Our growing population forces deforestation, wildlife habitat loss, ever closer human-wildlife contact. New diseases emerge, we all suffer. Covid-19 showed how exposed we all are. Added to this, global warming extends the range of carriers like mosquitos. Coming soon to a town like yours?
Large families remain the norm where infant mortality has been high. Confidence in better healthcare can take the pressure off, giving us all hope that we can eventually moderate population growth.
Endemic diseases – ANNUAL casualties
- Malaria 600,000 – about 10,000 Under 5 infants every week.
- Bilharzia 200,000
- Dengue fever 40,000
Emerging diseases – Casualties to date
- Ebola (Zaire ’76) 11,000
- HIV (Congo ’81) 500,000
- Covid19(China 2019) 5,000,000
A global outlook has always been second nature to healthcare scientists.
- In 1865 the grateful burghers of Boulogne-sur-Mer erected a statue to Edward Jenner. Now the world is almost free of smallpox.
- In 2021 Prof. Sarah Gilbert led the development of a Covid vaccine. Developed in the UK, tested in Brazil, USA & South Africa, scaled up by the British-Swedish company Astra-Zeneca, manufactured in 15 countries. Millions of lives were spared worldwide.
The research community tackling these challenges is truly international in outlook. One Planet! Do we value our scientists? After committing years to honing their skills to the utmost, highly talented and capable early-career researchers are then expected to work on projects funded in the short term, with little or no financial stability in prospect. Certainly not enough to establish a home or support a family. Little wonder that many leave research to take up more stable and better paid employment in industry.
‘Many excellent scientists leave academic research because of the lack of stability and the continuous pressure.’ Prof. Sarah Gilbert, Vaxxers.
” I was just guessing at numbers and figures, Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress……..
..Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be so hard” Coldplay – The Scientist
The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been at the forefront of research into tropical diseases for over 125 years. For example, in 1902 LSTM professor Ronald Ross was awarded Britain’s first Nobel prize for his decade of painstaking work in India that established the role of mosquitos in the life-cycle of the malaria parasite plasmodium falciparum – work that continues throughout the world as the parasite mutates.
It’s in our interests to attract the best talents to the demanding work of pursuing this disease and others. We would do well by offering them better long-term career prospects. It would take the resources of Bill Gates to plug the financing gap. But we can at least make it clear that their efforts are appreciated. The annual Paul Bedingfield prize helps the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to recognise and reward early career drug discovery/ development researchers.
2023 awards:
Daire Cantillon (TDB, PDRA): “Galleria melonella: a novel look to model in vivo bacterial infections”
Zachary Stavrou-Dowd (VB, Research Technician): “Drosophila Genetics and Genomics: A Practical Course”
2024 awards:
Dr Claire Caygill (Tropical Disease Biology) training in advanced techniques in maths and computing for use in interdisciplinary bioresearch and advanced organ-on-a-chip models.
Dr Stephanie French (Tropical Disease Biology)a short course on: ‘Proteomics Bioinformatics’ at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute.
Dr Tilly Fox (Clinical Sciences) a short course on: “Training for realist reviews of complex healthcare interventions.” More details here.
Just small steps – but then again, every little helps……..
Back row: LSTM Lambanana
To find out more of the drug discovery work of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, visit: https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/research/departments/parasitology/drug-discovery-and-development
Might consider supporting their efforts? https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/125-campaign-0
