Will genomics change Oslerian medicine?
Dr John Irving Bell is about to shed light on how genomics research may change Oslerian medicine. Bell, the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, is coming to McGill on November 5 to deliver the 2003 Osler Lecture.
As genetic and genomics research is poised to enter the clinical sphere, Dr Bell's attention has turned increasingly to how these spheres will affect human illness. Genetic information will completely redefine disease as a molecular "event," which drives a biological process, rather than a connection of clinical syndromes and outcomes. Dr Bell is optimistic regarding genetic and genomics research. He foresees changes coming sooner than we think. These changes will focus medical care on the individual and their responses to environmental conditions or varying treatments. Yet the genetics revolution carries its own social, economic and political risk factors. In a recent article in the British Medical Journal, Dr Bell warned that rigorous evaluation of DNA diagnostics and pharmacogenomics may fall victim to the pressure to introduce genetic information into routine clinical practice.
Media and the public are welcome to attend Bell's Osler Lecture, which is sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine:
Charles F. Martin Amphitheatre, McIntyre Building
3655 Promenade Sir William Osler
6:00 pm, November 5
Like his predecessor in the Regius Chair, Sir William Osler, Dr Bell is a Canadian, a world leader in medical research and teaching. A native of Edmonton and alumnus of the University of Alberta, Dr Bell was in his second year of medical training when he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, from which he received his doctorate in medicine. This began an illustrious career in the UK, culminating with his appointment by the Queen in 2002 as the Regius Professor of Medicine.
During the past decade, Dr Bell's leadership of the Nuffield Department of Medicine has led to numerous research initiatives at Oxford. He conceived and promoted the development of the new biomedical "Research Crescent" at Oxford, comprising eight institutes. These include the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (founded by Bell in 1993), the Oxford Vaccine and Tropical Medicine Centre, the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Centre for Cell and Molecular Physiology, and a projected Centre for Cancer Medicine. When complete, the Research Crescent will be one of Europe's largest campuses for biomedical science. It will also be a monument to Dr Bell's vision of how genetic and genomic technologies are relevant to virtually every area of biomedical research.
Dr Bell's scientific work focuses on the genetics of common diseases. He also studies immune response and the genetics of autoimmune disease. He's played a major role in examining the genetic basis that makes people susceptible to diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. He defined several of the genes involved in diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility and was involved in work that led to the first use of tetramers, as well as the work characterizing the T-cell surface molecule CD8. He's produced over 200 articles and chapters, as well as two edited volumes. He is a member of numerous international and UK medical and scientific boards, and in the Oslerian manner, has taken a particular interest in the development and careers of young scientists, most recently as chair of the National Institutes of Health-Oxford Graduate Student Programme.
