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Science supporting policy

Although the case studies on this page are primarily of social and policy impact, many will also have scientific and economic impact.

Bioscience underpins developments, and options for future ways forward, in medicine, food and farming and other industries. It also helps to shape our understanding and ideas about life on Earth and the position of humans within it. Inevitably, there are contentious areas that raise legal, ethical and other social issues. Several major challenges facing the UK, including an ageing population, the consequences of climate change and changes in lifestyle, can be addressed at least in part by applying knowledge from the life sciences.

BBSRC is committed to public engagement around issues arising from the biosciences and to the early dissemination of the objectives and outputs of ongoing research to facilitate this.

October 2010 - A summer school in science

International students make the best of institute research experience.

Many science graduates do not pursue a career in research after they graduate. One of the reasons is limited or no experience of lab life in a non-university research environment.

To fill this gap and promote scientific research as a rewarding career, the John Innes Centre (JIC), a BBSRC-funded institute, teamed up with The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) to offer sixteen UK- and EU-based undergraduates the opportunity to undertake real research in the Norwich Research Park campus over July and August 2010.

The inaugural Undergraduate Summer Research Training Programme (USRTP), co-funded by the Nuffield Foundation, BBSRC and the Gatsby Foundation, included students of maths and physics as well pharmacology, chemistry and the biological sciences who each pursued an eight-week project with a supervisor at either JIC or TSL.

Professor Enrico Coen, who managed the scientific content of the programme on behalf of JIC, says the rationale was to give promising undergraduates firsthand experience of modern research in plant and microbial sciences in a supportive training environment.

"Based on the feedback from the students who participated in 2010 it was a resounding success," he says. "We intend to keep running it for the foreseeable future."

Students, who received free accommodation as well as a weekly stipend, were housed together to encourage a community atmosphere and encouraged to participate in institute sporting and social activities. Weekend social trips mingled travel and recreation amid the work.

Italian participant Gianna Palumbo says the experience didn't just enriched her background knowledge. "It has also profoundly influenced the way I see research and team work pushing me to go on the way of science."

Tristan Bunn, BBSRC's Inspiring Young Science Coordinator, says the training, accommodation and social programme forged a great collegiate atmosphere. "The students final presentations were very impressive with many demonstrating levels of understanding similar to students in the second or third year of PhDs," he says, adding that the programme also provided valuable experience for JIC and TSL post-doc mentors who themselves learned how to train and manage a research assistant.

In policy terms, Dr Bunn says the programme supports many of BBSRC's commitments, such as promoting biological sciences, careers in research and staff training programmes, as well as communicating knowledge and research outcomes, and it explores the new approaches and technologies that will be needed as bioscience becomes increasingly quantitative and predictive.

For more information on the JIC/SL Undergraduate Summer Research Training Programme see external links.

March 2010 - Impact and public engagement

Over the last decade, scientists have been encouraged to speak directly with the public about their work and the wider issues it may raise. Indeed, the terms of their grants requires them to do so, and public engagement is recognised an impact of scientific activity in its own right.

During National Science and Engineering Week (12-21 March), BBSRC institutes took their science out of the lab to engage with the public – meeting with over 2,000 people and discussing the role of science in agriculture, animal disease, plant evolution and genetic diversity. In doing so, the institutes inspired children about bioscience, engaged families about food security and discussed science with a range of curious visitors.

Jimmy’s Farm

The Institute for Animal Health (IAH) represented BBSRC at Jimmy’s Farm Science Festival in Suffolk, a hands-on weekend event reflecting Jimmy Doherty’s interest in the science underpinning agriculture and food production as seen on his BBC TV programmes.

Prof Dave Cavanagh, Head of Communication at IAH, and colleagues took elements of their Farm Science Visitor Centre from the IAH Compton laboratory on the road to Jimmy’s Farm and spent the weekend engaging with over 1000 people about animal welfare and the science of milk production.

IAH contributions to the weekend included a model cow with various working parts, and getting hands dirty – or rather, dirty hands – on agar plates to illustrate bacterial growth; all activities designed to underline the importance of hygiene and disease control in animal welfare.

Researchers from IAH’s Pirbright laboratory were also on hand with microscopes to show how small things, such as bluetongue virus-carrying midges, can cause big problems for farmers, even bigger ones for scientists, and how all consumers can be affected.

Talking shop

Just over 50 miles away the Cambridge Science Festival (8-21 March) was in full swing. The BBSRC-funded Babraham Institute has taken its science to the Festival’s Biology Zone since 2006 and this year Dr Claire Cockcroft, who runs Babraham’s Science & Society programme, decided to explore opportunities to engage the public with bioscience in the less obvious venue of a shopping centre, which brought novel scientific angles to a new audience.

With BBSRC a sponsor of the 2010 Festival, activities explaining genetic diversity and evolution as well as the global issue of food security were developed by Claire and Adélia de Paula, Science Communicator at Rothamsted Research (RRes, an institute of BBSRC). Adelia and colleagues set up shop at Cambridge’s Grafton shopping centre for consumers keen to see where modern plant science is taking us.

Deftly fending off enquiries about how much the plants cost (it was a shopping centre after all) and fielding questions about genetic modification and climate change, de Paula explained the ins and outs of the BBSRC Plant Evolution exhibition, which included panels on the importance of pant biodiversity, a quiz, and a ‘match your food’ to the crops game that was very popular with children.

Claire says the Babraham Institute has played an active role in the Biology Zone for several years. “But this year we wanted to try something different and take science to new audiences that do not normally visit science festivals or open days.”

It also proved to be a good opportunity to inform older children about possible careers in science. 250 interested individuals represented good value for a shopping centre exhibition, and the attendees reflected the international flavour of Cambridge, with visitors from Kazakhstan, Libya and Jamaica represented.

In the Biology Zone, the Babraham team led a range of hands-on activities to explain how the superheroes of the immune system tackle infection and disease. Scientists were also keen to discuss the vital role that calcium plays as a chemical messenger, particularly in regulating a healthy heart. And representing the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre, Paul Dupree and his team from the University of Cambridge BSBEC Programme addressed the topic of sustainable energy.

September 2009 - Fast swine flu vaccine screening

The H1N1 swine flu virus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 11 June 2009, which meant that the virus could no longer be contained. Because the outbreak had reached phase 6, the highest level on its pandemic alert scale, countries could no longer count on measures such as quarantine to fight its spread. Instead, the only option was for countries to protect their citizens as best they could.

Many developed nations began to work quickly to screen candidate vaccines, and previous BBSRC-funded research has enabled scientists to quickly progress toward this goal by using a system based on plant viruses that allows the rapid production of proteins in plants.

The speedy expression of proteins is crucial to testing enough candidate vaccines in as short a time as possible - an edge that could save lives and reduce the disease's rate of transmission.

Developed at BBSRC's John Innes Centre by Professor George Lomonossoff and Dr Frank Salisbury, the system is licensed by Plant Bioscience Ltd., a knowledge transfer spin-out company part-owned by BBSRC that filed patents in January 2008 and licenses the expression system to biotechnology firm Medicago.

Image: CDC

August 2009 - Keeping us safe from botulism

Clostridium botulinum is the most feared of all food poisoning organisms because its highly potent neurotoxin causes a severe, but rare, disease with high fatality rate. The cost to the UK of a small outbreak of foodborne botulism could be in the region of £350M.

Perpetual vigilance is essential for ensuring that the UK’s outstanding track record against botulism is maintained.  Basic research into the biology of C botulinum continues to provide information on which the food industry, regulators and policymakers rely.

Scientists at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) have been world leaders in C botulinum science for many decades. For instance, they pioneered the development of predictive computer models for its growth. These indicate whether or not C botulinum will be able to grow under different combinations of factors such as temperature, pH, and salt concentration. The data are used by industry to design formulations and processes to prevent growth. 

Recently, IFR scientists have published new and unexpected evidence about the independent effects of heating and chilled storage on the time its takes dormant C botulinum spores torecover and lead to growth again. Using image analysis they found that the two treatments affect different parts of the ‘lag phase’. A prior heat treatment significantly extends the first stage of lag phase, spore germination; while storage at chilled temperature had little effect on spore germination but extended outgrowth (the time for an emerged cell to reach one full sized cell). The duration of total lag phase and individual stages, and their variability depends on both ‘historical treatment’ and growth conditions, with important implications for food safety.

Other recent papers from IFR researchers, including one with scientists in Canada and one with scientists in Finland, describe whole genome analysis of almost one hundred strains of this dangerous pathogen. The research reveals a number of interesting genetic features (including the neurotoxin gene cluster) that have evolved independently of the remainder of what is basically a relatively stable genome.

Earlier impacts

Ageing and health

Basic research on the biology of natural changes associated with the ageing process is identifying some opportunities for interventions that could prolong the health and independence of elderly people. Examples include research at the University of Birmingham that suggests a potential way of boosting the naturally lower effectiveness of white blood cells in old people - so helping them to fight infections better; and findings from Manchester Metropolitan University that exercise can reverse some age-related changes in muscle structure and performance, so improving mobility and reducing the risk of falls.

Alternatives to animals in research

Several areas of fundamental science funded by BBSRC have identified potential alternatives to the use of animals for some areas of research. These include the use of metabolic changes in cultured human cells as indicators of toxicity in early stage drug testing (Aston University). BBSRC supports the work of the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).

Bioenergy

Scientists at the John Innes Centre, Rothamsted Research and the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research are identifying key factors in the genetics, efficient cultivation and combustion efficiency of bioenergy crops such as willows and Miscanthus grass that will identify how such crops could provide a renewable, carbon-neutral source of fuel for the UK.

Research at the University of Birmingham is exploring the development of biological fuels cells that make hydrogen from the fermentation of sugary wastes.

CJD and BSE 

BBSRC-funded research that showed the human disease variant CJD (vCJD) was caused by the same agent as BSE was important in the development of Government policy on controlling BSE and on considerations of a possible latent epidemic of vCJD. It is widely recognised that the UK's long-standing research on the disease scrapie (a disease of the same family as BSE) provided the capacity for a quick response to the emergence of BSE. 

Coping with climate change

Water shortage will be an increasing issue for agriculture in many parts of the world. Research at the University of Lancaster on the role of the plant hormone abscisic in drought signalling in plants led to demonstration that watering regimes that lead to partial root drying can sustain high quality fruit production at greatly reduced levels of watering.

Basic plant biology is identifying the traits necessary for crops to remain productive under climate change. Identification of the genes responsible for these traits, and advances in breeding technologies, is providing plant breeders with opportunities to develop varieties suited to extremes of temperature, drought, flooding etc.

Diet and health

A nutritionally enhanced broccoli containing high levels of potentially cancer-fighting compounds was developed through traditional breeding programmes at the John Innes Centre. It has been licensed to Seminis Inc, through Plant Bioscience Ltd.

Scientists at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) have identified indicators of pre-cancerous changes in cells lining the human colon for which they are developing markers for use in epidemiological trials.

IFR researchers led a consortium of academic and industrial partners in developing a nutritional 'smartcard' system for monitoring what school students choose to eat in school cafeterias. Several areas of BBSRC science provide a basis for tackling obesity.

Food safety

Scientists at IFR have developed predictive computer models that are used by the food industry to help ensure safe product formulations. IFR is part of an international collaboration, The ComBase Initiative, that makes data and predictive tools on microbial responses to food environments freely available via web-based software.

Basic research at several UK universities and IFR and the Institute for Animal Health into the basic biology of serious food poisoning bacteria such as Salmonella, E coliO157:H7 and Campylobacter is providing knowledge that can help to improve control strategies throughout the food chain.

Animal disease surveillance

The Pirbright Laboratory of the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) plays a crucial role in the diagnosis and monitoring of major diseases such as Foot-and-Mouth and Bluetongue. This provides epidemiological data that helps to inform strategies for disease containment, control and eradication.

Natural methods of pest control

The concept of biological control of pests and diseases is now widely recognised. Commercial products for controlling slugs by nematode worms are available commercially in the UK. Field scale trials and mathematical modelling have been used to model the control of aphid pests by predatory beetles. This contributes to the development of Integrated Crop Management systems that have the potential to control pests whilst arresting the decline in biodiversity associated with some intensive agricultural practices.

Sustainable farming in developing countries

UK plant genetics research underpinned the identification of genes that help protect plants against attack by downy mildew, a serious fungal disease that can reduce harvests by up to 80%. With funding from DfID, marker-assisted selection has been used to develop disease-resistant varieties of pearl millet that are now being grown in India.

Applications of research on insect semiochemicals have been successfully used to increase crop yields for small farmers in east Africa.

Sustainable land use

Work by BBSRC supported scientists has contributed to the development and implementation of policy in several areas of agriculture/environment interactions including the UK Farm Scale Evaluations of GM crops; and implementation of the Kyoto Agreement; and the EU Water Directive.

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