issue 12 university of cambridge research horizons

University of Cambridge research magazine www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk

Issue 12 | Summer 2010

HoRIzoNsRESEARCH

In this issue

BUILDING THE FUTUREplus news and views from

across the University

CoNTENTS

Research News 3–5

spotlight: 6–19 Building the futureTackling obesity and diabetes: 6Institute of Metabolic Science

Reading closely: 8Faculty of English

Making the most of ideas: 10Institute for Manufacturing

Probing the Universe: 12Kavli Institute for Cosmology

Challenging crime: 14Institute of Criminology

Spanning application and 16abstraction: Centre forMathematical Sciences

Seeding growth: plant 18sciences

Preview 20–21 The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of ModernGermany

In Focus: 22–23The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Features 24–34Beliefs, predictions and 24shortcuts in the deceitful brain

Cultural heritage after conflict 26

Small is beautiful in drug 28discovery

Children’s literature comes 30of age

Libraries and light 32

Magneto-active porous 34materials get close to the bone

Inside out: 35Professor Sharon Peacock

The Back Page 36

Research of high quality does not always depend on good facilities: I dare sayWittgenstein would have been a genius with or without a fine edifice in which towork, and Newton, Darwin, Crick and Watson would doubtless be astounded by thehigh-specification laboratories available to today’s researchers in the physical andbiological sciences. I would certainly contend, however, that good buildings helpresearch to flourish.

In my nearly seven years as Vice-Chancellor, I have had the great privilege toopen (or more often to witness our Chancellor, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh,opening) new buildings that have added significantly to the research space acrossthe University. Like those featured in this issue of Research Horizons, all are thrivingexamples of the spirit of endeavour and the excitement of scholarship embodied byresearch in Cambridge.

These new buildings are paralleled by refurbishments of existing stock: theHerchel Smith Building for Brain and Mind Sciences, and the Departments ofChemistry and Plant Sciences are major examples. Such developments are madepossible by large-scale and far-sighted investment by the University, assisted byGovernment infrastructure funding, charitable foundations, and philanthropy bothindividual and corporate.

The investments continue, with new land being pressed into service: part of the research area of the Botanic Garden provided the site for the stunning newSainsbury Laboratory opening its doors early in 2011, and West Cambridge providesspace for transformative expansion, as will North-West Cambridge in the comingyears.

Expansion is not something we undertake for its own sake, of course, butbecause areas of knowledge open up which command our attention. Last year, as part of our 800th Anniversary celebrations, and along with 799 others, I wrote a ‘Letter to the Future’, to be opened in 2109. We can have no thoroughunderstanding of the research our future counterparts will be conducting then. But, through decisions we make now, and attention to quality and flexibility, we are helping to ensure that ground-breaking discoveries will continue to be made in Cambridge.

Professor Alison RichardVice-Chancellor

Cover photographs: Name that building!(Quiz answers opposite)

Editor: Dr Louise Walsh([email protected])Designed by Cambridge Design Studio(www.cambridgedesignstudio.org/).Printed by Falcon Printing Services Ltd(www.falcon-printing.co.uk/).©2010 University of Cambridge andContributors as identified. All rights reserved.

2 | Issue 12 | Summer 2010

DAN WHITE

Building the future

Issue 12 | Summer 2010 | 3

RESEARCH NEWS

Dinosaurdiscovery The first evidence of a Tyrannosaurus rex ancestorhas been unearthed in thesouthern hemisphere.

NIGEL C

ATTLIN/FLPA

The InCrops Project operates as anenterprise hub across the whole of theEast of England. Its aim is to acceleratecommercialisation opportunities forplant-based research by linking it tocompanies looking to develop newproducts for the marketplace. TheUniversity of Cambridge is one of 13partner institutions that form the hub,which is led by the University of EastAnglia (UEA).

InCrops Director Dr John French,based at UEA, explained: ‘By drawingupon the world-class research expertisethat we possess across the region, we canpromote green innovation, whether it’sfor biofuel, green fashion, constructionmaterials, healthcare or functional foods.’

In Cambridge, researchers in sixdepartments are involved in interactionswith InCrops. The main point of contact is the Department of Plant Sciences,where the role of the InCrops BusinessInnovation Manager Dr Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley is to connect regionalcompanies to relevant academicexpertise in plant-related research.

one such company is CH4Power, astart-up converting food waste via

anaerobic digestion into biogas andeventually into electricity. Adrian Vennifrom CH4Power said: ‘The collaborationwith InCrops and its academicpartnership is finally making it possible toturn a vision for progress I have had formany years into reality.’ In collaborationwith the Algal Bioenergy Consortium inCambridge (see page 19), the company isinvestigating a closed-loop system forenergy generation by growing algae andduckweed in the nutrient-rich liquiddigestate, fed by flue gas Co2.

The five-year, £4 million InCropsProject is being funded by the East ofEngland Development Agency (EEDA)and the European Regional DevelopmentFund. Andrew Luff of EEDA added: ‘By2013, the project aims to have supportedthe growth of the East of England’s low-carbon economy by helping small- andmedium-sized enterprises to create 70 new jobs, and entrepreneurs to start50 new businesses.’

For more information, please contactDr Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley ([email protected]; [email protected])or visit www.incropsproject.co.uk/

Promoting greeninnovationA regional knowledge transfer project is linking the region’stop plant science research with businesses wanting to developnew products.

Left to right, from top: Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics; Sainsbury Laboratory(©Stanton Williams); Strangeways Research Laboratory; Leverhulme Centre for HumanEvolutionary Studies; Centre for Mathematical Sciences; Cancer Research UK CambridgeResearch Institute/Li Ka Shing Centre; Faculty of Education; Institute of Criminology;Department of Chemistry (Photo: Nathan Pitt); Institute for Manufacturing; Kavli Institute forCosmology at Cambridge; Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute;Cambridge Centre for the Physics of Medicine; Department of Architecture New Studio(Photo: David Butler); Institute of Metabolic Science; Faculty of English.

Cover: selection of recent new buildings and refurbishments atthe University of Cambridge

The identification of a hip bone ofwhat is believed to be a smallerAustralian ancestor ofTyrannosaurus rex was made by ateam of scientists from theUniversity of Cambridge, theNatural History Museum inLondon, and Australia’s MonashUniversity and Museum Victoria,as published recently in Science.

‘This is an exciting discoverybecause tyrannosaur fossils hadonly ever been found in thenorthern hemisphere before andsome scientists thoughttyrannosaurs never made it downsouth,’ said Dr Roger Benson fromthe Department of Earth Sciences,who identified the bone.‘Although we only have one bone,it shows that 110 million yearsago small tyrannosaurs like oursmight have been foundworldwide. This find has majorsignificance for our knowledge ofhow this group of dinosaursevolved.’

While answering the questionof whether tyrannosaurs lived inthe southern as well as thenorthern hemisphere, the newfind leaves another, deepermystery: why did tyrannosaursevolve into giant predators suchas T. rex only in the northernhemisphere?

According to Dr Benson: ‘It isdifficult to explain why differentgroups succeeded in the northand the south if they originallyexisted in both places. What weneed to know now is just howdiverse the early radiation oftyrannosaurs was, why they wentextinct, leaving only giant-sized,short-armed species like T. rex, andhow successful they might havebeen in the southern hemisphere.’

For more information, pleasecontact Dr Roger Benson([email protected]).


RESEARCH NEWS

Dr Alexander Etkind, Rory Finnin and Dr Emma Widdis in the Department ofSlavonic Studies have received funding of€1 million over three years to lead aninterdisciplinary, multinational studyentitled ‘Memory at War: CulturalDynamics in Poland, Russia and Ukraine’.The project involves academics inCambridge, Groningen, Bergen, Helsinkiand Tartu.

The Memory at War project willemploy pioneering methodology to map

memory events in real-time acrossEastern European borders. Literature, film,new media, historical textbooks andpublic politics will be examined tounderstand how these elements canmediate memory of the traumas of the20th century, and how such memoriesare promoted, revised and censored.

‘Just as moments of glory andtriumph provide launching pads fornation building, so do narratives of pasttrauma,’ explained Dr Etkind. ‘To what

extent nations inherit tortured memoriesand act on them can set them apart, andthis is what we are seeing today in howPoland, Russia and Ukraine remember thecollapse of the USSR in 1991.’

Funding has been provided byHumanities in the European ResearchArea as part of a €16.5 million programmeof 19 transnational, collaborative projects.The projects are aimed at deriving newinsights from humanities research onmajor social, cultural and politicalchallenges facing Europe.

‘At the heart of the project is aconviction that Europe would benefitprofoundly from an understanding of the,often subterranean, cultural trafficking oftraumatic memories along the easternborder of the European Union,’ added Dr Etkind. ‘These memories, if left tofester, could be a destabilising influencein Eastern Europe. By bringing greaterunderstanding to these hidden obstacles,constructive dialogue can be fostered.’

For more information, please contact Dr Alexander Etkind([email protected]).

‘Memory wars’ of Eastern EuropeA €1 million study will shed light on the role of cultural memory of the soviet era in Russia,Ukraine and Poland.

©CoLIN

C

In the first-ever round of Google FocusedResearch Awards, Professor AndyHopper, Head of the ComputerLaboratory, has been awarded fundingtowards Computing for the Future of thePlanet, a research programme that hasset its sights on what computing can dofor the environment.

Explaining the ethos behind theresearch he leads, Professor Hopper said:‘Computing has had an enormousimpact on the way we live and work,

and a natural extension is to harness itspower to solve problems facing theplanet, whether it’s energyconsumption, pollution,congestion or sustainable living.over the past five years, we have

developed a strong interdisciplinaryvision of a computer-based frameworkthat will improve the way we live, andhave been building and testing thedeep-engineering technology needed toachieve it.’

Computing for the Future of thePlanet has several goals: an optimaldigital infrastructure, sensing andoptimising with a global world model,reliably predicting and reacting to ourenvironment, and digital alternatives tophysical activities.

one research area underinvestigation is a personal energy meterthat would enable individuals tocalculate their energy use in real-time.

Pulling information together from avariety of sources, the meter wouldcalculate not only the energy being useddirectly by the user but also the sharedenergy use of, for example, the buildingsthey work in, public transport and evennational overheads like healthcare.

Google has awarded a total of$5.7 million to 13 projects through theirrecent Research Awards scheme, withCambridge being the only institutionoutside the USA to win funding.‘Refreshingly, the gift from Google placesno restrictions on the funded research,’said Professor Hopper. ‘The nature of theaward is simply to stimulate andaccelerate the development of newideas and practical solutions in theseinnovative areas.’

For more information, please contact Professor Andy Hopper([email protected]).

Computer Lab wins Google fundingA gift from Google will help Computing for the Future of thePlanet.

The 2008/09 Annual Review marks twofinancial years for CambridgeEnterprise Ltd operating as a whollyowned subsidiary of the University.During this period, 400 newknowledge and technology transfertransactions were completed, bringingthe portfolio to over 700 active licence,consultancy and equity agreementsunder management. CambridgeEnterprise holds equity in 72companies on behalf of the University,many of which will have far-reachingimpact on society.

During this two-year period, incomeexceeded £18 million, of which about£14 million was distributed to Universityacademics and departments toencourage engagement in innovation.The remainder has been reinvested in

patent assets and in supportingknowledge and technology transferservices to the University.

‘Long-term support of fundamentalresearch plays a significant role increating ideas that will have a positivesocietal impact,’ said Chief Executive Teri Willey. ‘We are committed to findingthe best partners to assist in thecommercialisation of research emergingfrom the University’s departments.’

For more information aboutCambridge Enterprise, and todownload the Annual Review for2008/09, please visitwww.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/

An enterprising yearCambridge Enterprise’s figures for 2008/09 show growth inlicensing, consultancy and equity transactions.

Professor Austin Smith, Director of theWellcome Trust Centre for Stem CellResearch, has received a Japan PartneringAward from the Biotechnology andBiological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC). This scheme provides fundingfor BBSRC-supported researchers to buildand foster long-term collaborations withJapanese partners.

The award will enable ProfessorSmith and colleagues in Cambridge tocollaborate closely with Dr Hitoshi Niwaand other researchers at the RIKENCenter for Developmental Biology inKobe, Japan. The project also involves DrPaul Bertone, a biocomputational expertat the European Bioinformatics Institutenear Cambridge, and Dr Kathryn Lilley,Director of the Cambridge Centre forProteomics (see page 23).

The collaborative effort is tackling anemerging area of research: the systemsbiology of stem cells. Systems biologyintegrates complex information aboutwhole biological systems to understandhow they function. Like stem cell biology,it has been a fast-growing research fieldover the past decade.

‘only recently has it been realistic tostart bridging the two approaches inorder to answer questions about thebehaviour and decision-makingpathways of stem cells,’ explainedProfessor Smith. ‘It’s an exciting butchallenging area, and it makes very goodsense for researchers in Cambridge andJapan to share complementaryexperience, tools and resources.’

Commenting on the awards, whichhave been made to four research groupsin the UK, Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRCChief Executive, said: ‘Modern biosciencedemands international collaboration. Byworking together across internationalborders we can generate faster progressand higher quality science than we canalone.’

For more information, please contactProfessor Austin Smith ([email protected]). Professor Smith wasrecently awarded the prestigious 2010Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine for hiscontributions to stem cell research.


RESEARCH NEWS

Funding to boostscientific linkswith JapanResearchers in Cambridge andJapan will be working togethertowards a more integratedunderstanding of how stemcells make decisions.

Hauser Forum opens for businessA new complex will provide a focus for industry–academiccollaboration and research commercialisation.

A prestigious new developmentcomprising the Entrepreneurship Centre,Broers Building and Cafe Atrium wasopened by the Chancellor, HRH The Dukeof Edinburgh, on 20 April at the WestCambridge Site.

The Hauser Forum was funded by an£8 million gift from the Hauser-RaspeFoundation, with £2 million additionalfunding from the East of EnglandDevelopment Agency. The state-of-the-artenterprise hub has been designed tostimulate innovative collaborationbetween clusters of academics, start-upbusinesses and established industries.

Cambridge Enterprise has relocated itsoffices to the Entrepreneurship Centre atthe Hauser Forum, as has IdeaSpace,

which links entrepreneurial activitieswithin the University and throughout theregion.

The Broers Building, named in honourof the former Vice-Chancellor Lord Broers,is a pioneering development by TurnstoneEstates and the University in which SMEsand international companies can leasespace to work in closer partnership withresearchers and commercialisationactivities. The first tenants to take up leasesare Nokia Research Centre, which developsnanotechnologies for mobilecommunication and ambient intelligence,and Base4 Innovation, a spin-out companyfrom the Cavendish Laboratory thatdevelops detection platforms forhealthcare and the life sciences.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Dr Hermann Hauserand Dr PamelaRaspe at theopening of theHauser Forum

PHILIP M

yNoTT


BUILDING THE FUTURE

According to data from the latest HealthSurvey for England, 60% of men, 50% ofwomen and 25% of children will be obeseby 2050 if no action is taken. TheInternational Diabetes Federation estimatesthat more than 285 million peopleworldwide currently have diabetes andthat this will increase to 438 million by 2030.

‘There is little doubt that modern-daylifestyles, which promote excessive foodintake and discourage physical activity,have been driving the rapid increase inthese disorders,’ explained Professor NickWareham, co-Director of the Institute ofMetabolic Science (IMS) with ProfessorSteve o’Rahilly. ‘But not everyone exposedto an obesogenic environment is obese,and some overweight people don’t sufferadverse conditions like type 2 diabetes. It’sour genetic make-up that determines theeffect of our lifestyle.’

It is this complex interplay betweengenes and environment, and how the

scales can be tipped towards better health,which interests researchers at the IMS.‘Work in these areas has been flourishingfor some time in Cambridge andunprecedented scientific opportunities tounderstand these disorders have beenemerging locally and internationally,’ said Professor o’Rahilly. ‘By creating the IMS, we have been able to focus themultidisciplinary research and to link itdirectly with patient care.’

The IMS is a tri-institutional partnershipbetween the University of Cambridge, theCambridge University Hospitals NHSFoundation Trust and the Medical ResearchCouncil (MRC). opened in 2008, the £20 million building has within it: the MRCEpidemiology Unit, led by ProfessorWareham; the University of Cambridge’scross-departmental Metabolic ResearchLaboratories (MRL), led by Professoro’Rahilly, which includes the MRC Centrefor obesity and Related Metabolic Diseases;

and the Clinical Care Centre, incorporatingthe Wolfson Diabetes and Endocrine Clinicand the Weston Centre for Childhood andAdolescent Diabetes and Endocrinology. The Wolfson Foundation, Garfield WestonFoundation and The AtlanticPhilanthropies were major benefactors.

Finding the ‘fat’ genesThe MRL houses the research groups ofaround 20 Principal Investigators (PIs),whose expertise ranges from genetics andbiochemistry, to cell biology andphysiology. In addition to undertakingbasic research into processes such asinsulin action and the control of energybalance, these investigators provide theexpertise that is critical for improvedunderstanding of why particular geneticdefects lead to human obesity and/ordiabetes. They are also working increasinglyclosely with basic and clinicalneuroscientists to understand the

Tackling obesity and diabetes:Institute of Metabolic ScienceThe rising prevalence of obesity, diabetes and related disorders is an epidemic of globalproportions. Research at the Institute of Metabolic science is aimed at understanding thesedisorders and translating new discoveries into better health.


BUILDING THE FUTURE

©ISTo

CKPHoTo.Co

M/VIC

ToR M

ELNICIU

C

biological underpinnings of appetite andhow this can be disturbed by genetic andenvironmental factors. The Wellcome Trust(WT) has played a particularly importantrole in fostering the development of theMRL through its generous support of manyof its PIs and through additional strategicsupport.

A breakthrough in the understandingof obesity came in the 1990s whenCambridge researchers discovered anunderlying genetic predisposition to gainweight. ‘It was a rare, severe form of thecondition that led us to identify the brokengene,’ explained Professor o’Rahilly who,together with Dr Sadaf Farooqi, was thefirst to describe patients who lacked leptin,which normally controls food-seekingbehaviour. They were able to reverse thelife-threatening obesity by giving patientsdaily injections of synthetic leptin. Sincethen, the Cambridge team and others havediscovered eight genes that, when broken or missing, cause devastatingconsequences in those affected. The mostrecent discovery, published in Nature inFebruary 2010, showed that some morbidlyobese children are missing an entire regionof chromosome 16.

Gene defects as strong as these affectmore than a million people worldwide.Could there also be gene variants thatproduce a strong drive to eat in an evengreater proportion of the population? onefloor down from the MRL is the MRCEpidemiology Unit, which carries outstudies at the population level to look forassociations with disease. In a recentinternational collaborative study, thegenomes of 32,000 individuals werescanned to uncover genetic associationswith higher body mass index. This resultedin the discovery of six variants that affect alarge proportion of the population. It turnsout that several of the common variantsoccur in and around the very same genesthat the researchers in the MRL had foundto be the cause of severe forms of obesity.

The influence of lifestyleGenes are only part of the story. Manylarge-scale investigations on the influenceof lifestyle are under way in the MRCEpidemiology Unit to find out why somepeople are more susceptible than others todeveloping diabetes or obesity, and howthis might be prevented.

To do this, a large number of peopleneed to be studied for long periods oftime. The InterAct study, for instance, is amajor international consortium led byCambridge that is analysing more than 10 years of follow-up data for 500,000people in nine European countries andIndia who provided information on diet

and physical activity at baseline. Byanalysing the genetic profile of the 12,500people who have developed type 2diabetes, and a similar number who haveremained diabetes free, the team aims topinpoint how genes and lifestyles interact.To balance this large-scale approach, theFenland Study, which has just recruited its5,000th volunteer, is collecting much morein-depth information about the linksbetween these disorders and diet, lifestyleand genetic factors for individuals in theCambridge region.

Several research groups areinvestigating how to translate knowledgegained from epidemiological studies intopreventive action, by assessing diet andphysical activity in adults and children, andtesting interventions. Better measurementof notoriously difficult-to-measurebehaviours like physical activity is a key partof this translational process. The MRCEpidemiology Unit has pioneered newmethods for assessing physical activity andenergy expenditure, including combinedheart rate and movement sensors andwaveform accelerometry.

Linking basic and clinicalscienceMany of the scientists at the IMS are alsoclinicians who treat patients in the ClinicalCare Centre, on the ground floor of thebuilding, or monitor their progress at theCambridge WT Clinical Research Facilityclose by. This is a vital component of thesuccess of the IMS: ‘The clinical problemspresented by patients inform the research,which in turn helps us to build the clinicalexpertise needed to assess and handletheir care,’ explained Professor o’Rahilly.Indeed, IMS scientists have discoveredseveral previously unrecognised forms ofdiabetes and obesity in patients referred tothe Centre as part of a national referralprogramme.

Recently published research showshow far the practical help for patients hasprogressed. Dr Roman Hovorka, based inthe MRL, has developed an ‘artificial’pancreas for patients with type 1 diabetesthat can help them to control their bloodsugar levels while asleep. The recent studywas carried out during overnight stays for children and teenagers with type 1diabetes at the WT Clinical Research Facility and is a stepping stone for the next stage of testing the system at home.

other exemplars of the link betweenbasic and clinical science include the workof Professor David Ron, Wellcome TrustPrincipal Research Fellow in the MRL, whois an international authority on cellularstress, a process of great relevance to thedevelopment and progression of obesityand diabetes; and Dr Susan ozanne, BritishHeart Foundation Senior Fellow in the MRL,who investigates the mechanisms wherebynutrition early in life can influence later risksof obesity and diabetes.

Future choicesResearchers at the IMS are keen tomaximise the impact of their work byinforming steps to reduce and preventobesity and metabolic disorders. Key to thisvision is the Institute’s connection to theCentre for Diet and Activity Research,which promotes excellence in publichealth research, and is directed by ProfessorWareham at Cambridge’s Institute of PublicHealth. Professor Wareham explained: ‘Thisconnection is important for translating abetter fundamental understanding of theseconditions, gained through research at theIMS, into helping people to make the rightchoices to stay healthy.’

For more information about research at the IMS, please visitwww.ims.cam.ac.uk/

Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Hills Road


The Faculty of English boasts one of thelargest concentrations of research activityin the discipline in the UK. ‘Perhaps wecould be accused of being overambitiousbut we’d like to think that, across the 100or so Faculty members here, ourcombined research areas gather togetherall the threads that make up the fabric ofEnglish,’ said Professor Adrian Poole, Headof the Faculty.

Research ranges chronologically fromthe 7th to the 21st centuries; linguisticallyfrom Classical to French and Germanliterary traditions; geographically fromcolonial America to post-colonial India;thematically from early Christian music to21st-century environmentalism;intellectually from the history of thelanguage to the history of moralphilosophy; even alphabetically fromAaron’s Rod to Louis Zukofsky.

‘To some extent, what we’re doing ispreserving and keeping alive the greatheritage of English Literature,’ addedProfessor Poole. ‘of course this might takea multitude of different forms, whether

it’s constructing arguments for theimportance of a certain poet, bringing afresh perspective to a genre, or drawingcomparisons between contemporaryliterature and screen media.’

Founded in 1919, the Faculty was thefirst in the country to encourage the studyof English literature up to the present dayand to approach the discipline from a‘literary’ point of view, rather than as aproduct of the history of the language. In2004, a new chapter began, with theopening of a £15 million building fundedby the University, external donors,including major gifts from Garfield WestonFoundation, The Kirby Laing Foundationand The Atlantic Philanthropies, and theHigher Education Funding Council forEngland (HEFCE).

For the first time in the history of theFaculty, its research and teaching, a dramastudio and 80,000 library books weretogether, as well as the closely linkedDepartment of Anglo-Saxon, Norse andCeltic (ASNC) and the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics (RCEAL).

A close readGreat importance is attached to theability to read literary texts closely andattentively, combining this with detailedhistorical research. New vistas inunderstanding writers and their work canbe opened up by unpicking the richhistorical patchwork that influences them,as Professor Helen Cooper, expert inmedieval and Renaissance literature, isfinding.

Professor Cooper’s most recentresearch, due to be published later thisyear, investigates Shakespeare and themedieval world. ‘Although we think ofhim as quintessentially belonging to theEnglish Renaissance, Shakespeare’s worldwas still largely a medieval one,’ sheexplained. ‘The cityscape of London wasstill medieval, his ideas about what couldbe staged and how it was done werecarried forward from the late days of theMystery Cycles, and half his plays havemedieval roots. We can only measurewhat he achieved, or even see it clearly,when we recognise how much the

Reading closely: Faculty of EnglishClose scrutiny of text is the bedrock of a research culture that spans practically the wholerange of contemporary English studies.

BUILDING THE FUTURE


BUILDING THE FUTURE

For more information about researchat the Faculty of English, please visit www.english.cam.ac.uk/RCEAL: www.rceal.cam.ac.uk/ASNC: www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/

underlying culture of the Middle Agesshaped the world’s greatest playwright.’

Working in a very different period, Dr Ben Etherington, a newly arrivedFaculty-funded Research Fellow, alsobrings together close reading with anawareness of historical context. Hisresearch focuses on post-colonial andinternational literatures in English, a fast-growing research area in Cambridge andelsewhere. Studying literary primitivism inthe early 20th century, and reading thework of writers and intellectuals from theAnglophone and FrancophoneCaribbean, Britain, West Africa and France,Dr Etherington is interested in the spreadof primitivist modes of writing and whatthis can tell us about colonialism in theearly to mid-20th century.

Embracing a digital ageMembers of the Faculty have been in thevanguard when it comes to embracingthe changing landscape brought aboutby digital advances. The recentlycompleted Scriptorium project, fundedby the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil, has assembled a digital archiveof medieval and early modernmanuscripts, and teamed this up with afully interactive online course to helpscholars learn how to read thesenotoriously difficult texts.

A computational approach is beingtaken in a groundbreaking collaborativeresearch programme in RCEAL calledEnglish Profile, supported by CambridgeUniversity Press and Cambridge ESoL.‘The idea is to understand how English isacquired as a second language and thenapply this knowledge to improvingtextbooks and testing,’ explained DrHenriëtte Hendriks, Acting Director ofRCEAL and one of its PrincipalInvestigators. A corpus of 26 millionwords taken from test sheets for speakersrepresenting over 100 differentlanguages is being analysed by linguistsand computational linguists for thecommon developmental paths thatlearners of English follow over time. Thisstudy is just one of several RCEALprojects that are helping to solvepractical problems involving the Englishlanguage – in language teaching,textbook publishing and even medicaldiagnosis.

A pioneering study by Professor Peterde Bolla could have implications fortransforming research methodologies ofthe future. In a project funded by theLeverhulme Trust, Professor de Bolla hasbeen mapping how an idea, or concept,develops through literature. Rather thanattempting the impossible task of

reading many thousands of books, lettersand manuscripts, Professor de Bolla hastaken the innovative step of searching forand counting the incidence of sets ofkeywords in the huge digital archivesthat have only recently become availableto scholars. It’s new territory for scholarsof English, forging a methodology thathas the potential to reap significantacademic dividends.

Anglo-saxon goldRecent headlines might give theimpression that to strike Anglo-Saxongold you need a metal detector but, asASNC academics Professor Simon Keynesand Dr Rosalind Love discovered, there’sstill plenty awaiting the historians andliterary scholars who depend on texts.

When a 14th-century compilation ofhistorical materials that had lainundiscovered in the library of the Earl ofDevon for centuries went under thehammer at Sotheby’s, an eagle-eyedexpert (and former ASNC graduatestudent) spotted that it contained a copyof a much older and incredibly rare text.It was the Encomium Emmae Reginae, ahighly charged polemic written on behalfof Queen Emma, wife of King Æthelredthe Unready and then of King Cnut, in1041. But, unlike the only other survivingcopy, it was preserved here in a versionwith a different ending, added after theaccession of her son Edward theConfessor in 1042. Coincidentally, arelated discovery was made in oxford,where papers of a 16th-century antiquarywere found to include a long-lost sectionfrom a biography of King Edward, writtensoon after his death in 1066.

Both ‘new’ texts have now beenstudied closely at ASNC, and interpretedin relation to each other. ‘The variantending of the Encomium is ratherexplosive in its implications for ourunderstanding of how Edward’saccession was perceived bycontemporaries, spinning it as thelonged-for restoration of the Anglo-Saxon royal line,’ explained ProfessorKeynes. ‘And it provides the perfectcontext for understanding a poem, nowfully recovered, which describes amagnificent ship given to Edward atprecisely that time,’ added Dr Love.

The word in the worldThe newest initiative for the Faculty ofEnglish has been the launch of theCentre for Material Texts, which will fosterthe next generation of research andteaching relating to texts of any form,from spoken words to celluloid, frommanuscript to XML. As any academic in

the Faculty will attest, text is the productboth of its creator and a mass of worldlycircumstances; unravelling how texts ofmany kinds have been embodied andcirculated is becoming one of the mostexciting areas of humanities researchtoday, and continues a tradition at theFaculty of English of getting close to thewritten word.

DR JA

SoN SCo

TT-WARREN

AND DR A

NDREW

ZURCHER

Faculty of English, West Road

Turning ideas and opportunities intoproducts and services has traditionallybeen seen as the role of business andindustry. But all too often, new ideas havefailed to make the journey to creatingsubstantial new industries. The Institutefor Manufacturing (IfM) is dedicated tobridging the gaps between academia,industry and government, to provide a more connected approach tomanufacturing and industrial innovation.

From its inception in 1998, the IfM,embedded in the Manufacturing andManagement Division of the Departmentof Engineering, has adopted a broad view of manufacturing to includeunderstanding markets, research, design,product development, production,distribution, services and, increasingly,sustainability. The Institute bringstogether expertise in engineering,management and policy under one roof,and combines this broad scope within a unique structure that integrateseducation, research and practice.

‘Introducing people to the challengeand excitement of turning ideas andopportunities into products and servicesis enormous fun,’ said Professor MikeGregory, Head of the IfM, ‘and our newpurpose-designed building is a perfecthome in which to accomplish this.’

opened in November 2009, IfM’s new £15 million building was made possibleby donations from philanthropist Dr AlanReece, after whom the building is named,The Gatsby Charitable Foundation andlocal industry. It combines an innovationand design studio, process andautomation labs, and state-of-the-artteaching facilities, all leading off a largecommon room for staff, students andvisitors, providing the maximumopportunity for new ideas to spark andspread.

An emphasis on collaborationResearch at the IfM seeks to bringtogether different fields of knowledge totackle larger-scale questions that typicallylie at the interface between traditionaldisciplines, as Professor Gregoryexplained: ‘Universities are great atdeveloping new ideas and Cambridge isclearly no slouch in this regard. But, forthose outside the world of academia,ideas are only as good as what you cando with them.’

The IfM started as an exciting‘experiment’ in bringing theory andpractice closer together; it embodies aground-up approach to addressing someof the major challenges of the day, suchas healthcare and sustainability. ‘The

opening of our new building marks theend of the first phase of this experimentand the work we have done so farsuggests we are only at the beginning ofwhat this configuration can achieve,’asserted Professor Gregory.

‘The emphasis here is oncollaboration – locally, nationally andinternationally across disciplines, acrosscentres, across the University and acrossindustries. Indeed, informal networks arealready beginning to form spontaneously– just as we hoped they might.’ ProfessorGregory argues that the ethos ofintegration and collaboration provides anexcellent complement to the centres ofdeep expertise within the IfM, around theUniversity and beyond.

Engagement with industry andgovernment is a key distinguishingfeature of the Institute. ‘The IfM model isdesigned to fill a gap in the traditionalUniversity structure and allows academicsto work with companies of all types andsizes – from helping start-ups and smalland medium enterprises, to advising onthe global configuration of majorcorporations,’ explained Professor Gregory.Engagement with policy is just asimportant, as governments becomeincreasingly focused on industrialinnovation and its global context.


BUILDING THE FUTURE

Making the most of ideas: Institute for Manufacturing

Cambridge has never beenshort of ideas but theInstitute for Manufacturingis dedicated to puttingideas into action.

IFM


Themes on a global scale‘We see ourselves as a ‘communitycentre’ for all those involved withmanufacturing – students, industrialists,policy makers and other academics. Toengage with this community, we needto support the core interests ofcommunity members and that’sreflected in our research activities [seepanel] and broader themes,’ explainedProfessor Gregory. The big themes tohave emerged at the IfM over the pasttwo years have indeed been global intheir scale: Services, IndustrialInnovation, Emerging Industries andIndustrial Sustainability.

The IfM is already taking a nationallead in Services – particularly the designand operation of complex technology-based services. In the recent S4T (ServiceSupport Solutions: Strategy andTransition) project, the IfM headed aconsortium of 10 British universitiesworking with BAE Systems to study thecontinuing transformation of the UKeconomy towards increasing valuegeneration from product-relatedservices. Under the Industrial Innovationtheme, another IfM-led consortium ofleading businesses is seeking to identifythe skills required, and the barriers thatneed to be overcome, to implementopen innovation models.

The Emerging Industries programmeis already shedding new light on theevolution of new industries andidentifying ways in which the translationof ideas into action might beaccelerated. And, the IndustrialSustainability theme is attracting hugeinterest and involvement from staff andstudents alike as the IfM seeks to tackleone of the vital questions of the age –how to provide people across the planetwith the goods and services they needwithout irrevocably damaging theenvironment.

Inspire, engage, educateIfM’s new building is a major addition tothe University's West Cambridge campusfor science and technology. It joins anexisting concentration of relatedresearch centres, as well as the HauserForum (see page 5), a focal point forentrepreneurship and technologytransfer. Professor Gregory believes thatnew challenges and opportunities arenow possible after the move to the newfacilities: ‘Through the generosity ofbenefactors Dr Reece and LordSainsbury, we have a wonderful platformto inspire, engage and educate people inthe excitement and challenge ofmanufacturing and industrial innovation.’

For more information about research at the IfM, please visitwww.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/

Research activities at the IfM

Professor Mike Gregory, Head of the IfM, outlines the scope of research activity atthe Institute:

R&D‘Understanding how R&D is conducted and how this is transformed into actualapplications is important. Too often R&D is represented at the beginning of thevalue chain. Work at the IfM has illustrated how it can have impact all along theprocess.’

Design‘The IfM’s Design Management Group aims to improve the ways in which designcan be managed and exploited, at product, firm and national levels. The group’sDesign in Science project is looking at how scientists can benefit from workingwith designers to aid research.’

Production‘All of the IfM’s research has real-world benefits. In terms of production, it’s vital thatindustrial processes are as efficient as possible. The IfM’s Inkjet Research Centre islooking at how manufacturing can be conducted using techniques familiar toanyone who has used a computer printer. Photonics researchers are looking at theimpact lasers can have on manufacturing, which could lead to new industrialdevelopments over the next 20 years.’

Distribution‘We live in an interconnected world and UK business needs to know how tooperate on a global level. our work, such as looking at supply chains in emergingfirms and industries, helps facilitate this understanding.’

services‘Helping companies to understand how to sell their business as a service ratherthan just a product is a major element of our work. our research is helpingcompanies understand important issues like risk and cost mitigation, and theimpact of transition towards service provision, which is increasingly an integral partof manufacturing.’

BUILDING THE FUTURE

Institute for Manufacturing, Alan Reece Building, Charles Babbage Road

IFM


BUILDING THE FUTURE

It may be one of Cambridge’s newestbuildings but its historic roots lie in one ofthe University’s oldest scientific researchdepartments. The £4 million Kavli Institutefor Cosmology Cambridge (KICC), openedin 2009, is built just yards from theUniversity observatory, whereastronomical research has been carriedout since the early 19th century. In theintervening years, Cambridge hasdeveloped an international reputation forground-breaking discoveries about theorigin, evolution and structure of theUniverse, thanks to research in the Instituteof Astronomy, the Department of Physics’Cavendish Laboratory and theDepartment of Applied Maths andTheoretical Physics (DAMTP).

The driving force for the new Institutewas to bring together some of the groupsfrom these departments, as ProfessorGeorge Efstathiou, Director of KICC,explained: ‘The spread of research acrossdepartments owes much to the naturaldivisions that resulted from the diverse‘tool boxes’ used to study different areas ofcosmology, such as the events followingthe Big Bang, the birth of stars, thestructure of the Universe and so on. Today,though, there are increasing overlaps andit makes sense to integrate researchprogrammes where there is commonground.’

KICC is now home to 55 scientists,including many graduate students fromeach department, and is also recruiting anew generation of research scientists: Drs George Becker, Ian McCarthy andCarrie MacTavish are the first Kavli InstituteFellows to be appointed, funded by anendowment from The Kavli Foundation topursue independent research inCambridge.

‘Fossil record’of the earlyUniverseWhere did ourUniverse comefrom? What is itmade of? How is itevolving? To helpanswer some of themost fundamentalquestions about theUniverse, researchers atKICC are members ofinternational collaborationsthat are making use of some themost advanced scientificinstruments ever constructed –satellites such as the £1.7 billion Planck and Herschelobservatories launched by the EuropeanSpace Agency last year. Such instrumentswill provide insight into events thathappened billions of years ago – theUniverse’s unique ‘fossil record’ – byanalysing the light emitted in the distantpast but which is only reaching us now.

‘The furthest back we can currentlydetect corresponds to light that wasemitted 300,000 years after the Big Bang,just under 13.7 billion years ago, when theUniverse was as hot as the surface of theSun,’ explained Professor Anthony Lasenby,Deputy Director of KICC. ‘When it wasemitted, it was visible light, but becausethe Universe has expanded by a factor ofover a thousand, it has stretched out andbecome cosmic microwave backgroundradiation.’ The Planck satellite will measuretiny fluctuations in the radiation with thehighest accuracy ever achieved.

Working in partnership with over 40 institutes as part of the pan-EuropeanPlanck collaboration, Cambridge scientists

havebeen partof the satellite’sscientific programme since its inception in1993, and are now involved in analysingand interpreting the vast amounts of datadelivered back to Earth. The satellite willcomplete a full scan of the whole skyevery six months until the end of 2011,providing information to test theories ofthe early Universe and the origin of cosmicstructure.

shifting into the redAfter the Big Bang, the first stars arethought to have formed out of a networkof matter that grew from the tinyfluctuations seen in the cosmic microwavebackground. Dr Martin Haehnelt, Dr George Becker and others at KICC arestudying the composition of this network,which is known as the intergalacticmedium. ‘The energy released from thefirst stars would have had a dramatic

Probing the Universe:Kavli Institute forCosmology

scientists at Cambridge’s KavliInstitute are studying how theUniverse developed after theBig Bang by analysing lightemitted up to 13.7 billionyears ago.


BUILDING THE FUTURE

Location of theregion most recently

mapped by the Plancksatellite, which revealed a

galactic web of cold dust andlarge-scale structure in the

Milky Way

For more information about researchat the Kavli Institute for Cosmology,please visit www.kicc.cam.ac.uk/

©ESA

AND TH

E HFI Co

NSoRTIU

M; AXEL M

ELLINGER

impact on the medium around them,changing the way future stars and galaxieswould form,’ Dr Becker explained. ‘We canstudy the intergalactic medium fromwhen the Universe was about a billionyears old through to the present, but we’dlike to go even earlier, closer to the BigBang, because it contains the fingerprintof the initial and changing conditionsneeded to form what we see today.’

To do this, cosmologists are looking atthe high-redshift Universe. As the Universeexpands, light produced by distant starsand galaxies is stretched to longerwavelengths, changing the apparentcolour of the light: the more distant theobject, the redder its light becomes by thetime it reaches Earth. As a result, highlyredshifted objects trace the earliest phasesof the Universe’s evolution. Using theUniversity’s Darwin supercomputer, Dr Becker is analysing data showing thethermal and gaseous history of theUniverse to understand the ingredientsneeded for galaxy formation.

Researchers at the Kavli are alsostudying the high-redshift Universe inorder to catch first sight of young galaxies.By searching the sky at unprecedentedlevels of sensitivity, a team led by Dr Haehnelt has discovered very fainttraces of long-searched-for galaxies.

Radio telescopes of the futureKavli scientist Dr John Richer is the UKProject Scientist for ALMA, the AtacamaLarge Millimeter Array, a huge radiotelescope sited in the Atacama Desert ofnorthern Chile. ALMA is the result ofcollaboration between 17 countriesworldwide. When completed in 2013, itwill provide the first detailed images of the gaseous component of high-redshiftgalaxies; in addition, it will map thestructure of the discs of material thatsurround newly formed stars in whichplanetary systems are known to form. To do this, ALMA will combine data from

66 radio antennas to construct a telescope with an effective diameter of 10 miles, using the technique ofaperture synthesis that won Cambridge astronomers Sir Martin Ryleand Professor Antony Hewish the 1974Nobel Prize in Physics.

Meanwhile, a Cambridge team led byDr Paul Alexander is providing crucialinput into the science, design and costingof the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radiotelescope; Dr Alexander leads the UKtechnical work on the SKA design, headinga team split between Cambridge,Manchester and oxford. Construction ofthe first phase of the instrument isexpected in 2015, with completion in2020. Dr Alexander explained theimportance of this new development: ‘The SKA will be 100 times more sensitivethan the radio telescopes of the presentgeneration, and will be able to survey the sky up to one million times faster. This will enable us to probe the so-called‘dark ages’ of the Universe before thefirst stars shed light, observe the formation of galaxies, test theories ofgravity and study the role of cosmicmagnetism.’

Writing the history of theUniverseThe scientific goals of KICC are ambitious:‘The concept of reconstructing, in threedimensions, events that happened over atime span of nearly 14 billion years is nolonger just a dream,’ said ProfessorEfstathiou. ‘Working with the internationalcommunity, and as part of the wider Kavlifamily of 15 institutes worldwide, we hopeto make dramatic discoveries about thehistory, fabric and evolution of theUniverse as we reach further into the sky.’

Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Madingley Road


At a time when problems like youthviolence, terrorism, prison overcrowdingand fear of crime are key issues in manycountries, the work of Cambridge’sInstitute of Criminology is as relevant asever in its 50-year history.

At the heart of research at theInstitute is a ‘life-course’ approach tounderstanding crime, as ProfessorFriedrich Lösel, the Institute’s Director,explained: ‘We’re interested in whatcauses individuals to commit crime;which steps can be taken to preventthem from doing so; and, when crimehappens, how justice is dispensed,punishment is implemented andoffenders can be rehabilitated.’

Above all, this isn’t ivory towerresearch. Central to the Institute’s work isthe dual importance of fundamentalscholarship and real-world practicalrelevance. The result is a portfolio thatstretches from philosophical debate onpenal ethics through to testing theoriesof crime prevention on city streets.

Those new to the concept ofcriminology might regard it as a smallsingle discipline – after all it’s basicallythe study of criminal behaviour. But

Criminologists inCambridge areinvestigating theorigins, prevention andcontrol of crime in afast-changing world.

Challenging crime: Institute of Criminology

criminology is multifaceted, drawing fromdisciplines as diverse as law, sociology,psychology, biology, medicine, economics,political science and history. Fortunately,founding Director Sir Leon Radzinowicz had the foresight in 1959 to orchestrate atruly trans-disciplinary Institute ofCriminology in the Faculty of Law. Today,within its £13.2 million home, funded byThe Wolfson Foundation and into which theInstitute moved six years ago, a vibrant andeclectic research community is flourishing.

Taking the long viewResearch that traces the development ofdelinquent and criminal behaviour overmany decades is a particular strength of theInstitute. ‘Longitudinal studies give us aremarkable degree of insight into why someyoungsters are delinquent while others arenot, and to what extent this continues intocriminal behaviour in adulthood,’ saidProfessor Lösel.

In fact, one of the longest running ofsuch studies in the world continues at theInstitute today. Begun in 1961, theCambridge Study in DelinquentDevelopment is unique in criminology notjust for the length of follow-up period, but

also because of the exceptionally highnumber (93%) of the original sample of 411boys aged 8–9 years who are still beinginterviewed.

The study has determined the six mostcommon predictors of criminal behaviour –a convicted parent, high daring, low schoolattainment, low family income, disruptedfamily and large family size. Professor DavidFarrington, who leads the study, explainedthe benefits of calculating risk scores forthese predictors: ‘It’s clear from our studythat the most persistent offenders startearly, have long criminal careers and tend toproduce the next generation of delinquentchildren. Prevention programmes targetedat the most at-risk children would help tobreak this cycle.’

Finding out what influences youngpeople to break rules of conduct is a centralaim of the Peterborough Adolescent andyoung Adult Development Study (PADS+),funded by the Economic and SocialResearch Council. By 2012, PADS+ will havefollowed approximately 700 participantsfrom ages 11 to 21 years, a critical period forpersonal and social development. ‘Theresearch is clearly showing how socialenvironments and their moral contexts

Revan; painted by an inmate of HM Young OffenderInstitution Portland and now part of the Instituteof Criminology’s art collection, acquired through

the Koestler Trust

BUILDING THE FUTURE


affect young people differently dependingon their personal morality and self-control,’ explained Professor Per-olofWikström, who leads the study. ‘This iscrucial for understanding and preventingtheir crime involvement.’

The Institute is also involved in otherlong-running studies: the Sheffield Study(led by Professor Sir Anthony Bottoms)investigates why young adult offendersdesist from crime; and studies in Zurich(Professor Manuel Eisner) and Erlangen-Nuremberg (Professor Lösel) address notonly the development of delinquencybut also its prevention in childhood.

‘Pressure point’ policingAt the Institute’s Jerry Lee Centre, theworld’s first university centre devoted toexperimental criminology, randomisedcontrolled trials are being used to testcrime prevention and criminal justiceprogrammes.

Geographic ‘hotspots’ that show highlevels of crime are well known at certainpressure points in cities. ‘In theory, if youcan prevent offenders from committingcrime in these areas, it may be possibleto stop them altogether,’ said LawrenceSherman, Wolfson Professor ofCriminology and Director of the Centre.

Professor Sherman is working withthe Greater Manchester Police to test the idea that crime might be reduced byfocusing police presence in these areas‘to spoil the party for would-beoffenders’. The theory is that one officercan deter more crime by policing a series of these individual hotspots, each of which may only cover a fewhundred square feet, than by making less-structured patrols across a widerarea.

Crime and punishmentProfessor Sherman is also conductingrandomised field experiments in the UK and Australia to test the idea of‘restorative justice’ – a process by whichthe offender comes face to face with the victim to account for the crime. With 12 ongoing field experiments,involving 3,000 crime victims andoffenders, this is the largest programme of randomised trials for a single crime prevention strategy. A recent independent evaluation found a 27% reduction in reconvictionsof offenders two years after therestorative justice meetings. otherresearch in the Institute carried out by Dr Loraine Gelsthorpe addresses the practice of probation andcommunity penalties as alternatives to imprisonment.

However, the Institute’s researchdoesn’t stop at the prison door. Workbeing carried out in the Prisons Research Centre (PRC), directed byProfessor Alison Liebling, addresses thequestion of ‘what shapes prison life’. A major study is evaluating public- versus private-sector prisons: their values and practices, and how theseaffect prison quality and outcomes. one of the results of the PRC’s researchhas been the development of a survey-based management tool to measureprison quality or ‘moral performance’objectively; prison managers are usingthis as a basis for strategic planning.other research that is helping to improvethe climate of prison life focuses on thecentral role of prison officers in usingtheir discretion, determining prisonerwellbeing and preventing suicide inprison.

And what happens after prison? Work at the Institute follows up prisoners on release, looking forindicators of progress, and usingsystematic research to establish how well rehabilitation programmes areworking. ‘Clearly, investing in non-evidence-based rehabilitationprogrammes is risky for society andpotential victims,’ explained ProfessorLösel. ‘Getting to the nub of what works is a priority for informing how best to rehabilitate and reduce re-offending.’

Targeting policyAs well as the many applied studies –such as evaluating the success of closed-circuit television, improved streetlighting, treatment of sexual offenders,programmes against school bullying –research of a more theoretical naturehappens at the Institute’s Centre for PenalTheory and Penal Ethics, led by ProfessorAndrew von Hirsch. Scrutinisingcontemporary theories of criminal law,punishment and crime prevention,researchers at the Centre are consideringissues such as the comparative merits ofpenal and restorative justice approachesto dealing with convicted criminals, andthe rationale for prohibiting offensive and‘anti-social behaviour’. From a morepractical perspective, Dr Adrian Grounds, aforensic psychiatrist, investigates cases ofwrongful convictions in the justice system.

From the outset, a clear mission of theInstitute has been to undertake researchthat contributes to evidence-based crime policy. Helping to disseminate the collective expertise of the Institute,Professors Farrington, Lösel and Shermanare part of the Campbell CollaborationCrime and Justice Group, an internationalnetwork of researchers that promotes the best evidence on measures of crimeprevention and control. ‘The ultimate aim of the Group mirrors that of theInstitute of Criminology as a whole,’commented Professor Lösel. ‘Thebackbone of both is to create a state-of-the-art knowledge base in criminology that will help reduce crime and increase justice in society.’

For more information about researchat the Institute of Criminology, please visit www.crim.cam.ac.uk/Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue

BUILDING THE FUTURE

INSTITU

TE oF C

RIMINoLoGy; PH

oToGRAPHER: M

ICHAEL D

ERRINGER


BUILDING THE FUTURE

Mathematics has been studied inCambridge for much of the past 800years. Its history includes Robert Recorde,credited with inventing the equals sign inthe 16th century, and Sir Isaac Newton,the great 17th-century mathematician,physicist and holder of the LucasianProfessorship of Mathematics.

Today, the Faculty of Mathematicscomprises two Departments: AppliedMathematics and Theoretical Physics(DAMTP) and Pure Mathematics andMathematical Statistics (DPMMS), bothnow housed in the magnificent £61.4 million Centre for MathematicalSciences (CMS). officially opened in 2005,the CMS has been designed toencourage synergy between theDepartments and to exploit newpossibilities for collaboration. ‘The newbuildings are giving us the opportunity tolearn and benefit from each other in aplace that fosters creativity, ideas and thepossibilities they represent,’ said Professor

Martin Hyland, Head of DPMMS. ‘Newresearch and teaching activities havebegun, and more are sure to follow as oldboundaries disappear.’

The complex comprises seven largepavilions grouped around a grass-roofedcentral building containing communalareas, lecture theatres and a laboratory. Italso incorporates the Betty and GordonMoore Library, named in honour of itsbenefactors, and the Isaac NewtonInstitute, which is a national andinternational visitor research centre.

Mathematics might be an historicsubject for Cambridge, but it is also adiscipline concerned with the modernworld, as Professor Peter Haynes, Head ofDAMTP, explained: ‘Mathematics lies atthe centre of a vast range of practical andfundamental questions, whether it’scalculating the probability of risk,assessing change in our atmosphere,predicting avalanches or modelling viralepidemics.’

Earth and beyondWhat makes sense of mathematicalresearch is that it tells a story. For somemathematicians their stories derive fromthe real world and for others they comefrom the realms of abstract thought. Some of the most striking contrasts inmathematical process can be found inareas that, at their heart, are concernedwith understanding the fundamentalforces of nature.

on the one hand, some of the moreapplied aspects of research at the CMS arecentred on the mechanics of fluids andsolids. Mathematicians have joined forceswith researchers in the Departments ofChemistry and Geography, forming theCentre for Atmospheric Science, to studythe changing atmosphere. Similarly, theInstitute of Theoretical Geophysics, a jointventure with the Department of EarthSciences, is focusing on the physics ofvolcanoes, the Earth’s core and mantle,and sliding of the giant glaciers over

Spanning application and abstraction:Centre for Mathematical Sciences

ULRIC

H PIN

KALL, M

ATHEMATISC

HES Fo

RSCHUNGSIN

STITUT

oBERW

oLFA

CH (W

WW.IMAGINARy-EXH

IBITIoN.Co

M)

Visualisation from algebraic geometry, created as part of the travelling exhibition'IMAGINARY: Through the Eyes of Mathematics' by the Mathematisches Forchungsinstitut

Oberwolfach, shown recently at the Isaac Newton Institute

Mathematical research inCambridge has a breadththat extends from the purestof theory to the mostpractical of applications.


BUILDING THE FUTURE

Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road

GARETH

MARLo

W

land, which have applications in the oilindustry and carbon capture. ‘In all ofthese areas, great skill is required indeploying the best mathematicaltechniques to interpret and simulatewhat we see in nature,’ said ProfessorHaynes. ‘Similar expertise is also beingused in a host of other areas, such asnoise from jet engines, improved ink-jetprinting technology and nutrienttransport in organisms.’

on the other hand, Professor MichaelGreen, newly elected Lucasian Professor,looks beyond Earth to develop theories of the Universe. This is the ‘Wild West’frontier of mathematical physics, whereimaginative ideas take shape about howthe Universe might be. Professor Green is known internationally as a pioneer instring theory, which describes how theUniverse is composed of tiny vibratingstrings of energy. Like Professor StephenHawking, former Lucasian Professor andnow a Director of Research in DAMTP,who discovered that black holes are not actually black, Professor Greenmaintains the Cambridge tradition of deriving radical ideas from elegantmathematics.

Purely mathsSome study mathematics because it isinvolved in everything around us, butothers are simply fascinated by thesubject itself. ‘Pure maths is driven by theendlessly absorbing rigour and beauty ofcompelling questions for their own sake,’explained Professor Hyland. ‘Thechallenge comes when there is noobvious way to proceed.’

Some recent highlights, such as Dr Caucher Birkar’s work on the minimalmodel programme and Professor NickShepherd-Barron’s work on the Sato–Tateconjecture, involve ideas accessible onlyto the mathematical specialist. otheradvances, such as those of 1998 FieldsMedallist Professor Tim Gowers onSzemerédi’s theorem and Professor Ben Green on arithmetic progressions inprimes, address problems that can bereadily appreciated by the layman, even if the method of solution cannot.The common feature is that the solutions involve some remarkable new ideas.

‘often, it is not so much the answer to the problem but the process of solving it that’s extraordinary,’ saidProfessor Hyland. ‘There is enormousvalue to mankind not only in developingthe mathematical skills to solvesignificantly hard problems but also in simply adding to the body ofknowledge about the mathematicaluniverse.’

Reaching outMathematics is increasingly playing asignificant role in many disciplines beyondthe physical sciences. In biology, forexample, enormous amounts of complexdata are produced through genomesequencing, medical imaging, microscopyand other sources, and mathematics holdsthe key to exploiting these data. one ofthe newest developments within DAMTPis the Cambridge Computational BiologyInstitute (CCBI), which was set up topromote research requiring mathematicaland computational biology. CCBI’s broadresearch interests stretch from microbialevolution to human disease.

Dr Julia Gog, for instance, specialises inthe mathematics of infectious diseases,working with scientists in Departmentsincluding Pathology and VeterinaryMedicine on the dynamics of diseasessuch as influenza. Dr Stephen Eglenmodels the development of the nervoussystem, in particular the structural andfunctional development of the visualsystem. Professor Ray Goldstein combinesmathematics, physics and biology intheory and laboratory experiments tounderstand how self-propelled bacteriaand algae move through fluids and whatphysical factors might have stimulated theevolutionary transition to multicellularity.

The Statistical Laboratory withinDPMMS is concerned with probability andstatistics, and their applications. It tooaddresses the increasing need formathematical know-how within diversefields of application, not only in biology,but also in engineering and finance. In2006, the Engineering and PhysicalSciences Research Council (EPSRC)awarded the University £2.3 million todevelop core and methodologicalstatistics and to foster stronger links toapplication areas. This resulted in the

Cambridge Statistics Initiative, whichtoday is providing the necessary bridge inCambridge between statistical theory andpractice.

Building the futureAs well as progressing long-establishedresearch areas and developing freshapplications for mathematics, the CMS alsohas an eye on equipping the nextgeneration of mathematical minds. TheCambridge Centre for Analysis, funded byEPSRC, opens at the beginning of thecoming academic year to train PhDstudents in mathematical analysis.Directed by Professors James Norris andArieh Iserles, this Centre for DoctoralTraining is a major joint venture betweenDAMTP and DPMMS and will providestudents with interdisciplinary researchopportunities as well as broad training invital aspects of modern mathematics.

It is this spirit of opportunity thatembodies Cambridge mathematics, asProfessor Hyland explained: ‘Part of ourinheritance is the intellectual range thatmakes possible connections betweenseemingly unrelated phenomena andenables independent ideas to take flight.These opportunities will blossom here. In50 years’ time, I believe that people willlook back and say that moving theDepartments together to form the CMSwas a watershed for mathematics inCambridge.’

For more information about research at the CMS, please visitwww.cms.cam.ac.uk/Major benefactors of the CMS: The Atlantic Philanthropies, Charles N. Corfield, Dr Martin C. Faulkes, TheMärit and Hans Rausing CharitableFoundation, Garfield Weston Foundationand The Wolfson Foundation.


Increasingly, plants are recognised asbeing at the heart of sustainable solutionsto many global concerns, whether it’s theneed to secure food supplies, developbiofuels or tackle environmental issues.‘Plant-related research is now much moreprominent as a result of this newawareness,’ said Professor Sir DavidBaulcombe, Head of the Department ofPlant Sciences and first incumbent of thenewly created Regius Professorship ofBotany. ‘We want to be in a position inCambridge to step up to the mark andgenerate the understanding andapplications needed to meet thesechallenges.’

Fortunately, Cambridge has a strongrecord in the study of plants, a record thatis being strengthened by funding for newfacilities and research in the Departmentof Plant Sciences, and by the ongoingconstruction of the Sainsbury Laboratoryin the University’s Botanic Garden.

A long-term refurbishmentprogramme within the Plant Sciencebuildings in the centre of Cambridge hasseen the addition of wet and dry researchlaboratories on two floors of the building.Three new Royal Society Research Fellowsin the Department have been funded by£2 million from The Gatsby CharitableFoundation, which has also provided £2 million support for ProfessorBaulcombe’s research.

Added to this are the two newbuildings. A £6 million Plant GrowthFacility situated in the Botanic Garden,funded by the Science ResearchInvestment Fund and The GatsbyCharitable Foundation, has providedmuch-needed space for cultivating and

studying plants under controlledenvironmental conditions. Due forcompletion later this year is themagnificent Sainsbury Laboratory, whichhas been made possible through a gift byThe Gatsby Charitable Foundation of £82 million, the largest single gift receivedby the University since the launch of the800th Anniversary Campaign.

From forests to fragmentsThe study of plants has been transformedby the resources now available tobiologists. In the Department of PlantSciences, engineering principles are beingapplied to plant development andbehaviour; computer modelling yields vastdatasets on the spread of plant viruses orof genetically modified crops;sophisticated genetic tools and high-volume DNA sequencing are giving insightinto how plant cells function and howthey can be modified; and refinedchemical approaches are opening up newroutes for generating energy from plants.

The exceptional breadth of researchdoesn’t reach just from genetics tobiochemistry, and from evolution toecology, but also from gigantic tominiscule. one example of the larger-scaleresearch being undertaken in theDepartment is Dr Ed Tanner’s work on thePanamanian rainforest. For the pastdecade, Dr Tanner’s group has beenlooking at the effects of climate change oncarbon and nutrient fluxes in lowlandtropical rainforest.

Elevated Co2 in the atmosphereincreases the growth of trees, whichproduce more leaves that eventually fallfrom the canopy to the forest floor.

Dr Tanner’s research group hasdemonstrated that this additional leaf fallhas the net effect of mobilising carbonthat was stored in the soil. ‘These datahave environmental implications sincethey show that carbon in tropical soil is indynamic equilibrium and that additions ofcarbon can destabilise some of the soilorganic matter, causing increased releaseof Co2’.

At the other end of the size range,many research groups aim to understandhow plant cells work at the molecularscale. For example, research in ProfessorBaulcombe’s group investigates howplants regulate gene expression, and inparticular the molecular mechanisms thatenable plants to become disease resistant.‘We have shown how the presence ofsmall fragments of the genome of aninfecting virus in a plant cell guide a plantprotein to newly infecting virus genomesand silence them, stopping the plant frombeing re-infected by the same virus.’

Professor Baulcombe’s work on thismechanism of gene silencing, and thesmall interfering RNA molecules thatachieve it, has been honoured severaltimes over: the 2008 Lasker Award for BasicMedical Research, and this year’s WolfFoundation Prize in Agriculture and theHarvey Prize. As well as providing newopportunities for engineering diseaseresistance in plants of agricultural value,gene silencing offers a tool for turninggenes on and off in plants to helpdetermine their function.

Plants for food and fuelThe United Nations Food and Agriculturalorganization has forecast that global food

Seeding growth: plant sciencesThe study of plants is blossoming in Cambridge, with new facilities, new research and soon amajor new institute.

BUILDING THE FUTURE

PRoFESSo

R ALISo

N SM

ITH

DR BEVERLEy G

LoVER


BUILDING THE FUTURE

production will need to increase by over70% by 2050 to feed the growingpopulation. As more emphasis is placed onthe role of plant science in providing long-term, sustainable answers, Cambridgeresearchers are investigating diverse areasthat have applications in food security:how plant yields can be improved; howdisease and pests can be controlled; andhow plants can be re-modelled, forinstance to adapt to growing in newenvironments.

Dr Julian Hibberd, named last year byNature magazine as ‘one of five cropresearchers who could change the world’,is working with a worldwide consortium ofexperts whose goal is to re-engineer riceto increase yields dramatically. Withfunding from the Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation, Dr Hibberd’s team is takingthe pioneering approach of attempting tochange the photosynthetic pathway usedby rice into a more efficient pathwayfound in plants such as maize.

The procedure is challenging butcould reap great dividends, as Dr Hibberdexplained: ‘It’s likely that dozens of geneticalterations will be needed to change thebiochemistry, anatomy and biology of rice,but if we can produce higher-yielding ricethis could dramatically alleviate potentialfood shortages of the future.’

Plants are also important as part of thespectrum of future energy resources. Inthe search for plant-based solutions,Cambridge’s Algal Bioenergy Consortium(ABC) is turning to algae, simple aquaticorganisms from which the first land plantsevolved 400 million years ago. ‘on manylevels, algae make an excellent choice as asource of biofuel,’ explained ProfessorAlison Smith, one of the founders of theABC. ‘Many species grow rapidly, canproduce high levels of fuel molecules, andthey are not a food crop.’

The ABC is bringing togetherCambridge-based algal physiologists andmolecular biologists with engineers and

chemical engineers, and is also workingwith industrial partners to test ideas thatarise at the laboratory bench. one area ofcurrent investigation is the use ofphotovoltaic cells that ‘steal’ electrons fromthe algal photosynthetic process as asource of energy.

A new development: thesainsbury Laboratory The Sainsbury Laboratory will providestate-of-the-art laboratory facilities for 120 scientists and 30 support staffdedicated to finding out how complexplants develop from a single egg cell, andto understanding how the informationcoded in their DNA leads to their growthand form – fundamental knowledge forunderstanding evolution and forimproving crops. Together, research in theLaboratory and the Department of PlantSciences will afford an enormously broadand integrated understanding of plants inCambridge.

The Laboratory will also provide a newhome for the University Herbarium, aunique collection begun by Professor JohnStevens Henslow in 1821 and nowcontaining a million specimens of historic

and current research value. ‘In effect,’ saidProfessor John Parker, Curator of theHerbarium and Director of the BotanicGarden, ‘the Herbarium is returning home,to the Botanic Garden that was foundedby Henslow over 160 years ago.’

At the ground-breaking ceremony forthe new Laboratory last year, LordSainsbury, founder of The GatsbyCharitable Foundation, said: ‘This is one ofthe most exciting projects with which myCharitable Foundation has been involved.It combines an inspirational researchprogramme, an historic site in the BotanicGarden and a beautiful laboratorydesigned by Stanton Williams, and Ibelieve it will soon become a world-classcentre of excellent plant science.’

‘The new developments representwonderful research opportunities,’ saidProfessor Baulcombe. ‘Not just for plantscientists in Cambridge but forunderpinning much-needed informationfor progress in agriculture, energy and theconservation of biodiversity.’

For more information about research atthe Department of Plant Sciences,please visit www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/

The Sainsbury Laboratory will provide a state-of-the-art plant research facility within the Botanic Garden

PRoFESSo

R HoWARD GRIFFITH

S

DR TIM

UPSo

N

©STA

NToN WILLIA

MS

DR JIM

HASELo

FF

DR EM

MA SAyER A

ND DR ED

TANNER


The staging of an olympic Games isboth a formidable task and an excitingopportunity, not least because it firmlyplaces the host nation on the worldstage. Take the 2010 olympic WinterGames in Vancouver, Canada – an event that was viewed by some 3.5 billion people, more than half theworld’s population. In effect, the event isa chance for the host country topromote itself globally.

Perhaps one Games above all othersin the last century was imbued by aparticular eagerness to present anational identity afresh to the world andto erase past memories: the 1972olympic Games in Munich. As eventstranspired, it is almost exclusivelyremembered for a very different reason– the murder of 11 members of theIsraeli olympic team by the terroristgroup Black September. yet, this tragedyis only part of the story of the MunichGames.

Although some aspects of the 1972Games have received academicattention, most notably from scholars ofterrorism, there has been a major gap in

The 1972Munich

Olympicsand the

Making ofModernGermany

research that uses the Games as a casestudy to highlight broader historical currentsin Germany. As a topic, the Munich Gameslies neatly at the intersection between myresearch interests in Germany and in sportshistory and so, a few years ago, I set outwith historian Dr Kay Schiller from theUniversity of Durham to provide the firstcultural and political history of the Municholympics. The resulting book, The 1972Munich Olympics and the Making of ModernGermany, seeks not only to explain thesignificance of the event in modern Germanhistory, but also to ask why such great storewas set on hopes for its success.

Archives and oral historiesWith funding from the British Academy, theAlexander von Humboldt Foundation andthe Arts and Humanities Research Council(AHRC), I was able to delve into documents,most of which had only recently becomeavailable, held in archives around the world.

The research reached from the federalarchives in Koblenz and Berlin to theBavarian State Archives and the city archivein Munich, from the research libraries at theInternational olympic Committee (IoC) in

Lausanne to the Amateur AthleticsFoundation in Los Angeles, and even to thearchive held at the University of Illinoisrelating to Avery Brundage, the IoCPresident who controversially decided tocontinue the Munich Games following theterrorist attack.

Supplementing the investigations wasan array of oral history sources gained frominterviews of political and societal figuresinvolved with the planning and staging ofthe Games. These included Hans-JochenVogel, the Mayor of Munich at the time,members of the organizing Committee forthe Games, participating athletes, an Israelisurvivor of the terrorist attack and the nowdeceased Markus Wolf, formerly the head offoreign operations at the East German Stasisecurity service.

showcasing a modern GermanyMuch of the research focused on the yearsleading up to the ’72 Games. The FederalRepublic of Germany was at a crossroads inthe mid-1960s, still under the shadow ofWorld War II but viewing the future withoptimism. In the seven years between

PREVIEW

A new analysis of the Munich Games of 1972 places the event at the very centre of modernGerman history, as Dr Chris Young explains.


PREVIEW

being chosen as host and staging theevent itself, Germany experiencedfavourable economic conditions and abelief in technocratic optimism, but wasequally marked by national andinternational debate and dispute. Publicconflicts arose over political ideology,culture and the legacy of the German past,and foreign policy shifts impacted inintricate ways on East–West Germanrelations.

Against this background, the symbolicpotential of the Games did not escapethe organisers of the Munich olympics,who took just one month in 1965 tosecure promises of funding from the cityof Munich, the Bavarian State and theFederal Government. Hosting the Gameswas deemed to be of immenseimportance. As Chancellor Willy Brandtput it succinctly, Munich 1972 was to serveas a ‘showcase of modern Germany’, achance to replace memories of the ThirdReich with images of a thriving andprosperous Federal Republic, anopportunity to present an optimisticGermany to the world through its ‘HappyGames’ – its official motto.

In the end, the hopes were shatteredby the horrific terrorist attack in the early hours of 5 September. As on 11 September 2001, the world had beencaught off-guard and unawares, and theMunich organisers, from the chiefcommittee members down to thehundreds of stadium hostesses who hadwelcomed the international communityto Germany, saw the life seep out of theirGames overnight. years of effort now lefta dubious legacy and, more immediately,the Federal Republic was plunged intomonths of diplomatic firefighting withIsrael and the Arab world.

Into the melting potIt’s impossible to write such a bookwithout combining perspectives ofpolitical, social, cultural and urban history.As a result, The 1972 Munich Olympics andthe Making of Modern Germany is reallyabout a nation’s handling of a meltingpot of issues: Germany’s urban, regionaland national identity; intergenerationalconflict and social transformation;ideologies of the past; political anddiplomatic disputes; architectural visionsand ceremonial imaginations; terrorismand security; East and West Germany; andIsraeli–Arab relations.

At the same time, however, it’s a bookabout sport or, more accurately, aboutsport’s slippery nature as a phenomenonthat is both apolitical and deeply rootedin political discourse. To take oneexample: even for an event that claimedits legitimacy through an olympictradition reaching back to antiquity, it wasimpossible to make a complete breakwith the political past – ‘Hitler’s Games’ of1936 loomed large over the ’72 Games.

A question of sportUntil this research project, apart from theextensively studied inaugural AthensGames of 1896 and the Nazi-influencedBerlin Games of 1936, there had beenvirtually no attempt within sportshistoriography to write comprehensivelyabout the impact of individual Games ontheir respective host nations. Remarkably,there has also been no general accountof the modern history of European sportfrom a comparative and internationalperspective. This is the case despite sportbeing such a central cultural feature ofEuropean life, both as a participantactivity and as a spectator entertainment.

To remedy this situation, an AHRC-funded Network entitled Sport in Modern Europe has begun the firstcomprehensive historical analysis in thisarea. The overarching aim of the researchnetwork, which is led by Cambridge,

together with academic partners at theUniversity of Brighton and De MontfortUniversity, is to establish the centralthemes for the writing of a history ofmodern European sport. At a series ofthree international workshops, colleaguesfrom around the world have been lookingboth comparatively and chronologicallyat sport, encompassing the elite diffusionof British sport in the late 19th and early20th centuries as well as its modern-daydemocratisation, and exploring theproblems associated with defining adistinctive European model of sport.

For me, moving from an in-depthanalysis of the Munich Games to abroader outlook on European sport hasbeen an enriching tour d’horizon – and the work is only just beginning.

For more information, please contact the author Dr Chris Young([email protected]) at theDepartment of German and Dutch, or visit the Sport in Modern EuropeNetwork (www.sport-in-europe.group.cam.ac.uk/).

Roof of the main stadium and indoor arenas builtfor the 1972 Munich Olympic Games

Dr Chris Young

The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making ofModern Germany by Dr Kay Schiller and

Dr Christopher Young will be published by theUniversity of California Press.

ALEXA

NDRA yo

UNG


IN FoCUS

over the past decade, BBSRC has helpedachieve a step change in bioscience.Descriptive, single-problem research isincreasingly being replaced by generic,predictive and systems approaches,informed by the physical, computationaland social sciences. The result is that theUK has kept its world-lead in fundamentalbioscience, and enhanced its capability togenerate the new knowledge needed totackle global challenges such as foodsecurity, sustainable energy and healthierageing.

BBSRC research at Cambridgeexemplifies this combination ofexcellence and impact. A grants andfellowships portfolio of over £50 millionsupports research in more than 20departments, ranging from predictivemodelling of disease epidemiology, therole of short interfering RNAs in cellregulation, data standards and softwarefor macromolecular analysis, tomechanisms of predator vision anddefensive colouration in birds. BBSRC alsofunds around 100 postgraduate researchstudents including some registered withthe University at the Babraham Institute.

Cambridge hosts one of sixprogrammes that comprise the BBSRCSustainable Bioenergy Centre, which is a£26 million investment bringing togetheracademics and industry to investigatesustainable methods for producingbiofuels. Dr Paul Dupree in theDepartment of Biochemistry leads theCambridge programme, with partners atNewcastle University and NovozymesA/G, which seeks to improve the releaseof sugars from plant cell walls. Animportant resource for the Dupree lab,

and many others across Cambridge, hasbeen the protein-analysis capabilities ofthe Cambridge Centre for Proteomics(see panel), a long-term recipient ofBBSRC funding.

Research projects requiring ‘big’science approaches and longertimescales are supported by BBSRC underits strategic longer and larger (LoLa) grantscheme. one such grant to develop a pigsuper-vaccine was recently awarded to aconsortium of researchers based at fiveuniversities, including Cambridge’sDepartment of Veterinary Medicine(see panel).

Ways to improve themanufacturability of viral vectors fortherapeutics are currently being pursued with funding from the BBSRC-ledBioprocessing Research Industry Club.

BBSRC-funded research at Cambridgehas also turned into notable innovations.one example is the massively parallelSolexa sequencing technology inventedby Professor Shankar Balasubramanianand Professor David Klenerman in theDepartment of Chemistry, resulting in thespin-out company Solexa, which waspurchased by Illumina for $600 million in2007. The technology is revolutionisingbioscience by improving the cost andspeed of DNA sequencing by1,000–10,000 fold on previoustechnologies. In recognition of this work,Professor Balasubramanian was recentlynamed BBSRC Innovator of the year 2010.

For more information and todownload the BBSRC 2010–2015Strategic Plan, please visitwww.bbsrc.ac.uk/

The Biotechnology and Biologicalsciences Research Council (BBsRC)is the UK’s principal research funderacross the biosciences. Its currentChair is sir Tom Blundell, who is alsoDirector of Research and EmeritusProfessor in Cambridge’sDepartment of Biochemistry.

A new multidisciplinary researchprogramme aims to develop a singlevaccine that will combat four majorrespiratory pathogens of pigs.

Among the most serious diseases in pigs arethose that are caused by bacteria that live intheir throats, airways or tonsils and can causesevere lung infections such as pneumonia.Infected animals either die quickly or fail togrow normally, resulting in substantialeconomic costs to the worldwide pig industryand adding to food security concerns. Becausethe infections are difficult to diagnose, andcurrent vaccines have limited efficacy,antibiotics are now in widespread use inefforts to reduce infection.

A new five-year, £5.6 million BBSRC grantawarded under the longer and larger (LoLa)grant scheme aims to develop a new vaccineand a diagnostic tool to combat the four mostcommon bacteria that cause infections in pigs.The grant has been awarded to a consortiumof researchers at the University of Cambridge,Imperial College London, the London Schoolof Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and theRoyal Veterinary College, as well as HuazhongAgricultural University in China, and involvesthree UK government-funded agencies. Theconsortium also receives support from PfizerAnimal Health.

‘This combined expertise has generated anew opportunity that is highly synergistic andwhere real progress is possible,’ said ProfessorDuncan Maskell, Head of the Department ofVeterinary Medicine and leader of the

Towards a ‘super-vaccine’ for swinebacterial diseases


IN FoCUS

For more information, please contactProfessor Duncan Maskell([email protected]), Marks & SpencerProfessor of Farm Animal Health, FoodScience and Food Safety at theDepartment of Veterinary Medicine(www.vet.cam.ac.uk/).

Professor Duncan Maskell

Cambridge component. ‘It’s also a perfectmarriage between fundamental biologicalresearch and applied clinical outcomes.’

‘As a first step, we are isolating bacteriafrom pigs and assembling the largest eversequenced collection of these types ofbacteria,’ explained co-investigator Dr DanTucker. ‘From this, we’ll design and assembleappropriate super-vaccines and single-platform diagnostic tests. Crucially, these willimmunise and test pigs for all four pathogensat the same time.’ In the final year of theproject, field trials will be carried out in China,where dedicated facilities for this type ofwork are already set up.

Commenting on the timeliness of theBBSRC funding, Professor Maskell added:‘Technical innovations and the availability ofgenome data have progressed to such anextent, and continue to do so, that onlyrecently has it become possible to embark onthis type of programme to find effectivevaccines and diagnostics.’

BBSRC has been a long-term funder andsupporter of the Cambridge Centre forProteomics (CCP) since the beginnings ofthis cross-departmental facility almost adecade ago. The large-scale study ofproteins, called proteomics, was still in itsinfancy when CCP first opened its doorsto the research community, offering arange of services to separate, identify andquantify proteins in complex samples.

‘Working out what the limitationswere with the technology, and solvingthem, has always been a majorconsideration,’ explained Dr Kathryn Lilley,who headed the team that set up CCPand is its Director. ‘In fact, two-thirds of the lab focuses on the development ofmethods, influenced by projects thatcan’t be handled by the high-throughputpipelines we have in place. In turn, thetechnical advances benefit the corefacilities.’

Techniques being used at CCP areable to identify changes in a cell’sproteins under different conditions,helping colleagues in many universitydepartments including Biochemistry,Genetics, Pathology, Pharmacology andPlant Sciences to answer complexbiological questions. The expertise at CCPalso underpins research at the CambridgeSystems Biology Centre, andcomplements imaging methods underdevelopment at the Centre for thePhysics of Medicine.

In a decade, the technology hasprogressed immeasurably from the earlydays of simply providing a catalogue of as

many proteins as possible in a sample.Today, more sophisticated approachessuch as Localization of organelle Proteinsby Isotope Tagging (LoPIT), developed byCCP, enable the accurate determinationof the subcellular location of proteins,and rely heavily on the use of complexstatistical methodologies.

‘LoPIT provides a snapshot of spatialinformation,’ explained Dr Lilley. ‘From this,we are beginning to tell where proteinslive, who with, and how this changesdepending on what’s happening to thecell. In the foreseeable future, withintegration of complementarytechnologies, we will be able to buildthree-dimensional dynamic maps of thecell’s proteins, helping us to understandmore fully how cells work.’

Location, location, location:finding out where proteins liveand with whomThe Cambridge Centre for Proteomics is internationally recognisedfor pioneering technology that helps us to understand whatproteins do inside cells.

For more information, please contactDr Kathryn Lilley ([email protected]) atthe Cambridge Centre for Proteomics(www.bio.cam.ac.uk/proteomics/).

Dr Kathryn Lilley

Mitochondria, cytoplasm and Golgi – some of the subcellular locations of proteins

©DR D

AVID FU

RNESS, W

ELLCoME IM

AGES

©ISTo

CKPH

oTo.Co

M


FEATURES

Professor PaulFletcher believes

that exploring howthe brain makes

predictions aboutthe world will helpus to understand

mental illness.

Beliefs, predictions

andshortcuts

in thedeceitful

brain Brain imaging indicates regions of the brain that are activated in situations that contradict our predictions

It is tempting, and perhaps comforting, tobelieve that our senses provide us with anaccurate picture of the world. But theydon’t. Rather, what we perceive, and howwe perceive it, is often determined by whatwe anticipate and what fits mostcomfortably with our prior expectationsand biases.

The everyday experience of taking indata from the world, weighing it up anddrawing conclusions implies thatinformation flows exclusively in onedirection: from perception to belief.Actually, it is a two-way street. It’s just thatour beliefs about what is normal,predictable or logical may prevent us fromexperiencing the perceptions that violateour assumptions. This simple fact – thatwhat we expect determines what weexperience – has long been recognised bypsychologists.

Professor Paul Fletcher, the BernardWolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience inthe Department of Psychiatry, isinvestigating the ways in which we formbeliefs about our environment, and howwe use these to make predictions anddecide what actions to take. Knowing howthe brain normally does this may help us tounderstand why, under conditions ofmental illness, people entertainperceptions and beliefs that may seemunusual and illogical. It may also tell us whywe so frequently engage in behaviours thatare detrimental to our overall health.

Deceiving ourselvesWhy would our brain be so ready to refine,distort, add or remove sensory informationwhen constructing our picture of theworld? Perhaps it is because survival and

success are not necessarily related to howaccurately we represent the world butrather to how efficiently we can predict it.

If our brain tried to representeverything as accurately as possible, wewould be paralysed by information. Sinceour aim must be to interact with ourenvironment decisively, to gain reward andavoid pain, it seems better to sacrifice adetailed portrait of our surroundings infavour of quick snapshots of the importantthings, gleaned from a mixture of currentinformation and prior experience. Allowingour knowledge to inform our perceptionshelps us to achieve this while reducing thebrain’s workload.

The implications of this view ofperception and belief go well beyond thepsychological laboratory. our perceptionsdo not just represent our world, they createit: a self-conscious teenager hears ridiculein the innocent laughter of a passinggroup; an anxious man sees the outline of abush as a waiting assailant; and wine froman expensively labelled bottle tastes better.In some mental illnesses, these perceptionscan create a very frightening and bizarreworld, one in which voices make criticaland threatening comments and unseenpersecutors control thoughts and actions.What happens in the brain to cause thesealtered perceptions?

Abnormal predictionAdvances in cognitive neuroscience havehelped to understand how the brain learnsabout, and predicts and responds to, theworld; this has begun to offer clues as tothe processes that may be disrupted inmental illness. one process that ProfessorFletcher believes may be particularly


FEATURES

For more information, pleasecontact the author Professor Paul Fletcher ([email protected]) at the Department of Psychiatry.Research described here takes place within the Behavioural andClinical Neuroscience Institute(www.research.psychol.cam.ac.uk/~bcni/), which is jointly funded bythe Medical Research Council andthe Wellcome Trust.

Professor Paul Fletcher

with Dr Sadaf Farooqi and ProfessorSteve o’Rahilly, leaders in the study ofthe genetics of obesity (see pages 6–7).This work, which is supported by theBernard Wolfe Health NeuroscienceFund, sets out to examine how thebrain’s ability to predict reward, and howthe behaviours that emerge as a resultof such predictions, may be useful tounderstanding overeating and itsattendant health problems.

once again, the use of functionalbrain imaging, informed by cognitiveneuroscientific advances in ourunderstanding of reward learning, isproviding new information withpotentially therapeutic value. Havingexplored the brain changes elicited by awidely prescribed anti-obesity drug, theresearchers have taken the observationsfurther to examine anti-obesity drugs ofthe future.

The potential of this approach hasbeen recognised by the development ofa unique ‘Academic Incubator’ involvingGlaxoSmithKline, Professors Ed Bullmoreand Fletcher in the Department ofPsychiatry, Professors Barry Everitt andTrevor Robbins in the Department ofExperimental Psychology, and Professoro’Rahilly in the IMS. This collaboration isinvestigating novel therapeutic drugsfor obesity and addictive disorders. Itrepresents a new way of capitalising onacademic expertise in testing potentialdrug treatments and will allow a moredirect route from basic cognitiveneuroscience research through topractical benefits to patients.

PRoFESSo

R PAUL FLETC

HER

affected is the brain’s response to amismatch between a predicted and anactual outcome: so-called ‘prediction error’.

Because prediction error effectivelysignals that we must learn something newabout the world, it’s very useful inpreventing us from becoming stereotyped,inflexible and unable to adapt to achanging environment. Persistent andinappropriate prediction error signal,though, would be detrimental. Imagine aworld in which everything seemed toviolate your expectation, everything vied foryour attention because of its novelty andstrangeness, even your own actions andthoughts. Such a world could rapidlybecome perplexing and threatening.Perhaps the only way of explaining such achange to yourself would be to concludethat you were the victim of some powerfulpersecutor – a common belief in somemental illnesses.

Professor Fletcher’s group, incollaboration with Professor Tony Dickinson,a learning expert based in the Departmentof Experimental Psychology, and Dr PhilipCorlett at yale University, has been studyingthe brain’s response to prediction error andexamining the possibility that mentalillnesses can be understood in terms ofabnormal prediction error signals in thebrain. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, theyhave been using functional brain imaging inpatients and drug-induced, transient,psychosis-like experiences in healthyvolunteers.

The results show that brain responses toviolated expectations are indeed abnormalin psychosis and that the degree ofabnormality seems to correlate well withthe unusual beliefs and experiences that

characterise the illness. It is even possible topredict in healthy volunteers undergoingbrain imaging what sorts of symptoms theywill experience when they subsequentlyreceive a drug that disrupts prediction errorsignal. The work therefore providesevidence that a disrupted prediction errorsignal changes the relationship betweenprior beliefs and perceptions. This changecould underlie some symptoms of mentalillness.

Quest for rewardThe symptoms of mental illness are onesetting in which we might fruitfully examinechanges in the relationships betweenperception and belief. But this frameworkalso maps directly onto another domainthat is core to human experience: the questfor reward.

Humans have evolved to be remarkablysensitive to the potential of any givenenvironment to yield food. They respond to,and are motivated by, any stimulus that ispredictive of such a reward. Indeed thesestimuli, though not in themselvesrewarding, may come to be valued and toenhance pleasure almost as much as theactual foods that they portend. The sightsand smells of food and food-related stimulidrive behaviour very powerfully. Inresponding to foods, just as in trying tocomprehend our environment, we remainreliant upon the complex interactionbetween our perceptions and our priorexperience. Recognising this link could helpus to understand the emergence of health-harming behaviours relating to food.

Professor Fletcher is therefore extendinghis work in collaboration with the Instituteof Metabolic Science (IMS), and is working


Cultural heritage is frequently damagedor destroyed during periods of war andviolence. But this is not always anaccidental by-product – in some cases,sites of cultural heritage have beendeliberately targeted as a means ofinflicting pain and societal trauma. Acommunity’s shared sense of belonging isoften rooted in its heritage sites andlandscapes, giving such places particularsocial significance. And the impact onsociety doesn’t stop with the breakingdown, destruction, defaming orneglecting of such sites; it continues post-conflict, through the political andpsychological impacts of the decisionsmade during reconstruction.

The complexities of the relationshipbetween post-conflict scenarios, heritageand identity are increasingly recognised,but with this recognition has come anawareness of how little we actuallyunderstand about its nature. What role

does cultural heritage play during post-conflict reconstruction? What is theimpact of reclaiming and rebuilding onpeople’s sense of identity? Byinvestigating these relationships, wemight learn more about how heritagecan be harnessed to both personal andpolitical agendas. on this basis, researchin this area can help to guide crucialdecisions by policy makers and regionalpractitioners regarding the reconstructionof cultural heritage.

CRICA four-year interdisciplinary project onCultural Heritage and the Reconstructionof Identities after Conflict (CRIC), nowmidway through its research programme,aims to shed light on these issues. Dr Marie Louise Stig Sørensen in theDepartment of Archaeology leads the€1.2 million project, which is funded

through the European Union SeventhFramework Programme and bringstogether researchers in Spain, France,Sweden, Germany, Cyprus, Bosnia and theUK. Her research interests and those ofher team in Cambridge – archaeologistDr Dacia Viejo Rose and socialanthropologist Dr Paola Filippucci – lie inexamining the link between heritage,identity and social memory. Collectively,the project is drawing on strengths inarchaeology, social anthropology, history,human geography, sociology, politicalsciences and psychology.

Case by caseFive case studies provide the backbone ofCRIC. Each focuses on physical culturalheritage – from landscapes to monuments,churches to bridges – damaged duringcivil war, ethnic violence and World War.Geographically, the studies cover Spain,

Cultural heritage after conflictCeiling of the Casa de Juntas, Gernika,

showing the tree that has long been a symbolof the civil liberties of the Basque people

A collaborative study led by Cambridge is examining the impact on society of the destructionand reconstruction of cultural heritage.

FEATURES


Bosnia, France, Cyprus and Germany, andgive insight into the recovery of rurallandscapes as well as urban centres orwhole towns. The project covers historicalscenarios that range from recent conflictsin Bosnia and Cyprus, to the planting offorest over the First World War battlefield of Verdun in France, with its mutedmetaphors of covering and healing.

In Bosnia and Cyprus, case studieshighlight the importance of comparingprocesses of destruction andreconstruction. Although both are ethnicconflicts, the fate of cultural heritage withinthe two areas differs substantially. In Bosnia,heritage is being re-shaped, as exhibitionsand monuments are given newinterpretations. Different agencies havesponsored the rebuilding of religiousbuildings and, in the process, have alteredthe traditional cultural landscape.Denominations of churches have changed,new minarets have been added tomosques – all representing departuresfrom local architectural and cultural history.In Cyprus, on the other hand, differences inthe intensity of development on either sideof the divided city of Nicosia have resultedin substantial variation in the preservationof traditional buildings. In the north of thecity, little has changed; yet in the south, oldbuildings have either been replaced bymodern development or have seenchanges in use.

The case studies also illustrate differenttypes of urban reconstruction projects,with Dresden in Germany exemplifying thefaithful, apparently accurate, reconstructionof selected parts of the city centre,bombed during the Second World War,within an otherwise much-modernisedcity. In Spain, reconstruction of the Basquetown of Gernika, bombed in the SpanishCivil War, exemplifies Franco’s architecturalvision of the ‘New’ Spain. This vision wasbased on an idealised version of historic

Spain and brought together severalarchitectural forms and elements to beused throughout the country in itsreconstruction.

In all, the CRIC project looks back overalmost a century of European history. Eachstudy has been designed to track thesequences of historical events that led tothe destruction of cultural heritage, toinvestigate what effect this has had oncommunities and their sense of identity,and to identify how different perceptionsof the event emerge and are affected bythe form of the reconstruction. This makesit possible to trace specific examples ofreconstruction as they unfold, pinpointingsimilarities and differences among them.

Memorials and meaningWhen efforts are made to reconstructcultural heritage, a new fabric of meaningand memory can be woven into theresult. The findings of the research project are helping to identify whatfactors are important for understandingthe impact of reconstruction, includinghow they can change the way thatevents are perceived, or can evenbecome yet another means of conflict.

one thread of the research hastherefore been the recording and analysisof anniversary events, both archival andcurrent. This has demonstrated how thestaging of memorials can manipulate themanner in which past events areremembered and what they are used for.A reconstruction of the sequence ofcommemoration events that havehappened on 13th February, theanniversary of the 1945 bombing ofDresden, include those under thecommunist regime and following therecent appearance of neo-fascist groups.This reconstruction has shown how, evenfrom very early on, the memorial eventsinvolved both those who mourned andthose who used the anniversary forpolitical ends.

In Gernika, the 26th April anniversaryof the 1937 bombing first became apublic event after the death of Franco.The project has traced the acceleration inthe anniversary’s international status, andthe tensions and competition for controlbetween local groups and regionalgovernment, as well as between thechurch and secular groups. Even recentlyestablished anniversary events, such asthose at the Srebrenica memorial site inBosnia and Herzegovina, appear far fromuncomplicated, as some groups see the anniversary as a provocation or areminder, whereas others see it as an opportunity to mourn andsimultaneously express rights.

Anniversary events are only part ofthe equation. CRIC research shows thatcontributing to the complex mix are alsosuch factors as the role of national andinternational communities involved inreconstruction, and how memories aretransmitted from one generation to thenext. Symbols too play an important role,both at the mundane level of massculture and as part of public rituals. This isseen for example in Gernika, where thetraditional symbol of the oak treerepresents the historic civil libertiesbestowed on the region since theMedieval period. The current tree –propagated through generations – stillstands on the same spot, but the symbolalso appears today in many othercontexts such as advertisements.

societal impactThe CRIC research programme provides a much-needed understanding of themain characteristics of post-conflictreconstruction processes and theirimplications for society. Not only doesthis help us to understand how webehave socially and culturally, but it isalso highly relevant to policy makers and organisations involved withreconstruction efforts. Too often, despitethe best intentions, reconstruction effortshave been found to prolong conflicts andtensions simply because their impacts arenot properly understood.

Ben Davenport, Dr Marie Louise Stig Sørensen

(centre) and Dr Dacia Viejo Rose

For more information, please contactthe author Dr Marie Louise StigSørensen ([email protected]) at the Department of Archaeology, or Ben Davenport, CRIC Administrator ([email protected];www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk/). Imagescollected as part of the CRIC project are stored at DSpace(www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/), theinstitutional repository of theUniversity of Cambridge.

KIM-MICHAEL Sø

RENSEN

The Tree of Gernika – propagated throughgenerations – still standing on the traditional spot

in front of the Assembly House

DR D

ACIA VIEJo

RoSE

FEATURES


In the ongoing search for novel drugs toadd to the armoury against disease,scientists are making use of newapproaches to drug discovery that aim toincrease the rate of success, decrease thedevelopment timeline and minimise thecost.

Conventional drug discoveryapproaches involve high-throughputscreening of up to millions of largecompounds to find those that inhibit theactivity of the target, usually a protein.Although many drugs have beendiscovered this way, the technique isexpensive and resource intensive, andthere is a high attrition rate of hits failingto progress through the developmentprocess to medicines.

In recent years, a complementaryapproach has been developed thatinvolves screening fewer numbers ofsmall chemical compounds (fragments)to find those that bind to the target, andthen using structure-guided chemistry to‘grow’ these fragments into potent drugmolecules by linking fragments togetheror modifying them synthetically.

Cambridge has been at the forefrontof this new school of thinking. over adecade ago, Professor Chris Abell(Department of Chemistry), Professor SirTom Blundell (Department ofBiochemistry) and Dr Harren Jhoti(formerly Glaxo Wellcome) co-founded

Astex Therapeutics, a company thatpioneered and is now world leading infragment-based approaches to drugdiscovery. Since then, these approacheshave gained widespread recognition andare now being used throughout thepharmaceutical industry. Even in thisrelatively short space of time, Astex hasused its technology to develop severalcompounds against cancer that are nowin clinical trials.

Targeting tuberculosisSeveral years ago, funding from theEuropean Community and the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation enabledProfessor Blundell and Professor Abell toestablish a programme of fragment-based drug discovery methods in theUniversity, with collaborators in SouthAfrica, India and the USA. The first targetwas tuberculosis (TB), a major cause ofdeath in India and Africa. It has beenestimated by the World Healthorganization that over a third of theworld’s population is infected with the TBbacterium, and that someone is newlyinfected every second. Despite this, nonew drugs have been introduced againstthe bacterium for over 40 years.Fortunately, the field has received newimpetus, in no small part due to the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, and groups inboth academia and industry are working

collaboratively to find new solutions anddrugs.

Building on fundamental studies ofvitamin biosynthesis pathways initiatedby Professor Abell and Professor AlisonSmith (Department of Plant Sciences), thescientists have focused on several keyenzymes required by the Mycobacteriumtuberculosis bacteria to infect lung tissue.Fragments that inhibit the enzymes’active sites – essentially the heart of theirfunctional activity – have been isolatedand their potency improved by structuralmodification. ‘Preliminary data indicatethat these drugs can kill the pathogen,’said Professor Abell. ‘There is greatexcitement within the TB researchcommunity about the potential for thistechnology to make inroads into aneglected disease area.’

A new terrainMeanwhile, the scientists are casting thenet wider in drug discovery by employingfragment-based approaches to search fora particularly challenging class of drugs.Professor Abell and Dr David Spring(Department of Chemistry), ProfessorBlundell and Dr Marko Hyvonen(Department of Biochemistry) andProfessor Ashok Venkitaraman and DrGrahame McKenzie (Hutchinson/MedicalResearch Council (MRC) Research Centre),all key members of the Cambridge

FEATURES

Small is beautiful in drug discoveryCambridge scientists are employing fragment-based drug discovery approaches – atechnique that involves ‘growing’ potent drugs from tiny chemical fragments – to tackletuberculosis and cancer.


Molecular Therapeutics Programme(www.cmtp.cam.ac.uk/), are making useof this new paradigm to search for drugsthat interfere not with the active site of aprotein but with the interaction ofproteins with each other.

Protein–protein interactions are ofvital importance to almost every pathwayand process in living cells, and there ismuch interest in targeting the interfacesbetween two or more interactingproteins for therapeutic purposes.‘However, the characteristics of theseinterfaces make this a particularchallenge,’ explained Professor Abell.‘Unlike the deep, pocket-like active sitesof many proteins, which are the moreusual targets of drug discovery, typicalprotein–protein interaction sites are largeand relatively flat terrains, with shallowerpockets. Considered too difficult to target,such interactions had largely beenignored by the pharmaceutical industry.’Fragment-based methods, however, seemto have some advantages, in part becausethey bind to key hotspots on the surface,maximising the available bindinginteractions.

As a model system, a projectcoordinated by Dr Hyvonen and fundedby the Wellcome Trust is investigating theinteraction between human RAD51 andBRCA2 proteins, which work together tohelp cells repair damage to their DNA.When this process goes wrong, as foundin individuals who inherit a faulty versionof the BRCA2 gene, there is a greaterchance of the cell becoming cancerous:indeed, defective BRCA2 is associated

with a higher incidence of breast, ovarianand prostate cancer. Unravelling themechanism underlying the activity ofBRCA2 is an area of long-standingexpertise of Professor Venkitaraman at theHutchinson/MRC Research Centre.

The team is interested in finding adrug to block the interaction betweenmutated BRCA2 and RAD51, explained Dr Hyvonen: ‘By inhibiting this repairprocess, the cells will become moresensitive to DNA damaging agents andradiation, and a drug targeting thisinteraction could therefore be used toenhance current cancer treatments,radiation therapy in particular.’ Fragmentshave now been discovered that caninhibit the BRCA2–RAD51 interaction. X-ray crystallography of fragment–proteincomplexes has been used to guidechemical synthesis, growing thefragments in order to extend further intothe same or to nearby pockets. The resultis a fast, efficient and low-cost route todeveloping potential new cancer drugs.

seeding new drugson the basis of these proof-of-conceptstudies, the Cambridge researchers haverecently been awarded two major grantsfrom the Wellcome Trust to develop smallmolecules that modulate protein–proteininteractions.

The first award is a five-year StrategicAward (led by Professor Venkitaraman) toask fundamental questions about how totarget different kinds of protein–proteininteractions. The second is an award fromthe Seeding Drug Discovery (SDD)

initiative for a project led by ProfessorAbell to develop potent and specificcompounds against a particularprotein–protein interaction that mayhave value in the treatment of cancer.

‘The Strategic Award presents us witha great opportunity to improve thetechnology underlying this approach,and complements the SDD initiative’sspecific milestone-driven focus on aproject that has the potential to delivertherapeutic benefit,’ explained ProfessorAbell. ‘We hope that this work will drawthe attention of the pharmaceuticalindustry and encourage them to look fornew therapeutic targets for thedevelopment of novel medicines of thefuture.’

For more information, please contact Professor Chris Abell([email protected]) at the Departmentof Chemistry and Dr Marko Hyvonen([email protected]) at theDepartment of Biochemistry.

Dr Marko Hyvonen (left) andProfessor Chris Abell

FEATURES

Small chemical fragments (red and green) binding to the active site of an enzyme fromMycobacterium tuberculosis; joining the two fragments together chemically (yellow) creates an

inhibitor with better binding affinity

DR M

ARKo

HyVo

NEN

Understanding the messages and ideasthat children pick up from books is animportant part of understandingchildren’s education, as Professor MariaNikolajeva, Director of Cambridge’s newCentre for Children’s Literature, explained:‘Children can struggle with fundamentalquestions of life and death, good andevil, what it means to be a human being,and many will carry ideologies they pickup from picturebooks, fairytales, novels,animation and poetry through toadulthood. Any starting point that hasthe capacity to shape young people’sdevelopment deserves seriousconsideration.’

‘Children frequently perceiveliterature and art differently from theirparents and teachers, who may have lostthe open, immediate and joyful

experience of the world that childrenhave,’ added Professor Nikolajeva. ‘Abetter understanding of the significanceof children’s literature and other culturalsources in broad terms can be used toimprove children’s education anddevelopment.’

The Cambridge/Homerton Researchand Teaching Centre for Children’sLiterature has been launched toconsolidate and focus the research onchildren’s books and other culturalsources that has been ongoing for morethan 30 years at Homerton College andlater at the Faculty of Education. Thislong tradition has earned bothinstitutions a strong national andinternational profile as a children’sliterature research community ofexcellence.


A new Centre for Children’sLiterature is providing a

focus for research on howchildren are shaped byearly encounters with

books and film.

©ISTo

CKPH

oTo.Co

M/DARREN

HENDLEy

FEATURES

Children’sliteraturecomes of

age

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1866), Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel


Rich seams of investigationThe goal of research at the Centre is tounderstand the ideas that children garnerthrough books and other media in theseearly years, and to use this understandingto help educators make the best use oftheir materials. This can only be achievedthrough serious and thorough studies ofthe texts themselves, their history,themes, structures and social context.

Children’s literature is investigatedwith the same approaches used byacademics studying any other type ofliterature or art. Indeed, research at theCentre draws on ideas from many areas,including literary criticism, art criticism,childhood studies, cultural studies,psychology, sociology and pedagogy. This richness of approaches and materialsmakes children’s literature a particularlyexciting area of study.

‘yet the specific characteristics ofchildren’s literature compared with other literature cannot be ignored,’ said Professor Nikolajeva. ‘Books, films and other cultural media are produced by one social group, the adults, foranother social group, the children, and often have educational andinstructive purposes. It thus becomes a vehicle of power, a socialisation devicethat has been employed by adults forcenturies. Understanding thesemechanisms is a cornerstone of anyinquiry into children’s literature.’

Children’s literature is also animportant part of our cultural heritage,something that is shared not onlybetween children and adults, but alsowith people all over the world, as the bestchildren’s books are translated and crossnational borders. In recent years, therising number of books that appeal bothto children and adults, such as PhilipPullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, isoffering a new dimension for analysingthe characteristics of books that are ableto bridge this divide, a phenomenon thatwas last prominent in the 16th and 17thcenturies.

Fresh approachesThe Centre comprises about a dozenacademics whose collective researchcovers texts that represent the widestpossible span of reading ages and genres,from picturebooks through to teenagefiction, from fairy tales and fantasy toschool stories and adventure, as well asfilm, comics, graphic novels and videogames. In addition to this uniqueportfolio, the Centre combines theoretical expertise with empiricalresearch in the field, mostly in schools.

Current research topics range fromVictorian poetry to the role of nature inWalt Disney’s animation; from what girlsread in the 19th century to youngchildren’s understanding of visual texts;from early science books for children toadaptations of Shakespeare; and fromyoung readers’ literature preferences inLebanon to the image of adolescence incontemporary film. Graduate studentsalso bring their own insights andinnovative approaches to the field, as dovisiting scholars from all over the world.

The aim is for the Centre’s research tounderpin educational thinking, policy andpractice in relation to the importance ofchildren’s literature. The scholars areconfident that their endeavours can makea difference. ‘At the heart of what we do,’said Professor Nikolajeva, ‘is a desire tounderstand how we can best help futuregenerations of children to learn.’

FEATURES

Professor Maria Nikolajeva

For more information about theCentre, please contact Professor MariaNikolajeva ([email protected]) at theFaculty of Education or visitwww.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/childrensliterature/ The Centre forChildren’s Literature is seekingadditional funding for research.

The Faculty of Education is one of the leading departments of educationinternationally, and has been repeatedly evaluated as the best nationally, for itscommitment to teacher education, development of research-based policy andpractice, and educational research of the highest quality.

Its academic staff, numbering more than 80, work within five academic groupsthat focus on many aspects of understanding and improving education, whetherit’s redesigning school science and mathematics teaching, conducting theCambridge Review of Primary Education, understanding the neuroscience oflearning difficulties, evaluating the contribution made to learning by differenttypes of leaders, or investigating how education affects the lives of people living inpoorer communities around the world.

The recently launched Centre for Children’s Literature is hosted by thePedagogy, Language, Arts and Culture in Education (PLACE) academic group. Thismultidisciplinary group brings together specialists in arts and creativity, drama andmedia, modern and second language learning, history, English, geography,philosophy and religious studies. As Professor Maria Nikolajeva, Chair of PLACE,explained, this breadth is significantly benefitting collaborations. ‘In finding synergybetween interests and expertise, we are discovering a new research space that cananswer questions in different ways.’

An example of this activity is an interdisciplinary research project involvingspecialists in children’s literature, English, the curriculum and geography, which isinvestigating how children perceive their identities through the place they live in,using a variety of activities such as reading, creative writing, studying local historyand map drawing.

Two schools in East Anglia are taking part in the study. ‘Although only 10 milesfrom each other, they are worlds apart,’ said Professor Nikolajeva. ‘The urban schoolhas a 95% Pakistani intake and the rural school has many pupils from families thathave gone to the same school for generations. This research should raisefascinating differences and similarities in how children understand and learn abouttheir own sense of belonging.’ The project builds on recent moves in the statutorycurriculum to re-emphasise a cross-curricular approach to classroom teaching;research results will feed back into teaching practice.

For more information about research at the Faculty of Education, please visitwww.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/

PLACE in the wider Faculty

FEATURES


Research in the Department of Architecture aims to reveal the creative potential of light in thedesign of contemporary libraries.

Architectural design involves makingchoices and identifying opportunities,and the best buildings are arguably thosein which the various roles of architecture– social, environmental, functional,aesthetic – are positively combined andmutually inclusive. yet current lightingdesign guidance, with its emphasis onquantitative criteria such as therecommended levels of illumination,generally fails to take this into account. A three-year study led by Professor KoenSteemers and Mary Ann Steane in theDepartment of Architecture, and fundedby the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil, aims to redress this balance in a particular type of building – libraries.

Libraries are the subject of muchcurrent debate. The UK Government isformulating its vision for the future ofpublic libraries, and a recently completedconsultation phase invited comment onthe need to reconsider what kinds ofplaces they should be and what kinds ofenvironments they should provide. Issuessuch as the commissioning, updating,designing and operating of librarybuildings are likely to come underscrutiny in response to changingexpectations. How libraries are lit, bothnaturally and artificially, is a majorconsideration when renovating ordesigning new libraries because it isintrinsically connected to aspects such asuser comfort, energy consumption anduse of space.

Library visitsThe aim of the ‘Designing with light inlibraries’ project has been to create newunderstanding of the factors thatinfluence the opportunities, and thedilemmas, of lighting strategies, and tomarry this with an exploration of howusers experience the environment aroundthem. In providing an analysis of howdaylighting is being successfullyintegrated (or not) with other designambitions, the project will be of interestto librarians and architects alike.

Eight recently completed librarieswere visited, seven in the UK and one inIreland, plus one 1960s ‘benchmark’library building in Finland, whosedesigner was the celebrated master ofdaylighting, Alvar Aalto. The eightcontemporary libraries represent a rangeof uses and lighting strategies, and haveall won prizes for aspects of their design.User questionnaires were completed atseven of these buildings and, whereverpossible, current librarians were probedon operational issues, and the originaldesigners on their ambitions for daylight.

Let there be lightWhat is ‘good reading light’? The phraseconjures up an image of a reader near awindow, book to hand, the page inquestion turned towards the light. Whatthe image implies is that the relationshipof the reader to the light, the book andthe room is important – in other words,

that good conditions for reading are amatter of spatial geometry as well assufficient illumination.

The situation of private reading in apublic space is not an issue that isparticularly well addressed by currentlighting guidelines, which focus more onquantitative than qualitative aspects. Togain knowledge in this area, the projectexamined the role of ‘good reading light’in libraries, comparing the contemporarylibraries with data gathered by PhDstudent oriel Prizeman on late 19th- andearly 20th-century libraries, built whendaylight was the principal source of tasklight. In these older libraries, the overalllighting arrangements have typicallybeen informed by considerations ofspatial geometry; the library designsensure that readers are located andoriented to make the most of the naturallight.

Analysis of the more recent librariesdemonstrated just how complex an issue‘good reading light’ is, and the extent towhich it involves a broad appreciation ofpeople’s response to, and interactionwith, buildings. With the availability ofartificial light, it has become possible todesign library buildings that are largerand can be open for longer. Theconsequence is that intelligentdaylighting has frequently been ignored– the very availability of artificial lightseems to be prompting its conspicuousconsumption. In fact, having all the lights

MARy A

NN STEA

NE

Libraries and light

MARy A

NN STEA

NE


Brighton Jubilee Library (Bennetts Associates Architects)

FEATURES

on in a public building like a library hasnow come to signal ‘openness’ to such adegree that even buildings designed tobe predominantly day-lit are beingartificially lit throughout the day. Theproject therefore underlines the need forconsideration of lighting designs thatmake better sense in daylighting terms: inother words, lighting that consumes lessenergy yet maintains adequate – andstimulating – lighting conditions as dayturns to night.

Room with a viewIn any project of this type, it’s importantto ask the users themselves what theiropinion is of the lighting in their librarythrough user questionnaires. In thecourse of the project, new ways ofmonitoring and recording lighting of theinterior spaces have been developed to examine the ‘lightscape’ and the designprinciples at play, and to help the teaminterpret the responses from the userquestionnaires.

A range of qualitative aspects oflighting are being considered by teammembers, such as mood, lightness andaccess to view. As an example, onefinding has been the fact that users nowexpect to have access to a view from thelibrary. They may not necessarily be clearabout whether the light they enjoy isdaylight or artificial light, but they seemto appreciate the additional visual interestand feeling of spaciousness that views

can induce. Where libraries did not meetthis criterion, users were considerably lesspositive, even if an interior was potentiallywell day-lit through narrow side windows,or through larger, high-level windows orroof lights. It would seem that users valuethe visual release from focused studyingprovided by low-level windows of anyorientation. Effectively, libraries, whetherpublic or institutional, are now ideally aroom – or perhaps several rooms – with a view.

on this account, the 1960s Finnishbenchmark library, which lacks a view,turned out to be less well liked by itsusers than the more recent buildings.However, another explanation for this lackof enthusiasm might also be the fact thatthe library has clearly outgrown the spacefor which it was originally designed. Thisillustrates an important dilemma for anylibrary designer aiming to make the mostof daylight: in the Finnish library, whatwas once a generous if highly introvertedspace is now both gloomier and moreconstricted in terms of space and light in which to browse.

Future change, future lightingIn seeking longevity, should designersgive the potential need for flexibility oflibrary spaces a high priority? A futurechange of use – or change of layout –could undermine lighting strategiesadopted in the original design. This is why assessment of the benefits and

drawbacks of flexible spatialarrangements, and potential strategies for expansion, deserve closeconsideration early in the design process. ‘Designing with light in libraries’aims to act as a catalyst for higher quality design, guiding how design canbe reframed to make the most of light.

Professor Koen steemers and Mary Ann steane

For more information, please contactthe authors Professor Koen Steemers([email protected]) and Mary AnnSteane ([email protected]) at theDepartment of Architecture.

Quincentenary Library, Jesus College, Cambridge (Evans and Shalev Architects)


Prosthetic implants provide long-termpain relief for many millions of peopleworldwide – in the UK alone, 160,000 hipand knee replacement operations werecarried out in 2009 – and, as people livelonger, the demand will continue togrow. Typical lifetimes of artificial jointsare only about 10–15 years, with the mostcommon cause of failure being looseningof the prosthesis stem from where itembeds into the bone. once a jointbecomes loose, wear debris tends to formand cause damage. Therefore, ensuringthat the bond between bone andimplant remains strong is an importantobjective.

An innovative solution that is beinginvestigated by Dr Athina Markaki in theDepartment of Engineering may providean answer. The aim is to promote earlybone ingrowth into the surface of theprosthesis and anchor it securely.

Bare bones of the matterBone is an active material, responding tostresses and strains within. It’s long beenknown that mechanical strain, such asoccurs during exercise, encourages bonemodelling (formation) and remodelling(resorption). In fact, this forms the basis ofthe physiotherapeutic exercise commonlyapplied after implantation. However, incases where the patient requirescomplete immobilisation, suchtreatments are clearly impossible, anddrugs are often the only alternative. If atherapy could be devised in which

controlled levels of mechanical strain areinduced directly within ingrowing bonevia the prosthesis itself, this wouldimprove the bonding between prosthesisand bone, and avoid the danger ofloosening caused by premature excessiveexercise.

Engineering solutionsDr Markaki’s project focuses on a novelconcept called magneto-mechanicalactuation, which arose from work shecarried out with Professor Bill Clyne at theDepartment of Materials Science andMetallurgy in Cambridge, funded by theCambridge-MIT Institute. It involves aporous surface layer made offerromagnetic fibres that is attached to aconventional prosthesis and promotesingrowth of bone so as to anchor it morefully and rapidly. Porous metal implantsare not new. The innovative concept hereis that mechanical strain is generated inthe bone by applying a magnetic field.This causes the network of ferromagneticfibres to move so as to align with thefield, imposing strains on bone cells asthey grow into the network.

Modelling of the phenomenon hasshown that the degree of strain isdetermined by the geometry of thenetwork – in other words, the prosthesiscan be coated with material that is tailor-made to impart the optimum strain oningrowing bone to promote growth.once the optimum exposure regimeshave been established, the idea is to

apply a magnetic field during the post-operative period to the region of theimplant. The strength of the field wouldbe lower than that currently used fordiagnostic purposes, such as in magneticresonance imaging, but would besufficient to cause the fibres to move.

Thanks to a recent award of a €1.5 million European Research CouncilStarting Investigator grant, Dr Markaki hasembarked on a five-year programme toprogress this concept to application. Thework will be carried out in closecollaboration with Dr Roger Brooks atCambridge’s Department of Surgery(orthopaedic Research Unit). The hope isthat the technique will yield a newgeneration of longer-lasting and moredurable prosthetic implants, reducing thepainful and costly need for replacements.

For more information, please contactDr Athina Markaki ([email protected])at the Department of Engineering.

Dr Athina Markaki

FEATURES

The most common cause of artificial jointfailure is loosening of the prostheticimplant. Dr Athina Markaki is designingmaterials to anchor them securely.

Magneto-activeporous materials get close to thebone

©ISTo

CKPH

oTo.Co

M/CHRISTo

PHER KRo

LL


Now based within the Departments ofMedicine and Pathology, and workingclosely with the Health Protection Agencyand the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute,Professor Peacock has recently returnedfrom the Mahidol-oxford TropicalMedicine Research Unit in Thailand. There,she directed a wide-ranging programmeof bacterial disease research focused onprevalent diseases in South-East Asia. This included clinical treatment trials,diagnostic test development and themolecular epidemiology of severalbacteria.

Professor Peacock has also had a long-term interest in MRSA, which over thepast four decades has spread around theworld and is resistant to many of theantibiotics commonly used in hospitals.‘Tracking how MRSA spreads can belikened to playing detective since it’s allabout trying to identify and followspecific strains of bacteria as they moveglobally, between countries and betweenindividuals,’ she explained. ‘It’s importantthat we can do this because measurescan then be introduced to further reducetransmission in settings where thebacteria pose the greatest problem suchas hospitals.’

Through a collaboration with theWellcome Trust Sanger Institute, herresearch has already had a dramaticimpact on moving forward the detectivestory: in 2004, the genome of the MRSAstrain that is a common cause of hospital-based infection in the UK was sequenced;and in January 2010, a new method fortracking transmission routes based on therapid sequencing of genetic differencesbetween strains was published in Science.Her focus now is to translate theseresearch tools from the laboratory intothe clinical setting, so that preventiveinterventions can then be targeted withprecision and according to need.

What’s the best piece of advice you’veever been given?‘Make it hard, but make it look easy’; in otherwords, challenge yourself, but don’t let onthat it’s so difficult. I’ve always tried not tosettle into a comfort zone for very longbefore I’m looking for the next challenge,and the one after that.

Have you ever had a Eureka moment?Yes – when I realised that what I reallywanted to be was a doctor. But, at the time,I was six months into student nurse training,having left school at 16 almost empty-handed and without the O-levels I neededto study medicine. It was only when I sawhow enthralling the whole diagnosticprocess was – taking a history, examiningthe patient, carrying out investigations andreaching a diagnosis – that I knew that’swhat I wanted to do. I had a very long wayto go to achieve it. I did my O-levels at nightschool, then my A-levels part time whileworking as a nurse to fund myself. It wasquite difficult to get into University to studymedicine because of this unusualbackground, but Southampton Universitygave me the opportunity. I haven’t reallyhad a Eureka moment since – I’ve just beentrying to achieve what I set out to do allthose years ago!

If you could wake up tomorrow with anew skill, what would it be?Wouldn’t it be good to wake up and realiseyou could run a marathon? I’m a very keenspinner – it’s a fitness regimen using aspecially designed stationary bike – and I’dlove to have the fitness of a marathonrunner.

What is your favourite research tool?There’s no doubt that access to informationon the scale the internet provides hasrevolutionised the way we do our work. It’shard to imagine that, when I was a medical

student, finding scientific articles involved atrip to the library and locating the rightvolume of Index Medicus on a bookshelf,all to provide what PubMed does at thetouch of a button. The other major researchtool for me is the advent of high-throughputsequencing technology, and the speed withwhich we can now sequence genomes andtell individual strains of bacterial pathogensapart, some of which may only differ at afew bases of DNA. It’s an incredibly powerfultool in the battle against the spread ofbacteria.

What will the future look like in 2050?Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a result ofthe widespread use of antibiotics over recentdecades. Unless we embark on a betterglobal vision for conserving the efficacy ofcurrent drugs by limiting their use, this willbe a major problem in the future. However,by 2050, we’ll have a better geneticunderstanding of bacterial pathogens andbased on this I hope that we’ll be able toidentify weaknesses that can be targetedwith a new generation of antibiotics. And,crucially, many of the technologies that arenow becoming available for diagnosingand tracking disease will be translated intocost-effective clinical tools. Even in the faceof rising antibiotic resistance, we’ll have thefront-line measures to understand andreduce bacterial transmission and limit thespread of infection.

Professor Sharon Peacockon returning to the UK after seven years in Thailandresearching infectious diseases, Cambridge’s new Professorof Clinical Microbiology, sharon Peacock, has taken up with an ‘old friend’: she resumes her long-standingresearch interest in the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus,particularly the MRsA strains that have become resistant tothe antibiotic drug methicillin. The increasing incidence ofantibiotic resistance in such bacteria is a global healththreat. Her expertise is helping to drive a programme ofresearch that will track and block routes of transmission forthese ‘superbugs’.

INSIDE oUT

All materials in Research Horizons, including but notlimited to text, data, designs, logos, illustrations, stillimages, are protected by copyright, design rights,database rights, trademarks and other intellectualproperty and proprietary rights.

The materials in Research Horizons are eitherowned by the University of Cambridge or have beenlicensed by the owners to the University ofCambridge for inclusion in the publication.

Contributors to this publication have assertedtheir moral right under the Copyright, Designs andPatents Act 1988 to be identified as authors of theirrespective works. Except for the purposes of privatestudy and noncommercial research or ‘fair dealingfor the purposes of criticism or review’ as permittedunder the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,this publication or any part thereof may not bereproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or byany means without the prior permission in writingof the University of Cambridge and the authors ofcontributions as identified.

Requests for further reproduction or repostingor reproduction for commercial purposes should beaddressed to the Editor, Research Horizons,Cambridge Research Office, University ofCambridge, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1SB, UK;email [email protected]

Research Horizons has made all reasonableefforts to ensure that the reproduction of allcontent in this publication is done with the fullconsent of copyright owners. Research Horizonswould be grateful to hear from intellectual propertyrights owners who are not properly identified in thepublication so that Research Horizons may makethe necessary corrections.

©2010 University of Cambridge and Contributors asidentified. All rights reserved.

We welcome suggestions, feedback and comments: please contact the Editor at [email protected]

If you would like information on research funding or working with theUniversity, please contact:Cambridge Research officeTel: +44 (0)1223 333543; email: [email protected]/offices/research/

If you would like information on commercialisation of University intellectualproperty, please contact:Cambridge Enterprise LimitedTel: +44 (0)1223 760339; email: [email protected]/

If you have an enquiry relating to the magazine, please contact:Dr Louise Walsh, Research Horizons EditorTel: +44 (0)1223 765443; email: [email protected]/

If you have a more general media enquiry, please contact:The office of External Affairs and CommunicationsTel: +44 (0)1223 332300; email: [email protected]/offices/communications/

University of Cambridge:www.cam.ac.uk/

Your way into CambridgeResearch Horizons is produced by the University of CambridgeResearch office, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1sB.Cambridge Research Office is the operating name of the University of Cambridge’s Research Services Division.

THE BACK PAGE

issue 12 university of cambridge research horizons

Documents

kavli institute

cambridge design

idare dr louise

cosmologychallenging

magnetoactive porous

discoverychildrens literature