tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/life-sciences-43022/articlesLife sciences – The Conversation2023-08-22T12:25:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2116662023-08-22T12:25:22Z2023-08-22T12:25:22ZSeeing what the naked eye can’t − 4 essential reads on how scientists bring the microscopic world into plain sight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543356/original/file-20230817-17-593vu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1839&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This microscopy image shows the retina of a mouse, laid flat and made fluorescent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Mr9Ybe">Kenyoung Kim, Wonkyu Ju and Mark Ellisman/National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The microscope is an iconic symbol of the life sciences – and for good reason. From the discovery of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/robert-hooke-the-english-leonardo-who-was-a-17th-century-scientific-superstar-119497">existence of cells</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexism-pushed-rosalind-franklin-toward-the-scientific-sidelines-during-her-short-life-but-her-work-still-shines-on-her-100th-birthday-139249">structure of DNA</a>, microscopy has been a quintessential tool of the field, unlocking new dimensions of the living world not only for scientists but also for the general public.</p>
<p>For the life sciences, where understanding the function of a living thing often requires interpreting its form, imaging is vital to confirming theories and revealing what is yet unknown.</p>
<p>This selection of stories from The Conversation’s archive presents a few ways in which microscopy has contributed to different forms of scientific knowledge, including techniques that take visualization beyond sight altogether.</p>
<h2>1. Seeing as identifying</h2>
<p>Over the past few centuries, the microscope has undergone a gradual but significant evolution. Each advance has allowed researchers to see increasingly smaller and more fragile structures and biomolecules at increasingly higher resolution – from cells, to the structures within cells, to the structures within the structures within cells, down to atoms.</p>
<p>But there is still a resolution gap between the smallest and largest structures of the cell. Biophysicist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MZ6qrPUAAAAJ&hl=en">Jeremy Berg</a> drew an analogy to Google Maps: Though scientists could see the city as a whole and individual houses, they couldn’t make out the neighborhoods. </p>
<p>“Seeing these neighborhood-level details is essential to being able to understand how individual components work together in the environment of a cell,” he writes.</p>
<p>Scientists are working to bridge that resolution gap. Improvements to the 2014 Nobel Prize-winning <a href="https://theconversation.com/zooming-across-time-and-space-simultaneously-with-superresolution-to-understand-how-cells-divide-203324">superresolution microscopy</a>, for example, have enhanced the study of lengthy processes like cell division by capturing images across a range of size and time scales simultaneously, bringing clarity to details traditional microscopes tend to blur.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cryo-ET image of SARS-CoV-2" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543350/original/file-20230817-29-4xyjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cryo-electron tomography shows what molecules look like in high resolution – in this case, the virus that causes COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nanographics.at/projects/coronavirus-3d/">Nanographics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Another technique, <a href="https://theconversation.com/visualizing-the-inside-of-cells-at-previously-impossible-resolutions-provides-vivid-insights-into-how-they-work-195873">cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM</a>, won a Nobel Prize in 2017 for bringing even more complex, dynamic molecules into view by flash-freezing them. This creates a protective glasslike shell around samples as they’re bombarded by a beam of electrons to create their photo op. Cryo-ET, a specialized type of cryo-EM, can construct 3D images of molecular structures within their natural environments. </p>
<p>These techniques not only generate images at or near atomic resolution but also preserve the natural shape of difficult-to-capture biomolecules of interest. Researchers were able to use cryo-EM, for instance, to capture the elusive structure of the protein on the surface of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-uncovered-the-structure-of-the-key-protein-for-a-future-hepatitis-c-vaccine-heres-how-they-did-it-193705">shape-shifting hepatitis C virus</a>, providing key information for a future vaccine.</p>
<p>Further enhancements to science’s visual acuity will reveal more of the fine details of the building blocks of life. </p>
<p>“I anticipate seeing new theories on how we understand cells, moving from disorganized bags of molecules to intricately organized and dynamic systems,” writes Berg.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/visualizing-the-inside-of-cells-at-previously-impossible-resolutions-provides-vivid-insights-into-how-they-work-195873">Visualizing the inside of cells at previously impossible resolutions provides vivid insights into how they work</a>
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<h2>2. Seeing as scoping</h2>
<p>Microscopy images are often framed as snapshots – circumscribed parts of a whole that have been magnified to reveal their hidden features. But nothing in an organism works in isolation. After discerning individual components, scientists are tasked with charting how they interact with each other in the macrosystem of the body. Figuring this out requires not only identifying every component that makes up a particular cell, tissue and organ but also placing them in relation to each other – in other words, making a map.</p>
<p>Researchers have been charting the brain by stitching together multiple snapshots like a photo mosaic. They use different techniques to label a specific cell type and then image the whole brain at high resolution. Layer by layer, each run-through creates an increasingly detailed and more complete model. Neuroscientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WOQx1ksAAAAJ&hl=en">Yongsoo Kim</a> likens the process to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/mapping-how-the-100-billion-cells-in-the-brain-all-fit-together-is-the-brave-new-world-of-neuroscience-170182">satellite image of the brain</a>. Combining millions of these photos allows researchers to zoom into the weeds and zoom out to a bird’s-eye view.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stiched high-resolution microscopy image of mouse brain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432261/original/file-20211116-25-1vtphzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Zooming in on this image of a mouse brain reveals rectangular lines where images were stitched together, with each colored dot representing a specific brain cell type.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://kimlab.io">Yongsoo Kim</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>But building a map of a city, however detailed, is not the same as understanding its rhythm and atmosphere. Likewise, knowing where every cell is located relative to each other doesn’t necessarily tell researchers how they function or interact. Just as important as charting out the landscape of an organ is coming up with a working theory of how it all fits together and performs as a whole. Right now, Kim notes, analysis lags behind technical advances in data collection.</p>
<p>“Incredibly rich, high-resolution brain mapping presents a great opportunity for neuroscientists to deeply ponder what this new data says about how the brain works,” Kim writes. “Though there are still many unknowns about the brain, these new tools and techniques could help bring them to light.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mapping-how-the-100-billion-cells-in-the-brain-all-fit-together-is-the-brave-new-world-of-neuroscience-170182">Mapping how the 100 billion cells in the brain all fit together is the brave new world of neuroscience</a>
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<h2>3. Seeing as recognizing</h2>
<p>Every improvement in technology brings a parallel improvement in the data it collects, both in quality and in quantity. But that data is only useful insofar as researchers are able to analyze it – high granularity isn’t helpful if those details aren’t appreciable, and high output isn’t beneficial if it’s too overwhelming to organize.</p>
<p>Automated microscopes, for example, have made it possible to take time-lapse images of cells, resulting in massive amounts of data that require manual sifting. Neuroscientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=cQdBoWUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&alert_preview_top_rm=2&sortby=pubdate">Jeremy Linsley</a> and his team encountered this dilemma in their own work on neurodegenerative disease. They’ve been relying on an army of interns to scour hundreds of thousands of images of neurons and tally each death – a slow and expensive process.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy images showing rat neurons before and after treatment with glutamate; the neurons are colored green when alive and yellow when dead" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443244/original/file-20220128-14047-1wva32o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">These images show living neurons colored green and dead neurons colored yellow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf8142">Jeremy Linsley</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>So they turned to artificial intelligence. Researchers can train an AI model to recognize specific patterns by feeding it many sample images, pointing out structures of interest and extrapolating the algorithm to new contexts. Linsley and his team developed a model to <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ai-technique-identifies-dead-cells-under-the-microscope-100-times-faster-than-people-can-potentially-accelerating-research-on-neurodegenerative-diseases-like-alzheimers-174154">distinguish between living and dead neurons</a> with greater speed and accuracy than people trained to do the same task. </p>
<p>They also opened the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-black-box-a-computer-scientist-explains-what-it-means-when-the-inner-workings-of-ais-are-hidden-203888">black box</a> of the model to figure out how it was finding dead cells, revealing new signals of neuron death that researchers previously weren’t aware of because they weren’t obvious to the human eye.</p>
<p>“By taking out human guesswork, (AI models) increase the reproducibility and speed of research and can help researchers discover new phenomena in images that they would otherwise not have been able to easily recognize,” writes Linsley.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ai-technique-identifies-dead-cells-under-the-microscope-100-times-faster-than-people-can-potentially-accelerating-research-on-neurodegenerative-diseases-like-alzheimers-174154">New AI technique identifies dead cells under the microscope 100 times faster than people can – potentially accelerating research on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's</a>
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<h2>4. Seeing as appreciating</h2>
<p>Even before they had the instruments to zoom in on samples, researchers had a tool in their arsenal to study the living world that they still use today: art.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of cells in a cork from Robert Hooke's Micrographia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543351/original/file-20230817-7317-pfm7di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">This illustration from Robert Hooke’s ‘Micrographia’ shows the structure of cells in a cork.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Micrographia_Schem_11.jpg">Robert Hooke/National Library of Wales via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Centuries ago, scientists and artists examined plants, animals and anatomy through illustration. Sketches of unfamiliar species in their natural environments aided in their classification, and drawings of the human body advanced study of its structure and function. With the help of the printing press, these artistic renderings – which later included the <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15491">view under the lenses</a> of early microscopes – popularized scientific knowledge about the natural world.</p>
<p>Though hand drawings have since given way to advanced imaging techniques and computer models, the legacy of communicating science through art continues. Scientific publications and <a href="https://theconversation.com/art-illuminates-the-beauty-of-science-and-could-inspire-the-next-generation-of-scientists-young-and-old-168925">BioArt competitions</a> highlight laboratory images and videos to share the awe and wonder of studying the natural world with the general public. Using visualizations in classrooms and art museums can also promote science literacy by giving students a chance to look through the eye of the microscope as a scientist would.</p>
<p>Biologist and BioArt Awards judge <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christine-Curran">Chris Curran</a> believes that making visible the processes and concepts of science can grant a greater depth of understanding of the natural world necessary to being an informed citizen. </p>
<p>“That those images and videos are often beautiful is an added benefit,” she writes.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ajuxeOly2UE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video of cells migrating in a zebra fish embryo won first place in the 2022 Nikon Small World in Motion Competition.</span></figcaption>
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<p>And the abstract qualities of science can be made tangible in ways that don’t involve sight. Proteins, for instance, can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-music-of-proteins-is-made-audible-through-a-computer-program-that-learns-from-chopin-168718">translated into music</a> by mapping their physical properties into sound: amino acids turn into notes, while structural loops become tempos and motifs. Computational biologists <a href="https://scholar.google.com.sg/citations?user=Ic2nqDsAAAAJ&hl=en">Peng Zhang</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=784B-f0AAAAJ&hl=en">Yuzong Chen</a> enhanced the musicality of these mapping techniques by basing them on different music styles, such as that of Chopin. Consequently, a protein that prevents cancer formation, p53, sounds toccata-like, and the protein that binds to the hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin flutters with recurring motifs.</p>
<p>Framing scientific images as art often requires no more than a change in perspective. And uncovering the poetry of science, many researchers would agree, can help reveal the artistry of life.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/art-illuminates-the-beauty-of-science-and-could-inspire-the-next-generation-of-scientists-young-and-old-168925">Art illuminates the beauty of science – and could inspire the next generation of scientists young and old</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Visualization is an essential part of the scientific process. Advances in imaging have enabled eye-opening discoveries, not only for scientists and researchers but also for the general public.Vivian Lam, Associate Health and Biomedicine EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905782022-09-29T19:16:14Z2022-09-29T19:16:14ZThe night is full of animal life, but scientists know very little about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484547/original/file-20220914-18-xmkk2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Naturalists and life scientists have long debated how insect-eating bats navigate their dark world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bats-flying-against-sun-golden-sky-129518465">Sarun T/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human disturbance is rapidly changing the nature of the nocturnal world. Intensive farming, suburban spread, artificially lit cities, and continuously busy road systems mean <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29903973/">daytime species</a> are becoming increasingly active throughout the night. Ecologists <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25225371/">suggest</a> that the majority of land animals are either nocturnal or active across both the day and night. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/too-hot-to-sleep-nights-are-warming-faster-than-days-as-earth-heats-up-186958">Recent research</a> has also shown that the night is warming considerably faster than the day. The stifling night-time heat experienced across Europe this summer is indicative of this, placing nocturnal animals under even greater stress. </p>
<p>The transforming night adds new sensory pressures concerning finding food, a mate, and navigating a world permeated by artificial illumination. Environmental change is severely threatening the ability of nocturnal animals to coexist with humans. The conservation of nocturnal species has therefore become urgent. </p>
<p>Despite the abundance of night-time life, the understanding of nocturnal species has evaded science throughout history. Physical restraints on human navigation in the dark are partially responsible for this. This scientific blind spot is referred to as the “nocturnal problem”.</p>
<p>The legacy of this inaccessibility remains a barrier to our understanding of nocturnal life today. However, given the environmental threat now facing the nocturnal world, this will have profound consequences should it remain unaddressed. A better understanding of nocturnal life is critical to ensure its effective protection.</p>
<h2>The origins of the ‘nocturnal problem’</h2>
<p>So how did the nocturnal problem arise and why does it still impede science?</p>
<p>Constrained by their own reliance on vision, early scientists struggled to imagine the different ways in which animals might navigate in the dark. The myths that built up around familiar nocturnal creatures, such as hedgehogs, are evidence of historical attempts to fill the scientific gap.</p>
<p>The Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that hedgehogs poached apples and carried them off on their spines. Such mythology was commonly included within Victorian natural history texts as an introduction to more factual descriptions of hedgehog anatomy, such as their capacity for smell and other bodily adaptations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A hedgehog passing a road with a car light illuminating the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484573/original/file-20220914-4859-6nr6ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even the experiences of hedgehogs remain to some degree unknown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hedgehog-passing-street-night-car-lights-1280471914">Lukasz Walas/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even artificial illumination afforded very limited access. Illumination fundamentally changes the nature of the nocturnal world, with impacts on animal behaviour. A good example is the attraction of moths to street lights.</p>
<p>The historical debate surrounding how insect-eating bats navigate their dark world illustrates the problem. Numerous attempts have been made to understand bat senses. However, it was not until the late 1930s, more than 150 years after experimentation on bats had begun, that the scientists Donald R. Griffin and Robert Galambos identified echolocation – the ability to navigate via the emission and detection of sound signals. </p>
<p>Griffin would later describe the secrets of bat senses as a “magic well”, acknowledging the fundamental challenge of comprehending senses so different from our own. </p>
<p>But efforts to understand nocturnal senses could only take scientists so far. In 1940, American naturalist Orlando Park declared that the biological sciences suffered from a “nocturnal problem”, in reference to the continued inability to understand the nocturnal world. This was reflected in the more recent philosophical text of Thomas Nagel, which posed the question <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/ugmodules/humananimalstudies/lectures/32/nagel_bat.pdf">what it like is to like to be a bat?</a></p>
<h2>Persistence of the nocturnal problem</h2>
<p>Despite technological developments, including the introduction of infrared photography, aspects of nocturnal life continue to elude modern science. </p>
<p>While technology has afforded scientists a much better understanding of echolocation in bats, our way of thinking about bat senses remains limited by our own dependence on vision. When describing echolocation, scientists still suggest that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3172592/">bats “see” using echoes</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1296266269008654336"}"></div></p>
<p>The elusive Australian Night Parrot was presumed extinct for much of the 20th century. Although they have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/science/night-parrot-ghost-bird-australia.html">recently rediscovered</a>, scientists remain unable to estimate their population size accurately while questions over the threats facing the species persist. </p>
<p>Despite an improvement in scientific research, nocturnal life remains understudied. In 2019, life scientist <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/702250">Kevin J. Gaston</a> called for an expansion of research into nocturnal life. History shows us that when there are scientific gaps in knowledge about the night, cultures create their own truths to fill those gaps. The consequences of doing so may be significant. </p>
<p>The night is ecologically rich and efforts to fill these gaps in scientific understanding should be prioritised. The nocturnal world is threatened by environmental change, and its future depends on our commitment to getting to know the darkness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190578/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Andy Flack received funding for this research from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The funding relates to the project 'Dark-dwellers as more-than-human misfits'.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Would was a Research Associate on Dr Andy Flack's AHRC Leadership Fellows Project 'dark-dwellers as more-than-human misfits.' </span></em></p>Humans have long struggled to understand the nocturnal world. As environmental change becomes increasingly acute, understanding their lives has never been more critical.Andy Flack, Senior Lecturer in Modern and Environmental History, University of BristolAlice Would, Lecturer in Imperial and Environmental History, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1760772022-02-21T15:54:56Z2022-02-21T15:54:56ZHave hybrid coronaviruses already been made? We simply don’t know for sure, and that’s a problem<p>At the end of 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/11/17/2021-25204/possession-use-and-transfer-of-select-agents-and-toxins-addition-of-sars-covsars-cov-2-chimeric">quietly added</a> “chimeric viruses” – viruses that contain genetic material derived from two or more distinct viruses – to its list of most dangerous pathogens. </p>
<p>The CDC designated this type of research as a “restricted experiment” that requires approval from the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services – an executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of Americans. The CDC believes that immediate regulatory oversight of these experiments is essential to protect the public from the potential consequences of a release of these viruses.</p>
<p>It is possible that <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/11/17/2021-25204/possession-use-and-transfer-of-select-agents-and-toxins-addition-of-sars-covsars-cov-2-chimeric">at least one lab</a> in the US is interested in conducting experiments to produce a more dangerous version of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. The experiments would add genetic material from the original SARS virus, which first emerged in 2003, to the SARS-CoV-2 strain to create an aggressive “chimeric virus”. </p>
<p>We say it is “possible” that chimeric coronaviruses have been made because we simply do not know for sure. US labs are not obliged to publicly report, explain, or justify such experiments. And this highlights a larger issue. </p>
<p>The current approach to preventing high-risk pathogen research is piecemeal and reactive. It does not foster a larger public debate about whether the potential societal benefits of such research outweigh the very significant risks. The world lacks a comprehensive approach to biorisk management that incorporates biosafety, biosecurity and oversight of “dual-use research”, research that is intended to provide a clear benefit, but which could easily be misapplied to do harm.</p>
<h2>Not the only type of dangerous research</h2>
<p>Research with dangerous pathogens is just one of many kinds of life science research with high-risk consequences. As advances in science teach us more about the healthy functioning of humans, animals and plants, we are also inadvertently learning more about how these healthy functions could potentially be disrupted to deliberately cause harm. </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240036161">recent report</a> from the science division of the World Health Organization (WHO) identified several areas of the life sciences with misuse potential. These include gene therapy, viral vectors, genome editing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/gene-drives-accelerate-evolution-but-we-need-brakes-98401">gene drives</a> (a way of changing an entire population of a specific species by altering its genome), synthetic biology and neurobiology. </p>
<p>Risks of repurposing information, methods or technologies from these fields to deliberately cause harm are not adequately dealt with through current governance mechanisms and practices. Neither are the challenges from the life sciences <a href="https://www.sipri.org/publications/2019/other-publications/bio-plus-x-arms-control-and-convergence-biology-and-emerging-technologies">converging</a> with technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and data analytics, that not only open new possibilities to enhance health, but also potentially enable greater harm to be caused more easily.</p>
<p>A 2021 <a href="https://www.ghsindex.org/">survey of biorisk management policies</a> around the world found that most countries do not have comprehensive, national systems for biosafety and biosecurity governance. Even countries, like the US, that scored high on biosecurity and biosafety have implemented these policies poorly in practice, as exemplified by <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2018/02/new-pathogen-research-rules-gain-of-function-loss-of-clarity/">questionable oversight</a> of gain-of-function research on potential pandemic pathogens funded by the National Institutes of Health. </p>
<p>Given the increasing number of countries conducting high-risk life science research and the potential global impact of accidental or deliberate misuse of the science, international standards, setting out expectations and responsibilities for safe, secure and responsible research, are urgently needed. </p>
<h2>Steaming ahead</h2>
<p>We are at a significant point in time, with high-risk life science research steaming ahead despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-nine-labs-around-world-handle-the-deadliest-pathogens-only-a-quarter-score-high-on-safety-161777">indicators</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-253/full">warning signs</a> that risk assessments are not conducted comprehensively and transparently. We cannot afford overconfidence in the safety and security practices of life scientists, their institutions, funders and publishers. </p>
<p>Knee-jerk regulatory responses to individual experiments, and treating safety, security and dual-use risks in isolation, must stop. It is high time for a new global architecture for life science governance that takes a comprehensive and coherent approach to biorisk management and that revisits how high-risk life sciences research, funding and publication processes are conducted. </p>
<p>The world must ensure basic and applied life science knowledge, materials and skills are used for peaceful purposes and for the betterment of humans and the health of the planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Koblentz receives funding from Effective Giving. He is is affiliated with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, serves as a pro bono advisor to DARPA and the WHO, and is a member of the Biological Threat Advisory Board of Heat Biologics. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Filippa Lentzos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Risky life-science projects need global governance. Unfortunately, current standards and practices are not up to the task.Filippa Lentzos, Senior Lecturer in Science and International Security and Co-Director Centre of the Centre for Science & Security Studies, King's College LondonGregory D. Koblentz, Associate Professor and Director of the Biodefense Graduate Program, George Mason UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1339822020-08-13T15:40:50Z2020-08-13T15:40:50ZGlobal business travel will not be killed off by coronavirus – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352733/original/file-20200813-18-19vt3s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jet-plane-aircraft-traveling-sky-over-613955513">Blue Planet Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global business travel has largely ground to a halt during the pandemic. Experts <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/89e9aac1-d009-46b9-95e4-eae3bea50a51">have been</a> raising the alarm that this is the death of business travel as we know it, arguing that it will be a long time before the virus is really gone and that business people have become used to meetings on the likes of Zoom and MS Teams. As a result, many of them no longer see the need for constantly crossing the globe and living out of a suitcase. </p>
<p>We want to urge caution here. There have been similar predictions before, and they were proven wrong. The 9/11 attacks had a negative effect on global business travel, for example, but it <a href="https://skift.com/2018/09/14/10-years-later-how-the-travel-industry-came-back-from-the-financial-crisis/">found its feet</a> several years later. There was a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/3235079/Financial-crisis-forces-cuts-in-business-travel.html">similar downturn</a> and <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:k0OjmxEGc-UJ:https://research.skift.com/report/travel-winners-and-losers-during-the-2008-financial-crisis-lessons-for-covid-19/+&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk">revival</a> in business travel after the global financial crisis of 2007-09. </p>
<p>In 2015, the International Air Transport Association <a href="https://apex.aero/2020/06/10/aftershocks-coronavirus-impact">found that</a> it takes at least five years for the industry to recover from substantial short-term shocks. But despite those bumps, global airline traffic has shown stable long-term growth since the 1970s. Clearly, the longer the pandemic lasts, the longer the recovery may be, but it will probably come.</p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>A revival in global business travel is likely to vary across sectors and the required location of travel. One sector that is centre stage right now, and arguably more insulated from the pandemic than others, is <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/reimagining-medtech-for-a-covid-19-world">life sciences</a>. </p>
<p>Medical device companies such as Medtronic and Roche have been benefiting by selling equipment to help fight the virus, such as <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2020/03/26/scientists-and-industry-are-dashing-to-make-more-ventilators">ventilators</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/roche-coronavirus-antibody-test-uk">testing kits</a>. Pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/us/politics/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine.html">banking on</a> producing a vaccine before 2021. </p>
<p>So this is an industry that has stayed active during the crisis and is likely to be a big winner over the next couple of years. It is also a sector that engages its employees in substantial business travel around the world. For these reasons, it is arguably the ideal sector in which to carry out research into the future of business travel. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hand building tower of dice with medical symbols on them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352741/original/file-20200813-18-l28rp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Club med.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hand-chooses-emoticon-icons-healthcare-medical-1686566557">Mizkit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.52">interviewed</a> 15 global managers in major medical devices firms, before and during the pandemic, to explore the importance of business travel in carrying out their global work. They resoundingly agreed that although their travel schedules are for the most part on hiatus, they expect to be back in the air as soon as they can.</p>
<p>At least in the short term, however, they expect global travel to proceed differently for them. Their companies will focus on sending executives to countries that are part of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53578102">regional travel corridors</a> where <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/five-things-know-about-travel-bubbles-180974983/#:%7E:text=Travel%20bubbles%2C%20also%20called%20travel,the%20coronavirus%20has%20been%20contained.">flights are permitted</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/green-zones-a-mathematical-proposal-for-how-to-exit-from-the-covid-19-lockdown-ec3ea698f2">there are</a> not quarantine requirements at either end. </p>
<p>Our interviewees report that some firms have already increased their travel in cars or trains where convenient, particularly in Europe. Intercontinental business travel is expected to be the slowest to return, with North and South America likely to be the last continents to open up again. Companies we talked to have planned their first face-to-face global gatherings for October 2020, based within their home region.</p>
<p>In parallel, the travel industry is keen to remove restrictions and open up travel routes, particularly within and between <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarathiessen/2020/05/17/airlines-return-to-europe-skies-for-summer/">Europe</a>, the <a href="https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2020/07/19/qatar-airways-to-resume-flights-to-guangzhou-from-july-26/">Middle East</a> and east Asia. We are also witnessing a rise in the use of individuals and organisations hiring <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/your-money/coronavirus-private-jets.html">private jets </a>as short-term solutions to avoiding airport delays. Some UK universities have also pursued this route, <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1191816.shtml">chartering private jets</a> for incoming international students as a way to ensure a steady flow of income.</p>
<h2>Years to come</h2>
<p>In the medium term, our study suggests that life sciences companies will continue to expand, particularly in developing countries, and view travel as a vital channel for maintaining existing and securing new business in these markets. </p>
<p>Our interviewees insist that doing business in developing markets requires overcoming complex cultural issues, and that you build up trust by meeting face to face. Sealing a deal with a new customer, training a local physician on a new product, or solving a problem in a global team can only be done in person.</p>
<p>Our research, therefore, makes us sceptical that global firms will replace travel with virtual substitutes over the longer term. The companies of our interviewees have been relatively slow to adjust to virtual meetings. So far, managers have received little training on global remote working or building virtual skills, and commonly have been left to their own devices. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white person shaking hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352739/original/file-20200813-18-a1opvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Here at last.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-detail-diverse-male-business-handshake-255061546">karelnoppe</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that global remote working was not the escape from the intense conditions of business travel that you might think. Managers found that it still meant extended workdays in order to connect across time zones. They were generally bored of Zoom meetings and eager to get back in the air, despite the intensive lifestyle it creates and work-family conflicts. It appears that global travel is ingrained in the culture of their companies, and will remain part of these managers’ DNA. </p>
<p>Having said all that, our research also raises significant concerns over how these companies are managing the wellbeing of their business travellers. Our findings corroborate recent work by the <a href="https://www.abcmoney.co.uk/2020/07/01/what-is-the-impact-of-business-travel-on-mental-wellbeing/">International SOS Foundation</a> revealing that frequent business trips lead to physical and mental challenges ranging from stress and depression to poor sleep and a bad diet. </p>
<p>Worryingly, most company wellbeing initiatives related to flexible working, mental health, or training and development do not account for the trials that frequent fliers face. And as business travel returns after the pandemic, it is likely to be more stressful than before. Despite the desire to return to the way things were, the world may look quite different and may add further, unanticipated pressure points.</p>
<p>This evidence may be an early indicator of where other industries might get to after the pandemic has ended. Above all, the much discussed “new normal” may apply less to business travel than many believe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A series of interviews with life-sciences executives finds them desperate to bring Zoom meetings to an end.Kieran Michael Conroy, Lecturer in Global Strategy, Queen's University BelfastAnthony McDonnell, Professor of Human Resource Management, University College CorkStefan Jooss, Lecturer in Management, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916082018-02-09T23:10:00Z2018-02-09T23:10:00ZCanada’s unsung female heroes of life sciences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205770/original/file-20180209-51713-ighgwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former governor general David Johnston invests Toronto scientist Janet Rossant as a Companion of the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa in 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/women-and-girls-in-science-day/">International Day of Women and Girls in Science</a> is Feb. 11. To mark the occasion, let’s look back at some of Canada’s women life scientists. They’ve been pioneers in providing a foundation of knowledge through the sheer force of their world-class talent —going back more than a century. </p>
<p>Their legacy has established a knowledge foundation that represents the impact of real science. </p>
<p>Largely unknown by Canada’s decision-makers in government, industry and even the general public, their work is unheralded by ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Their relative obscurity in Canada, then and now, appears to be the preoccupation of how budgetary decisions are made as opposed to a consideration of talent and merit.</p>
<p>It’s high time to give them their due:</p>
<h2>Maud Menten</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1234&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1234&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205763/original/file-20180209-51716-1jnuap1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1234&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maud Leonora Menten. Undated photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Smithsonian Institute)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the turn of the century, University of Toronto medical graduate Maud Menten was barred from doing independent research in Canada as part of the accepted sexism of the day.</p>
<p>Her discovery in Berlin in 1913 provided the first insight into how chemical reactions in every cell of our body are regulated by enzymes. The discovery enabled enzymes to be purified, modified and targeted for drug therapy for disease. </p>
<p>Today enzymes serve as targets for about a third of all drugs in clinical use.
<br><br><br><br><br><br></p>
<h2>Maude Abbott</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205765/original/file-20180209-51697-oprili.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maude Abbott.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">McGill University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maude Abbott was a world-renowned scholar, Bishop’s University medical graduate (1894) and a McGill University medical museum curator and pathology lecturer. </p>
<p>Her work in 1905 on congenital heart disease is critical to modern surgery. Abbott’s stunning pathology dissections are preserved today at the McGill Maude Abbott Medical Museum and remain unsurpassed to this day.
<br><br><br><br><br></p>
<h2>Brenda Milner</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205766/original/file-20180209-51727-lj2w7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr. Brenda Milner is seen in the House of Commons among other laureates of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in February 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Jonathan Hayward)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the middle of the 20th century, McGill’s Brenda Milner, a renowned scholar and founder of the field of neuropsychology, discovered that memory in humans is multiple and stored in several different parts of the brain. </p>
<p>Her discoveries in 1957 led to better treatments for a variety of brain disorders including trauma, degenerative and psychiatric diseases.</p>
<h2>Annette Herscovics</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205768/original/file-20180209-51713-1yadvc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annette Herscovics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">McGill University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At McGill, Annette Herscovics discovered in 1969 that thyroglobulin, a precursor to thyroid hormone, undergoes carbohydrate modifications.</p>
<p>This was one of the first discoveries of a class of proteins known today as “glycoproteins.” Carbohydrate addition to proteins is today known as the most abundant protein modification for all life forms on the planet. </p>
<p>At Harvard in 1974, Herscovics then discovered the exact mechanism for carbohydrate addition that is a universal mechanism for all organisms with nucleated cells. </p>
<p>Upon returning to McGill in 1981, she discovered how these modifications are relevant to human disease, including cancer. </p>
<h2>Rose Johnstone</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205769/original/file-20180209-51703-f1d5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rose Johnstone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">McGill University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Herscovics’s PhD supervisor was Rose Johnstone, who made a monumental discovery at McGill in 1983. </p>
<p>She discovered exactly how red blood cells in our body are made from precursor cells through a previously unknown structure she named “exosomes.” </p>
<p>Exosomes are now recognized as a universal protein delivery mechanism used by all cells in our body. They’re actively studied by academics and industry for the understanding and treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.</p>
<h2>Morag Park</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205771/original/file-20180209-51723-28jrdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Morag Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">McGill University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the U.S. National Cancer Institute in 1986, Morag Park’s work on mutant <a href="https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/MET">“MET” gene</a> association with several different cancers led to international prominence. </p>
<p>Today, Park is head of the McGill Cancer Research Centre, and has extended her discoveries to breast cancer and the importance of the surrounding normal cells in tumour progression.</p>
<h2>Janet Rossant</h2>
<p>Janet Rossant discovered the mechanisms used by embryos to generate organs and tissues with direct relevance to childhood diseases. </p>
<p>Her talent was first recognized at Brock University in 1977 and was followed by recruitment to the Lunenfeld Institute in Toronto. She was then director of the Research Institute of the Hospital for Sick Kids, and is now president and scientific director of the <a href="http://gairdner.org/">Gairdner Foundation.</a></p>
<h2>Mona Nemer</h2>
<p>Mona Nemer is currently Canada’s Chief Scientific Adviser discovered in Ottawa how genes that regulate the development of the heart help understand heart disease.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205772/original/file-20180209-51719-1bd8ffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr. Mona Nemer is introduced as Canada’s new Chief Science Advisor on Parliament Hill in September 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Nada Jabado</h2>
<p>The discoveries of <a href="http://www.thechildren.com/departments-and-staff/staff/nada-jabado-md-phd-pediatric-hemato-oncologist">Nada Jabado</a>, a McGill physician scientist and paediatric cancer specialist, focus on how proteins are modified in cancer via the epigenome that mark the DNA in our genes to change the function of the gene. </p>
<h2>Heidi McBride</h2>
<p>McGill cell biologist <a href="http://mcbridelab.org/about/">Heidi McBride</a> has made transformative discoveries on the role of mitochondria (the energy factory in our cells) in cancer and neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s disease.</p>
<h2>Freda Miller</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.sickkids.ca/AboutSickKids/Directory/People/M/Freda-Miller.html">Freda Miller</a> at the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto has deciphered the mechanisms used to generate neuronal circuits during development from a thin sheet of non-neuronal precursor cells.</p>
<h2>Anne Claude Gingras</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.lunenfeld.ca/researchers/gingras">Anne Claude Gingras</a> of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto is a specialist in “quantitative proteomics.” It’s led to enormous advances in our understanding of cell organization with direct application to disease.</p>
<h2>Andrews, Arrowsmith and Edwards</h2>
<p>Brenda Andrews, Cheryl Arrowsmith, and Elizabeth Edwards are internationally renowned for their discoveries at the University of Toronto. </p>
<p><a href="http://sites.utoronto.ca/andrewslab/">Andrews</a> defines the new field of systems biology to understand cell organization using robots and Artificial Intelligence and its application to disease. </p>
<p><a href="http://nmr.uhnres.utoronto.ca/arrowsmith/">Arrowsmith’s</a> discoveries focus on cellular protein structure resolved at the atomic level to understand how chemical modifications regulate gene expression and their relevance to disease. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.chem-eng.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/faculty-members/elizabeth-a-edwards/">Edwards’</a> work on “bioaugmentation” through anaerobic microbes to detoxify environmental pollutants is of direct relevance to the nightmare of toxic industrial and municipal waste accumulation.</p>
<h2>Impressive display of talent</h2>
<p>Taken together, these discoveries represent an impressive display of talent for real science that rivals scientists anywhere in the world.</p>
<p>Whatever country recognizes and establishes a genuine priority to enable real science by talented women scientists, and helps them thrive in discovery research, will be rewarded enormously. </p>
<p>Discovery research institutes such as the Crick Institute in the U.K. gather the most talented scientists, men and women, early in their careers, when discoveries are usually made. That assures a critical mass and merit-based value system that then provides the best of the discovery researchers to go out to populate universities, research institutes and industry. </p>
<p>A Canadian model could — and should —focus on women scientists, since they now may be Canada’s most talented. And also its most undervalued.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>John Bergeron gratefully acknowledges Kathleen Dickson as co-author.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91608/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Bergeron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada’s female scientists are superstars in their fields yet most Canadians have never heard of them. On International Day for Women in Science, it’s time to give them the recognition they deserve.John Bergeron, Emeritus Robert Reford Professor and Professor of Medicine, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879102017-12-21T22:26:52Z2017-12-21T22:26:52ZWhy can’t Canada win another Nobel Prize in medicine?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200284/original/file-20171220-4965-k2ddi9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only one Canadian researcher has ever received the Nobel Prize for medicine, for the discovery of insulin in 1923. And yet Canadians have been essential to developments in stem cell research, gene sequencing and treatments for cancer and brain trauma.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1923, the first and only Nobel Prize in medicine for a Canadian discovery was awarded to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnME08SiJ0k">Frederick Banting</a> for <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-discovery-of-insulin/">the discovery of insulin</a>.</p>
<p>The isolation and purification of insulin, and its first injection into humans, has likely saved tens of millions of lives. Nearly 100 years later, insulin injections remain the standard treatment for Type 1 diabetes since no proven alternative exists. </p>
<p>Yet Canada has received no further recognition in the form of <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/">the Nobel Prize in medicine</a>, lagging far behind our G7 partners in this respect. </p>
<p>Why has this recognition eluded us? Perhaps it’s because of <a href="http://www.sciencereview.ca/eic/site/059.nsf/eng/home">a lack of public awareness and support in Canada for fundamental research in the life sciences</a>. </p>
<p>One thing is certain: The absence of Nobel attention is not for lack of Canadian advances in the life sciences. </p>
<p>I am a cell biologist, fortunate to have worked alongside Nobel Laureates in the United States and the United Kingdom. As 2017 draws to a close, I would like to take you through some of the astonishing Canadian breakthroughs since 1923 that have transformed our world for the better.</p>
<h2>How to mutate genes</h2>
<p>The foundation for discovering how to mutate genes is based on the work of a self-taught microbiologist, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksrNX7r0t1U">Félix d’Hérelle</a>, who claimed birth in Montreal and won the prestigious Leeuwenhoek Medal in 1926 (Louis Pasteur was a prior winner). </p>
<p>He discovered, in 1917, that certain viruses he called “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/bacteriophage">bacteriophages</a>” lived by infecting bacteria.</p>
<p>Since then, the bacteriophage has become a workhorse of biomedical research with the creation of a new field known as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4418462/">molecular biology</a>. Resulting discoveries such as the elucidation of the DNA code in the human genome and how to manipulate DNA are all a consequence of bacteriophage-based molecular biology.</p>
<p>A scientist at the University of British Columbia, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iylHtEuUrR8">Michael Smith</a>, used bacteriophages to discover how to mutate genes. This technology led to many applications — from cancer research to commonly used detergents that contain enzymes to remove laundry stains. A Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Smith in 1993.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iylHtEuUrR8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Today, the <a href="https://www.phage.ulaval.ca/en/home/">largest collection of bacteriophages</a>, named after its discoverer, d’Hérelle, is housed at Laval University outside Quebec City. </p>
<p>The curator of this collection co-discovered how bacteria become immune to infections by bacteriophages. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz0aN5qEkyw">Sylvain Moineau</a> and his team at Laval University then discovered that bacterial resistance to infection was through the severing of the DNA of invading bacteriophages by a bacterial enzyme known as CAS9.</p>
<p>This is well known today as the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-crispr-gene-editing/">CRISPR/CAS9 machinery used to mutate and manipulate genes</a>.</p>
<h2>Stem cells</h2>
<p>In 1953, <a href="http://www.ascb.org/ascb-post/the-stem-cell-renewal-theory-the-other-big-paper-of-1953/">Charles Leblond</a>, a McGill-based scientist, proposed the stem cell renewal theory, having discovered the asymmetry of cell division that occurs when stem cells differentiate into adult cells. </p>
<p>The key observation that stem cells divide to generate a new stem cell, and one that then undergoes further division to generate adult cells, explained how adult organs could undergo their maintenance and renewal.</p>
<p>In 1963, Toronto scientists <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7N-fUKjT-s">James Till</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7N-fUKjT-s">Ernest McCulloch</a> independently discovered the basis of bone marrow transplantation with their demonstration that all cells in the bone marrow (red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells) came from a common stem cell.</p>
<h2>The cystic fibrosis gene</h2>
<p>Two Toronto-based scientists, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhro0JlR9Pc">Lap Chee Tsui</a> and <a href="http://expired.gairdner.org/content/john-r-riordan">Jack Riordan</a>, used molecular biology to discover the cystic fibrosis gene and the mutation in the gene that caused disease. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fhro0JlR9Pc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The discovery changed biomedical research, since virtually any disease caused by mutations in any gene could now be discovered. </p>
<p>This made an overwhelming case to elucidate the exact string of constituents in DNA strands that make up the DNA code in our chromosomes, and thereby define the 20,000 genes in the human genome. This was initiated through <a href="https://www.genome.gov/10001772/all-about-the--human-genome-project-hgp/">The Human Genome Project</a>, led by two labs in the U.S. and one in the U.K. Canada did not participate in the project.</p>
<h2>Cancer</h2>
<p>In 1958 at the University of Western Ontario, a scientist named <a href="http://www.cdnmedhall.org/inductees/dr-robert-noble">Robert Noble</a> extracted, from the <a href="http://www.arkive.org/madagascar-periwinkle/catharanthus-roseus/">Madagascar periwinkle plant</a>, the first compound to prevent chromosomes from separating during cell division and thereby prevent cancer cells from proliferating. </p>
<p>A pharmaceutical company in the United States commercialized this drug, known as vinblastine, prolonging the lives of thousands of cancer patients. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200245/original/file-20171220-4951-cn3liu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Madagascar Periwinkle plant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Patients who take such plant-derived drugs, however, eventually become resistant. </p>
<p>It was in Toronto that scientist <a href="http://expired.gairdner.org/content/victor-ling">Victor Ling</a> discovered a protein made by a gene in humans that renders patients resistant to such chemotherapy. This discovery established a new field of drug resistance that again has led to enormous health benefits worldwide. </p>
<p>How cells communicate in cancer is also a Toronto discovery. Using viruses known to cause cancer in chickens, Toronto-based scientist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVxBbwCR52o">Tony Pawson</a> discovered in 1986 a hidden code within proteins that cancer cells use to increase their runaway proliferation. </p>
<p>This discovery has led to new cancer drugs that have already benefited <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/how-do-you-fund-great-science-ask-a-great-scientist/.">thousands of patients.</a></p>
<p>Early detection of cancer in blood samples enables early, and often successful, treatment of cancer. The first such marker for cancer approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was for a protein discovered by McGill scientist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVB895MBh_w">Phil Gold</a> in 1965. Today, this is the single most used test globally to detect cancer.</p>
<p>With the United States hoping to launch a “<a href="https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/moonshot-cancer-initiative">moonshot</a>” to cure cancer in our lifetime, one idea gaining popularity is to use our own immune systems to fight off cancer based on the discovery by Toronto scientist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8YJx8XINyA">Tak Mak</a>. Through molecular biology, a receptor on immune cells of our body was discovered that is at the centre of therapies that utilize our own immune system to fight cancer.</p>
<p>While studying fundamental mechanisms that initiate when and where proteins are made in different cells in our body, McGill scientist <a href="http://expired.gairdner.org/content/nahum-sonenberg">Nahum Sonenberg</a> discovered how this process can result in the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. Today, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd4505">cancer drugs are targeted at this newly discovered mechanism</a> to alleviate cancer in patients.</p>
<h2>Autism Spectrum Disorder, memory & brain trauma</h2>
<p>Sonenberg also discovered an “initiation factor” for making proteins in cancer cells and was astonished to find that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3906422/">mutations in this same factor</a> could lead to autism spectrum disorder in children.</p>
<p>Next, intrigued by this link to the brain, Sonenberg discovered, totally unexpectedly, that other “initiation factors” could control memory by the same process that initiates when, how much and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627308010891">which protein is made in the brain.</a> In collaboration with a scientist in California, they <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/28/memory-isrib-peter-walter/">discovered a drug that readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and improves memory in animal models</a> and even after brain trauma in animals.</p>
<p>With respect to neurological discoveries, two scientists, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkzUocE3d3o">Wilder Penfield</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZSF2pkBcSw">Brenda Milner</a>, pioneered the study of the human brain in living patients at the famed Montreal Neurological institute. </p>
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<p>Milner, the founder of neuropsychology, discovered the networks in the brain responsible for memory and cognition. Another Montreal scientist, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhylTWiG6Ow">Albert Aguayo</a> was the first to discover that nerve fibres in the spinal cord could regenerate even after trauma and injury.</p>
<h2>A Nobel before 2023?</h2>
<p>With such outstanding candidates for recognition, why has a Nobel in medicine eluded Canada since the one and only award to Frederick Banting in 1923? Nominations have been prolific for all of the above discoveries. </p>
<p>Raising public awareness may be an avenue that scientists, their host universities, research institutes and even funding agencies should consider.</p>
<p>Since it is one of the few avenues available to us, perhaps an effort to stoke genuine public interest may help us nab a Nobel Prize in medicine before the 100-year mark of 2023.</p>
<p><em>John Bergeron gratefully acknowledges Kathleen Dickson as co-author.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Bergeron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Only one Canadian has ever received the Nobel Prize for medicine, in 1923. But Canadian discoveries have been essential to stem cell research, gene sequencing and treatments for cancer.John Bergeron, Emeritus Robert Reford Professor and Professor of Medicine, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/833782017-09-11T12:42:22Z2017-09-11T12:42:22ZHow Britain can build a world-leading life sciences strategy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185448/original/file-20170911-28467-jswuk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C69%2C2519%2C1704&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-students-chemistry-working-laboratory-710257885?src=02ivwvwSAPLa2OVwSlzQcw-1-15">nd3000/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK is in the midst of a wide-ranging <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-uk-finally-getting-serious-about-industrial-strategy-71692">national industrial strategy</a> which will influence the country’s future role in the global economy. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-sciences-industrial-strategy">The latest proposals</a> look at the life sciences and healthcare sectors, perhaps the areas of this grand plan which will affect most people, including through the successful development – or otherwise – of the National Health Service.</p>
<p>Sir John Bell was asked to work on how the UK might exploit its existing strengths in life sciences. His report issues the strong recommendation that research and development (R&D) spending should rise from 1.6% of GDP to 2.6% over the next five years – putting the UK in the top quartile worldwide. </p>
<p>He also <a href="http://www.pharmexec.com/uks-life-sciences-industrial-strategy-making-lemonade-out-lemons">wants the UK</a> to create two or three entirely new industries in the next decade, while increasing by 50% the number of clinical trials, and attracting capital investment for large and small manufacturing facilities. The plan is for the UK to end up with four life sciences and pharmaceutical firms with a market value of over £20 billion, attracting a host of world-class scientists into the country.</p>
<p>Quite how this can be achieved <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-european-academics-are-feeling-about-life-in-britain-a-year-after-brexit-vote-78687">in a post-Brexit landscape</a> is perhaps a matter for another day, but these aims will certainly require strong foundations on which to build. </p>
<h2>Incorporating AI</h2>
<p>One of the recommended actions refers to the use of artificial intelligence to transform pathology and medical imaging. This is <a href="https://www.math.snu.ac.kr/%7Ehichoi/infomath/Articles/Lighthill%20Report.pdf">a welcome advance from the 1970s</a> when the British government cut funding for robotics and AI on the advice of Sir James Lighthill. My father Donald Michie led the Edinburgh group who were world-leaders along with John McCarthy’s team at Stanford. I recall at the time my dad wrote: “It was said there would be Lighthill, and there was darkness.”</p>
<p>So, 40 years later, we’ve moved on from a time when pioneers in the field were labelled by Lighthill as the “artificial intelligencia”. We will have to wait for details on how that lost time will be made up to achieve Bell’s targets.</p>
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<p>The paper refers to a review of AI, but <a href="https://beisgovuk.citizenspace.com/strategy/industrial-strategy/supporting_documents/buildingourindustrialstrategygreenpaper.pdf">the broad industrial strategy</a> lists just five priority sectors: life sciences; ultra low emission vehicles; industrial digitalisation; nuclear; and the creative industries. This makes it crucial that explicit plans are made for how AI and robotics – and other important sectors – will support these five priority areas.</p>
<h2>Funding</h2>
<p>Bell’s report highlights the importance of creating and sustaining hubs of activity, and life science clusters, as the UK seeks to develop manufacturing capacity. But building resilient regions across the country will require the drawing together of central, local, and regional government; and co-ordination in health, housing, and education policy alongside the industrial strategy.</p>
<p>The report cites <a href="https://hbr.org/1990/03/the-competitive-advantage-of-nations">Michael Porter’s work</a> from more than 25 years ago for how this might be done, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cjres/article/3/1/3/340777/Regional-resilience-theoretical-and-empirical">but the latest research and policy advice</a> needs to be mobilised too. </p>
<p>Finance is key, of course, and the report recommends support for the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/patient-capital-review">UK Treasury’s attempts</a> to tackle the root causes that affect the lack of long-term finance for innovative firms. For corporate global leaders to be built, this will be essential.</p>
<p>Specifically, the UK financial services sector doesn’t enjoy the sort of corporate diversity that other more successful economies do. In countries like Germany, publicly owned and mutually owned institutions operate alongside ones owned by shareholders – nationally, regionally and locally. The UK is still to achieve the pledge <a href="https://www.cefims.ac.uk/cgi-bin/research.cgi?id=109">in the 2010 coalition agreement</a> to boost corporate diversity in finance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185450/original/file-20170911-28467-x03fzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Money talks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-england-panoramic-skyline-view-bank-710558962?src=aCeXqyUCKkqIuLCVbYwiPg-1-30">Zoltan Gabor/shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Golden share</h2>
<p>The report is keen that companies spun-out from the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/30/uk-needs-to-act-urgently-to-secure-nhs-data-for-british-public-report-warns">Health Advanced Research Programme</a> – which will undertake large research projects to help create those entirely new industries – remain anchored in the UK. It suggests a “golden share” as a mechanism. This would mean the government retains one share with particular rights, such as a veto on moving abroad.</p>
<p>Nothing is said, however, of the corporate purpose, ownership or governance of such companies. These would clearly be “public goods”, and so <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-mutual-co-operative-and-co-owned-business-9780199684977?prevSortField=8&sortField=8&start=400&resultsPerPage=100&q=american%20politics&prevNumResPerPage=100&lang=en&cc=gb">a form of mutual ownership and governance</a> – with employees, customers and other stakeholders being members – would make sense. Such structures would not only deliver appropriate incentives, but would help to ensure the organisations remained anchored in the UK.</p>
<p>None of Bell’s proposals will be possible unless education and training are deployed in support of the strategy’s aims. Flexibility will be crucial, along with lifelong learning. Britain should positively encourage retraining, and the taking on of new skills. </p>
<p>This means enabling people to study new topics at the same level as existing qualifications. But the UK only backs those sticking to their old subject, obtaining ever-higher qualifications. Those wanting to move on to new areas <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/elqs/">aren’t supported</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185451/original/file-20170911-28510-1k51xrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Back to school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/background-shot-blackboard-scientific-algebraic-formulas-707313994?src=gLc1xXAz5yTq9VH84C9aJg-1-5">Media Whale/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Cooperation</h2>
<p>A grand collaboration is needed if the UK is to genuinely improve healthcare and outcomes. It will require that the problem of social care be solved, requiring proper coordination with local government. One positive recommendation in the report is to support healthy ageing, which would likewise require proper involvement from local government, as well as decisive <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/06/andrew-dilnot-social-care-reviewer-condemns-uk-system-and-calls-for-new-tax">action on the Dilnot Review</a>, a 2011 report on social care which was effectively ignored by successive governments. </p>
<p>Life sciences by their nature require inter and multidisciplinary work, but this needs to become far more ambitious, to actively involve the social sciences in tackling big challenges. Bell looks to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – a government body to be launched next year – to increase interdisciplinary research, foster more effective working with industry, and support high-risk science.</p>
<p>The UK is rightly seen as a centre of excellence in research, and the life sciences industrial strategy is an attempt to make sure this translates into tangible success. To succeed will require government to do things it has previously baulked at – including implementing the Dilnot Review, delivering on the promise of greater corporate diversity in financial services, supporting lifelong learning and opportunities to re-skill, and restoring proper powers and funding to local and regional government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Michie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the government moves ahead with its industrial plan, a new report signals it will have to start doing things differently.Jonathan Michie, Professor of Innovation & Knowledge Exchange, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.