A scientist's scientist

摘要

Even for a man who has run 18 marathons, bounding up the few steps outside 20 Park Crescent in one of London's smartest areas could be the hardest challenge of his life. Colin Blakemore, one of the UK's best-known medical scientists, will be doing just that most days for the next four years at least - as the new boss of the Medical Research Council. One of Blakemore's main missions will be to steer the MRC as it works out how to exploit fully the completed human genome project, turning the map of thousands of genes into something researchers can use to build novel therapies. Just as important, however, will be rehabilitating the council in the eyes of disenchanted researchers and unimpressed politicians. The past year in particular has been a time of highs and lows for the MRC. On the one hand, it celebrated the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's structure-by MRC-funded researchers; on the other, a top committee of MPs attacked it fiercely. Then just as the council was launching Biobank, the world's largest medical databank, a storm broke about the future of its largest research centre.