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Darwin College Lecture Series 2015 - Development

A Global Joint Venture Strategy for Biosimilars Development

In the 14th Hinsley Memorial lecture – an annual lecture given at St John’s on international relations - Timothy Garton-Ash examines the competing interests vying for control of the internet

International Relations: The Struggle for Power Over the Internet in a Post-American World

The 2012 Olympics showcased one of the most successful British Olympic teams ever. This was no accident, for seven years the country knew that the Olympics was coming back to Britain and everything had been committed to give athletes the best chance of success. Funding systems were in place, world class coaches, scientific experts, venues, training grounds, equipment all made sure athletes could compete with the rest of the world. And every athlete knew this might be the chance of a lifetime. But athletes had also taken a lifetime to get to this point – athletes who began their sport as children in clubs, schools and universities all over the country. Athletes, who learned constantly, developed and challenged themselves while committing to being the best they could possibly be. I’ll chart the development of an athlete looking back at the past 4 Olympics that I’ve competed in and witness how the landscape of British sport, and specifically rowing, has changed.

Biography

Katherine Grainger is Britain’s most successful international female rower. Originally from Glasgow, Katherine studied at Edinburgh University, where she took up the sport in 1993.

Her international rowing career began in 1997 and since that time, she has won 6 world championships, 3 Olympic silver medals, (Sydney, Athens & Beijing) and in 2012 she won the Olympic gold with Anna Watkins in the double scull. Katherine is the only British female athlete from any sport to win medals in four consecutive Olympic Games.

She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and a CBE for services to sport in 2012.

Katherine has an honours LLB from Edinburgh University, an MPhil in Medical Law and Medical Ethics from Glasgow University, and achieved a PhD in the Law of Homicide at Kings College, London. Alongside her studies, Katherine wrote her autobiography ‘Dreams Do Come True’ which was published in June 2013.

Following a 2-year break from rowing, Katherine has recently returned to full-time training with her sights set on the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Development of an Athlete - Katherine Grainger

In frog spawn in a pond, each egg is able to turn itself into a tadpole and eventually a frog, with no help or guidance from a parent frog or from anything else in the pond. The single egg will have no resemblance in any respect to what it will turn into. We now begin to understand how this extraordinary transformation takes place. Eggs of frogs and other animals have another remarkable property. If a single cell from adult skin is transplanted into an egg, the skin cell will be made to go backwards in development to become an embryo cell from which another adult can be formed (repeating the process of normal development). In this way it is now possible to replace aged or diseased cells of an adult with rejuvenated cells from their skin. This is opening the possibility of cell replacement in humans.

Biography
John Gurdon was judged at school to be wholly unsuited to science having come bottom in a class of 250 in Biology. However, he was able to take up science at Oxford University, where he also did a PhD. His work led to the concept that an egg has the ability to rejuvenate the nucleus of an adult cell, and hence to the current prospect of replacing aged and diseased cells in humans with new cells derived from other body cells such as skin. In mid career he moved to Cambridge where he still works in the University. He is an Honorary Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford, and of Magdalene and Churchill Colleges in Cambridge. He served as Master of Magdalene from 1995-2002. He has received a number of awards including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (2003), the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2009), and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (2012). 

Reprogramming Animal Development - Professor Sir John Gurdon

Galaxies are the visible fabric of the Universe. These luminous cities of stars can be seen across great distances in the Universe and, because the speed of light is finite, they provide astronomers with the remarkable opportunity to witness their birth and evolution. By using large ground and space-based telescopes, detailed information has been gathered on the properties of galaxies back to a time when the Universe was barely 5% of its present age. The challenge lies in connecting these `time-slices’ of cosmic history into a physical picture of galactic evolution. A detailed understanding of the development of galaxies enriches our view of the evolving Universe and I will describe the progress being made.

Biography

Richard Ellis is the Steele Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. A Welshman by birth, he was an undergraduate at University College London and gained his Ph.D. at Oxford. He became a professor of astronomy at the University of Durham in 1985. He was appointed the Plumian Professor at Cambridge in 1993 and served as Director of the Institute of Astronomy from 1994 to 1999. He has published widely on topics in observational cosmology and galaxy evolution and has recently charted the earliest period of cosmic history, when the first galaxies emerged. Within both the UK and USA he has led discussions for new observational facilities, the most recent example being the Thirty Meter Telescope now under construction atop Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. Ellis is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded the Gruber Cosmology Prize for his part in the discovery of the accelerating Universe, and the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal.

The Development of Galaxies - Professor Richard Ellis

It could be argued that over the last 20 years climate science has become synonymous with global warming, but there is so much more to climate science than just climate change. At its roots it is about understanding how the various components of the climate system – the atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice – work together to give us the regional climates we experience around the world. This lecture will present a personal perspective of how climate science has evolved from meteorology and oceanography, through the application of theory, observations and modeling, to deliver the understanding we now have of how our climate system works and why climate change is arguably one of the greatest challenges facing us in the 21st century.

Biography

Julia Slingo became Met Office Chief Scientist in February 2009 where she leads a team of over 500 scientists working on a very broad portfolio of research that underpins weather forecasting, climate prediction and climate change projections. Since joining the Met Office Julia has sought to integrate the UK community in weather and climate research to ensure that the UK receives maximum benefit from its science investments. She has strengthened the NERC /Met Office Joint Weather and Climate Research Programme to secure the UK’s national capability in observations, modelling and supercomputing, and set in place a unique Academic Partnership with leading universities including Exeter University to advance cutting edge research and bring more of their science through to impact. Before joining the Met Office Julia was the Director of Climate Research in NERC ’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science, at the University of Reading. In 2006 she founded the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at Reading, aimed at addressing the cross disciplinary challenges of climate change and its impacts. Julia has had a long-term career in atmospheric physics and climate science, working at the Met Office, the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the USA . Throughout her career she has brought innovative approaches to understanding and modelling weather and climate. She has developed and used complex weather and climate models to deliver new insights into how the atmosphere and climate system works, as well as significant advances in predictive skill. Her special interests are in tropical weather and climate variability, understanding their influence on the global climate system and their role in monthly to decadal climate prediction.

Development of Climate Science - Professor Dame Julia Slingo

Vitamin D and light: a close relationship with a lot of controversy. Diet is insufficient in providing vitamin D; however, to make Vitamin D ourselves, we need sunlight, which tends to be in short supply in the UK. The EPIC-Norfolk study observed that participants who had a higher blood vitamin D concentration had a lower risk of developing lung disease, heart disease and fractures. Prof. Kay-Tee Khaw will discuss these findings and shed some light on the question: To D or not to D?

12 March 2015 Vitamin D: To D Or Not To D

Dr. Charles Bennett & Rebecca Cooney discuss the impact of the first biosimilar approved in the USA

In this year's Linacre Lecture at St John's, Professor Sharon Peacock discusses a potential tool that could be used to control bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The Linacre Lecture is an annual presentation on a medical topic that has been given at the College since 1524.

Antimicrobial Resistance In The Genomic Era

Lydia Rutherford, an A-level student from Lodge Park Academy (Corby), interviews Professor Trevor Robbins, Head of Psychology at Cambridge University about drug abuse and dependence.

Lydia Rutherford & Professor Trevor Robbins on drug addiction

Noel Fombanu, an A-Level student from Lodge Park Academy (Corby), interviews Dr David Franklin from Cambridge University's Dept of Engineering about the role that neuroscience has to play in robotics.

Noel Fombanu & Dr David Franklin

Dr Denis Alexander talks to Eleanor Puttock about the new technique of human embryo gene editing, the science behind it, its implications as well as a theological view point. 

To find out more about Dr Denis Alexander go to: http://bit.ly/1T0g7sO

To find out more about The Faraday Institute go to: bit.ly/1AAhTXq

To read the original article "CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in human tripronuclear zygote" in Protein & Cell go to: http://bit.ly/1EedsFn (subscription required) 

To read the article in Nature "Ethics of embryo editing divides scientists", referred to by Dr Alexander, go to: http://bit.ly/1LM7GQL (subscription required) 

Denis Alexander discusses human embryo gene editing

Learn About The Science Of Biosimilar Development Part II

Every day your immune system is busy protecting you from the thousands of germs around you that can make you sick. It does its job so efficiently that you don’t even notice that it is at work. Micro-organisms are present in your gut and interact with your body during periods of health and disease. When the immune system hits the wrong target, however, it can unleash a torrent of disorders, including inflammatory diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disease. Come along and be enlightened by our experts in the field.

Panelists: Dr Eoin McKinney (Autoimmunity - Dept of Medicine), Dr Maike De La Roche (Immunity - CRUK), Dr Sam Forster (Microbiota - Sanger Institute). Chaired by Prof Clare Bryant (Innate Immunity - Dept of Vet Medicine).

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Has parliament taken back control and if so, are MPs about to shed their traditional party loyalties to prevent a no-deal Brexit? Listen to David Howarth, Professor of Law and Public Policy and former Cambridge MP, and Simon Deakin, Professor of Law, discuss what’s likely to happen in the Brexit negotiations in both the short and longer term.

A Center for Business Research Podcast: January 28th 2019

Brexit and its consequences for the UK economy and political systems

Daphne Martschenko, president of Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, is determined to make the sport of rowing more accessible. Her mission to pave the way for greater diversity in rowing chimes with her study of the charged concepts of race, socio-economic status, intelligence and genetics.

Read more here: https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-star-rower-whose-research-examines-teachers-perceptions-of-intelligence-59467a7e18e2

The star rower whose research examines teachers’ perceptions of intelligence - Daphne Martschenko

In this episode, Charis and I speak to Cambridge University alumna, Pat Marsh. When we recorded the interview, we didn’t have any of the studio equipment with us, just a phone, but we thought it would be a crime not to share Pat’s incredible story. 

Pat was the first woman in the UK to hold a gaming licence and in 1979 she brought Space Invaders, the arcade game sensation, to the UK shores. 

Pat has had a distinguished business career, most recently serving as Executive Chairman of Philip-Treacy. Philip Treacy’s hats have adorned the heads of royals and celebrities alike, including Grace Jones, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce and Victoria Beckham.