Medicine Intro | Medical Research | Life & Death | Salt of the Earth | Viva la Revolution

Viva la Revolution
By Phillipa Camilleri

___If you were to walk into biotechnologist's laboratory, would you expect to find them hunched over Frankenstein's monster about to flick the switch? Would you expect the stereotypical biotechnologist, completely removed from social values, pushing progress at all costs? Although I am a Biotechnology student myself, I had no idea what to expect from a day with Dr Gary King. How open would he be about his work given the controversy surrounding biotechnology? Would my questions make him defensive? I hoped that Dr King could provide his own evaluation of the hype surrounding the Biotech industry.

___Funnily enough, when I entered the lab, Frankenstein was nowhere to be seen. Dr King was sitting innocently at his desk behind a mountain of paperwork. Dr King completed his PhD at Sydney University and is now based at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). At UNSW, he leads a research team and lectures in Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, and Nanotechnology. Lecturing is important to Dr King as a research scientist because it allows him to step outside of his highly specialised work and return to the basic fundamentals of science. He feels that a scientist should maintain a balance between research and education.

___The goal of Dr King’s research is to develop technologies that may result in personalised medical treatments, therapies that are specific to a patient's genetic makeup. Understanding the particular genetics of the patient, and administering specifically targeted drug therapies, would allow medicine to be practiced more efficiently. Through greater efficiency, the cost of treatments may be reduced. We might even be able to predict the likelihood of a patient developing a certain disease, such as cancer, and advise lifestyle changes to reduce the patient’s risk of disease. Dr King’s research faces many obstacles, including competition from thousands of labs conducting similar research. Dr King describes this technology as “potentially revolutionary. In Biotechnology the world is your oyster”.

___Dr King’s research team is a mixture of people ranging from honours students to post doctorate researchers. Members of his team bring a range of skills to the laboratory; they include biologists, chemists, and technological support. In a small laboratory, Information Technology (IT) is essential for communicating with other labs, and most importantly, for web based research. Dr King explained that having a range of skills in a laboratory increases the efficiency of day to day processes. Surprisingly, during the day, Dr King never once put on a white laboratory coat. Within his team, he tends to perform an administrative role rather than a practical one. He spent his morning checking on the progress of his team members and updating them on his ideas. He conceptualises and directs the team’s research. He spent a considerable amount of time answering emails, and much of his time during a typical day is spent writing and submitting journal articles. That very afternoon, Dr King had a 5pm deadline to submit an article he had been drafting.

___As a Biotechnology student, I am concerned about the social stigmatization of Biotechnology research. Dr King suggests that the sensationalist media plays a significant role in generating often irrational fears within society. They feed on the ethical controversy surrounding Biotechnology and de-emphasise its potential. Dr King also recognises that pubic relations may not be the sole cause of the stigma. He believes that the technology is being developed too rapidly and often with little caution. “It is not inappropriate to be concerned about altering life forms because we don’t truly understand biology well enough to predict what might happen.”

___Dr King recognises that there are certain risks associated with his research. Some question the security of their genetic information. Might individuals be denied insurance due to their genetic likelihood of disease? How would knowledge of their potential for disease affect someone psychologically? Dr King argues that there were similar concerns during the I.T. revolution, when it was thought that computers would lead to devastating job loss. The problem is that much of the Biotechnology industry is driven by privately funded companies, and so the public feel they have less control over developments. Dr King says that government legislation, and more publicly funded research companies, would ensure that research is headed in a direction that is both socially and financially beneficial.

___I have often wondered whether it is possible for a scientist to be comfortable knowing that their work may have dramatic consequences for society. Dr King summed up my dilemma in this statement: “After all, there are ethical dilemmas in every occupation. You can only do what you feel is good whilst taking into account your own limitations. Most importantly, as a research scientist, you should be able to justify yourself more than just financially.”

Medicine Intro | Medical Research | Life & Death | Salt of the Earth | Viva la Revolution