London, Oct. 25, 2005
Ashol Gupta
NRI (non-resident Indian) Dr. Ajit Lalvani, has won
the Scientific Prize of the International Union Against
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Director General of
World Health Organisation, Geneva said that Dr. Ajit
Lalvan latest discovery tells us how the 60-year-old
BCG vaccine functions.
Dr Ajit Lalvani shows his fast new, low-cost
TB test to a
Wellcome-funded scientist from China. Picture: The
Wellcome Trust.
"Our findings show that children can be protected
against TB infection by vaccination," said Lalvani,
son of Kartar Lalvani, who founded the Vitabiotics
Ltd. "Until now, managing TB has always been
a two-pronged approach, preventing disease progression
from latent to active TB and treating patients with
active TB. Now we know we can protect against infection,
so it's a three-pronged approach," he said.
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A KEY weapon in the fight against the worldwide rise
in tuberculosis is offered by a rapid blood test to
detect TB infection, designed to replace the century-old
skin test for TB. Named T SPOT-TB, the test comes
from discoveries made by Indian scientist Dr Ajit
Lalvani and his collaborators at Oxford University’s
Nuffield Department of Medicine.
Spin-out company Oxford Immunotec has turned these
into a patented technology. It recently received major
funding to continue developing and selling diagnostic
products that provide a simple and extremely accurate
way of studying a person’s cellular immune response
to an infection.
When someone becomes infected with TB the disease
induces a strong response by immune cells in the blood
called T-cells. The new test looks to see if the body
has produced these cells in response to TB and monitors
how their numbers change over time. In this way, it
is possible to determine if a person is infected and
whether they are effectively fighting the infection.
This powerful technique can be used not only for diagnosis
of infections but also for prognosis of disease and
monitoring of treatment.
Crucially, the T SPOT-TB test, currently approved
for clinical use in Europe, can identify people who
are carrying TB infection and could therefore spread
it, but who have not yet gone on to develop disease.
TB kills between two and three million people each
year, and the death toll is rising.
“The tools currently used to diagnose TB are
50-100 years old; this disease has been neglected
for decades. I am pleased that we have finally brought
the benefits of modern scientific research to the
front-line to fight this age-old disease,” said
Dr Lalvani. “In contrast to the crude and inaccurate
skin test, this new blood test is fast, accurate and
convenient. It is a 100-year upgrade for diagnosing
TB and I believe it will significantly improve the
way we manage the disease.”
Since 1998, Dr Lalvani has used this rapid blood
test in double-blinded, randomised studies to prove
its effectiveness in more than 2,000 TB patients and
healthy controls in eight countries.
Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith, chief executive officer
of Oxford Immunotec, said: “The huge amount of
clinical data gathered proves this technology works.
We have approval in the European Union and in many
other countries further afield and we have strong
prospects for the use of our patented technology for
the diagnosis of other infectious diseases where the
cellular immune response is critical, such as HIV,
hepatitis C and cancer.”
Ajit Lalvani is just one of many thousands of researchers
in the UK, India, China and throughout the world who
are, or at some time have been, financially supported
in their work by the UK-based international bio-medical
charity the Wellcome Trust.
Thanks to Wellcome for instance, scientists in China
working on an important genome sequencing project
are using high-tech equipment worth 3.5 million pounds
donated by the UK charity. The 34 gene-sequencing
machines re-installed at the Beijing Genomics Institute,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, have helped in decoding
the genome of the chicken.
Evolutionarily closer (300 million years) to mammals
than other vertebrates such as fish and amphibians,
the chicken has already proved to be an important
vertebrate model for biologists researching neurogenesis,
as well as immunology and limb development. It has
also been used to study gene defects causing blindness
in humans - retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular
degeneration - as well as growth and obesity.
The specialised machines, which are able to provide
vast amounts of data at high speed, were initially
used in the human genome project at the Wellcome Trust
Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. Dr Bin Liu,
head of Research & Collaboration at the Beijing
Genomics Institute (BGI), that is also contributing
to a genome project being led by Washington University,
said at the time the donation was announced (November
2003): “These machines will allow us to take
part in one of the most important genome projects
and gives us the opportunity to work with other high-class
researchers around the world. This is a big step forward
for the institute and for China and we hope it will
be just one of many valuable collaborative schemes
with colleagues in the UK.”
Dr Michael Morgan, former chief executive of the
Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, and who led negotiations
with Dr Liu, added: “It is marvellous that we
have been able to collaborate by providing these machines
to the BGI. We hope it will lead to their participation
in other such projects which are important in both
scientific and health terms.”
Apart from supplying the machines the Wellcome Trust
also donated chemical reagents needed to set them
up, and paid for the shipping costs. The BGI paid
the installation bill and takes care of the running
expenses.
The Wellcome Trust’s senior international research
fellowship scheme supports outstanding researchers
in many countries. Launched in 1985 for scientists
who wished to return to establish their research careers
in Australia, the scheme was later extended and the
first awards were made to India in 1999. Since then
the trust has supported 37 fellows in India. Over
the past five years it has provided funding totalling
more than 150 million pounds in 44 countries, including
more than one million pounds in China and about 14
million pounds in India.
Altogether during the past decade Wellcome has funded
some six million pounds’ worth of research in
China. Last year alone it spent 70 millions on its
international programmes. There are 15 scientists
supported in India as Wellcome international senior
research fellows, working on projects as diverse as
malaria, the brain and aspects of genetics.
Another reflection of the importance of UK scientific
links with China and India can be found in the Dorothy
Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards (DHPA) scheme inaugurated
in 2004 to bring high-quality PhD students from “China,
Hong Kong, India, Russia and the developing world”
to top UK universities to study science.
In the first year, more than half the 129 participants
arrived from China/Hong Kong and India. In an initial
evaluation the recipient universities were unanimously
praised. It is planned that the second intake in October
2005 will provide fully-funded scholarships for another
158 students. Joint funding will be provided by the
UK government through the Office of Science &
Technology and by the private sector. Companies contributing
to the scheme include Hutchison Whampoa; BP; Vodafone;
GlaxoSmithKline and Scottish Power. Their contributions
are matched by allocations from the government-funded
research councils.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “The scheme
has been a great success and is attracting the highest
calibre of students from overseas to study for their
PhDs in the UK. I am delighted that it is continuing
in 2005/2006 and am grateful to the research councils
and the companies who are continuing to fund the scheme.
I applaud their vision in recognising the importance
of building on the UK’s scientific and technological
expertise. These students are a welcome ‘brain
gain’ for the UK during their time here and will
also provide an important boost to north-south capacity
building when they return to their home countries.”
A government spokesman added: “Hopefully, future
research and commercial collaboration with participating
countries will be made possible. Essential scientific
expertise will be gained around the world when they
return, to tackle issues such as clean water provision,
secure energy supplies and to combat diseases such
as Aids and malaria.”
The idea behind the awards has also been boosted
by a UK Home Office scheme that allows foreign nationals
who have studied maths, science or engineering in
the UK to remain in the country and work for a year
following graduation.
The awards are named in honour of Professor Dorothy
Hodgkin who was a pioneering crystallographer, awarded
the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1964 for her work
in determining the structure of important biochemical
molecules. Advances in insulin treatment for diabetics
are a direct result.
Medicine and bio-science are by no means the only
areas of study in which the UK has close links with
China. Last year, for example, Queen Mary, University
of London launched two innovative joint-venture projects
with China’s Ministry of Information, under which
its staff are helping to set the electrical engineering
curriculum at Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications.
More than 1,000 students are expected to enrol by
2006. The course will be taught entirely in China
but will be based on the existing UK curriculum and
subject to University of London quality assurance.
Initial programmes will be offered in telecommunications
with business management and e-commerce engineering
with management and law - areas of priority for China
and combinations of subjects not available at Chinese
universities. A joint master’s programme in materials
is also planned with Beihang University (BUAA), involving
one year of study in Beijing and one in London.
Meanwhile the Engineering & Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded the School of
Computing & Engineering at Huddersfield University,
England, a grant to manage an Anglo-Chinese bilateral
exchange programme on nanometrology that began on
15 August.
The programme’s aim is to promote cooperative
research in nanometrology between the UK and China.
As well as providing an opportunity for UK scientists
to open a forum for exchange of ideas and to showcase
UK research to a Chinese audience, the programme aims
to bring together leading scientists to identify key
research areas conducive to long term cooperation
and also to develop an Anglo-Chinese nanometrology
network capable of using joint sponsorship by both
the EPSRC and the Natural Science Foundation of China.
These are just examples of the many instances of
cooperation between the two countries. Science links
with India are equally strong across a similarly range
of disciplines. “Relations between India and
the UK today are at their best ever and encompass
a wide range of political, economic, cultural, scientific
and technological and other dimensions,” said
a statement from the Indian government’s Department
of Science & Technology.
Useful links:
Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University
Oxford Immunotec
Wellcome Trust
Source: LPS
