Electronic Precinct - July 1999

Two-photon microscope for gastroenterological research

The Wellcome Trust/Government-funded Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) represents the single largest cash injection ever made in this country to provide new laboratory equipment in state-of-the-art facilities and has attracted world-wide attention, because of its size (£700 million) and the internati onal nature of its evaluation procedure, which has ensured that only bids of outstanding international quality can be funded.

One of the University's successful bids was for research into 'Intracellular and extracellular regulation of epithelial cell function in the gastrointenstinal tract and pancreas'. The award of about £3 million to Professor Alastair Watson (Medicine) and Professors Graham Dockray and Ole Petersen (P hysiology) breaks new ground by establishing a highly visible collaboration between Clinical Investigations and Basic Biological Science. The most important and most expensive (~£0.5 million) piece of equipment to be housed in the new Joint Medicine/Physiology facility is a two-photon microscope, w hich will enable the three research teams to study at very high resolution fine details in living cells from the pancreas, intestine and the stomach.

The Medicine/Physiology JIF award is based on four projects, all dependent on the use of the two-photon microscope. The first deals with the pancreas and the mechanisms that cause acute pancreatitis, a deadly disease in which the enzymes that are needed to digest our food digest the pancreas itself . Ole Petersen, who last year became an MRC (Medical Research Council) Research Professor, has an active collaboration in this area with Professor John Neoptolemos and Mr Robert Sutton (Surgery). The second project, led by Petersen and Watson, deals with the fundamental mechanisms underlying progra mmed cell death in the pancreas. The third project, led by Watson, deals with radiation-induced programmed cell death in the gut, which is important in order to understand the resistance of certain cancers to radiation therapy. The last project, led by Dockray and Watson, deals with the possible li nk between gastric cancer and duodenal ulcers.

Although the JIF award is based specifically on the four specified projects, there are many other existing collaborations in this University that will benefit from the new instrumentation. Professor Jonathan Rhodes (Medicine), who was recently elected a member of the prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences, collaborates with Ole Petersen on investigations dealing with the intriguing effects of edible mushroom lectin, which can inhabit growth in the gut. Other investigations of gut function, which will benefit from the new award, are conducted by Dr Shirazi-Beechey (Pre-Clinical Veterinary Me dicine) who works on the role of dietary fibre in colonic health.

There is a unique concentration of gastroenterological expertise in Liverpool, which was clearly shown to the MRC's Chief Executive, Professor George Radda, when he visited the University recently. All the key gastroenterological investigators made presentations at this meeting, which was organised by the Vice-Chancellor and Ole Petersen. The successful JIF outcome is therefore very much due to a team effort in this field, which is likely to be an important growth point for future medical research in this University.

Professor Ole Petersen