr

Prize Pig

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

̽��ֱ��Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK’s principal research funder across the biosciences. Its current Chair is Sir Tom Blundell, who is also Director of Research and Emeritus Professor in Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry.

Over the past decade, BBSRC has helped achieve a step change in bioscience. Descriptive, single-problem research is increasingly being replaced by generic, predictive and systems approaches, informed by the physical, computational and social sciences. ̽��ֱ��result is that the UK has kept its world-lead in fundamental bioscience, and enhanced its capability to generate the new knowledge needed to tackle global challenges such as food security, sustainable energy and healthier ageing.

BBSRC research at Cambridge exemplifies this combination of excellence and impact. A grants and fellowships portfolio of over £50 million supports research in more than 20 departments, ranging from predictive modelling of disease epidemiology, the role of short interfering RNAs in cell regulation, data standards and software for macromolecular analysis, to mechanisms of predator vision and defensive colouration in birds. BBSRC also funds around 100 postgraduate research students including some registered with the ̽��ֱ�� at the Babraham Institute.

Cambridge hosts one of six programmes that comprise the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre, which is a £26 million investment bringing together academics and industry to investigate sustainable methods for producing biofuels. Dr Paul Dupree in the Department of Biochemistry leads the Cambridge programme, with partners at Newcastle ̽��ֱ�� and Novozymes A/G, which seeks to improve the release of sugars from plant cell walls. An important resource for the Dupree lab, and many others across Cambridge, has been the protein-analysis capabilities of the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics, a long-term recipient of BBSRC funding.

Research projects requiring ‘big’ science approaches and longer timescales are supported by BBSRC under its strategic longer and larger (LoLa) grant scheme. One such grant to develop a pig super-vaccine was recently awarded to a consortium of researchers based at five universities, including Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine.

Ways to improve the manufacturability of viral vectors for therapeutics are currently being pursued with funding from the BBSRC-led Bioprocessing Research Industry Club.

BBSRC-funded research at Cambridge has also turned into notable innovations. One example is the massively parallel Solexa sequencing technology invented by Professor Shankar Balasubramanian and Professor David Klenerman in the Department of Chemistry, resulting in the spin-out company Solexa, which was purchased by Illumina for $600 million in 2007. ̽��ֱ��technology is revolutionising bioscience by improving the cost and speed of DNA sequencing by 1,000–10,000 fold on previous technologies. In recognition of this work, Professor Balasubramanian was recently named BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2010.

For more information and to download the BBSRC 2010–2015 Strategic Plan, please visit www.bbsrc.ac.uk/

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