50 years of biomedical discovery

Scarecrow Trail16 May - 1 June 2014

Listen to interviews with the scarecrows – download from:

www.bollingtonfestival.org.uk/ scarecrowscience

Thanks also to Canalside’s The Thread 102.8 fm for recording the podcasts, the artists and scientists for their input, and to the individuals, schools and community groups who have built the scarecrows and recorded the interviews.

Beta blockers used in treatment of cardiovascular disease | 1964Pott Shrigley Primary School Garden of GP surgery, Wellington Road

A drug that was designed to block the effect of adrenaline on the heart, by ‘filling in’ receptors on heart muscle that would normally accept adrenaline. This has saved the lives of millions of heart disease patients.

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Artificial heart | 1982Girlguiding Bollington Senior Section Outside Methodist Church, Wellington Road

One solution for the shortage of transplantable organs could be creating artificial ones as a permanent replacement (rather than a temporary ‘fix’ such as a dialysis machine).

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50 years of biomedical discoveriesBollington Library, Palmerston St

Claire de Ruiter, a local artist, will be in Bollington library on Saturday 26 April, 3 May and 10 May from 10-12.30pm making a new art installation representing 50 years of biomedical discoveries. Come and watch Claire at work and contribute to her installation.

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Use of CT and PET scans in medicine | 1970sTytherington High School Recreation Ground, Palmerston St

Viewing the inside of the brain or other organs from outside the body seems commonplace today but was a medical revolution. Medical imaging relies heavily on the mathematics of tomography, from the Greek word tomos meaning ‘cut’ or ‘slice’.

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First functioning laser | 19602nd Bollington Cubs Recreation Ground, Palmerston St

Just one year after the invention of the laser in 1960 it was being used in surgery, to precisely cut, burn or destroy living tissue without injuring the surrounding area.

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Human genome sequenced | 20011st Bollington St John’s Guides Recreation Ground, Palmerston St

Whose genome was sequenced? And why would researchers want to know the genome sequence of a particular person – aren’t we all unique?

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First monoclonal antibodies therapy | 1986Science committee with Adlington School 5 Hurst Lane

The invention of a method to artificially produce monoclonal antibodies – identical antibodies, all recognising exactly the same target – means drugs can be designed to be delivered exactly where they are needed and avoid healthy cells.

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Tissue engineering | 1990sSt Thomas’s Primary School, Tean Belfields Bakery, Palmerston St

Scientists are now able to grow tissue (a large number of the same type of cells) in a small container outside the body, to replace parts of the body that have stopped working properly or are missing, for example an ear.

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First clinical trial gene therapy | 1990Tytherington High School Outside Bollington Print Shop

As the science of genetics advanced, researchers had a dream that it would be possible to replace faulty, or disease-causing genes, with a working version. The treatment is still experimental but has the potential to revolutionise treatment for many genetic diseases.

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First successful total hip replacement | 1962Gillian Lindsey Shrigley Court, Church St

Pioneering surgeon John Charnley wrote to all his patients to ask if he could have the artificial hip back when they died, so he could study the wear and how the fixing (a dental cement) was working. Nearly all said yes.

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Birth control pills first marketed | 1961Andrew de Ruiter On the green on High St

The development of the pill was not only a landmark discovery for science but for society too. It signified a new era when women could, by preventing pregnancy, plan their careers and life before motherhood.

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Genetically modified food first sold | 1994Rainow Primary School Top of White Nancy

The first genetically modified food sold was the FlavrSavr™ tomato. Other GM crops increase yields or reduce costs for producers. What do you think about GM crops?

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Design by BEAM | beamstudio.co.uk

First heart transplant | 19672nd Bollington Scouts Grassy knoll as you enter Bolllington from the Silk Road roundabout

It was a bold surgeon who was prepared to be the first to remove a patient’s beating heart and stitch in a replacement donor heart.

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Genetic code cracked | 1961Bollington Cross Primary School (nature club) Near school car park, Bollington Road

How do only four different repeated molecules explain the diversity of all life on Earth? The 3-letter chemical codes in your DNA were decoded soon after the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953.

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Method for sequencing DNA | 1977Tytherington High School TyrZ, Henshaw Road

This technology lies at the heart of modern biology and has transformed our understanding of how living things work, from bacteria to humans.

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Artificial life | 2010Tytherington High School 11 East Avenue

Maverick mayhem or major benefits for humanity? Building on years of molecular biology discoveries including DNA sequencing technology, a team made a new species of microbe by writing an artificial DNA sequence.

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Dolly the sheep, first cloned mammal | 1996Members of the science committee 116 Southwest Ave

Dolly was cloned by transferring the DNA from an adult ewe’s udder cell to an unfertilised egg cell. The breakthrough was the ‘reprogramming’of the cell to reverse the specialisation that made it an udder cell, and become all the different types of cells in Dolly.

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Louise Brown, first test tube baby born | 1978Dean Valley Primary School Tinkers Clough woods

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) can help couples who have problems conceiving naturally to have a baby.

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Prions discovered to be cause of mad cow disease | 1980sSt Gregory’s Primary School St Gregory’s School grounds, Albert Rd

What was the mysterious infectious agent that spread through British cows in the 1980s and was transmitted to humans as variant-CJD? Are we still at risk from eating beef?

First heart, lungs and liver transplant patient | 1986St John’s Primary School St John’s School grounds, Grimshaw Lane

All these organs had previously been transplanted either alone or with one other organ. This milestone operation proved how far the science of transplantation had advanced, and helps patients who would not survive a series of single-organ transplants.

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Molecular structure of insulin discovered | 1969John Peak 70 Wellington Road

Dorothy Hodgkin, Britain’s only female science Nobel prize winner, was a pioneer in X-ray crystallography of molecules important in biology and medicine and discovered the structure of insulin.

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