Sir Mark Walport on 75 years of the Wellcome Trust
25 July 2011. By Sir Mark Walport
Much of the scientific process is inherently repetitive. There are days, perhaps even years, of developing and refining techniques, checking controls and ensuring that results are replicable. But this repetition is punctuated with moments of inspiration when a new idea strikes, of delight when an experiment finally works, and of serendipity when something unexpected sparks a completely new line of enquiry. It is such moments that make science come alive.
The first 75 years of the Wellcome Trust - the anniversary we celebrate this year - are full of examples of this. Take Graham ‘Mont’ Liggins, whose work we funded from the 1960s. His moment of revelation came from the unexpected breathing of a newborn lamb. As part of his research into what triggers labour, he infused a pregnant ewe with cortisol. This led to a successful birth 37 days before full term, when the lamb's immature lungs should have been incapable of inflating. This led to the development of corticosteroid treatment for women showing signs of giving birth prematurely, estimated to have helped save hundreds of thousands of newborn infants by accelerating maturation of the lungs.
Nick White’s key moment came in 1979 when he chanced upon a dog-eared paper in a Chinese scientific journal detailing the antimalarial properties of a herb called qinghao, derived from sweet wormwood. By tracking down the authors and building on their work, he and his team proved that derivatives of qinghao (artemisinin) are indeed powerful antimalarial drugs. These are now frontline treatments for the disease.
I am immensely proud of the progress made possible by the Wellcome Trust over its first three-quarters of a century. This anniversary affords a great opportunity not only to reflect on the considerable achievements made in science, medicine and the medical humanities in this time, but also to recognise the great personal effort and dedication behind each one.
This anniversary is also an opportunity to look to the future, and consider how contemporary research may produce great stories in coming years. I have invited researchers from nine of our biggest funded initiatives across the UK (holders of Wellcome Trust Strategic Awards) to run events for the general public during the second half of 2011. These will showcase the best of their fields of science, showing how these have developed during the last 75 years and what further progress may be possible.
The Wellcome Trust’s journey
In this film - a visual celebration of Henry Wellcome's vision - the 75 years of the Trust's history are distilled down to five minutes.
Running time: 5 min 39 s
This editorial also appears in the latest issue of ‘Wellcome News’.
