Dr Gerald Chan
For the seventh Andrew Carnegie Lecture on Wednesday 6 March, we were delighted to welcome Dr Gerald Chan to the University of Glasgow to deliver his lecture on "The Alchemy of Turning Science into Medicine"
The Andrew Carnegie Lecture Series, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, aims to bring some of the world's most important thinkers to Scotland to engage with local audiences in a vibrant exchange of knowledge and ideas in the arts, sciences, education and international affairs.
The lecture explored biotechnology as a practice of translational science. Using two case studies of biotech companies that he has built up — one developing an oncolytic virus and the other, an inhibitor of complement, Dr. Chan described the thinking behind steps taken along the pathway to turn scientific discoveries from the laboratory into novel medicines in the clinic.
“When I was a student, the term translational science had not yet been coined. It is a fairly recent term used to describe the work of taking scientific discoveries and further developing them into useful products, policy, practice or social impact. As far as benefit to society is concerned, advancement in science remains inconsequential to the public until science is translated,” he said.
Dr Chan added: “In drug development as in science, it is easy to plead conservatism, couched as prudence, and recoil from taking risk. This is the mindset of the majority of people. I cannot overemphasise the need for independent thinkers who can form their own conviction from empirical evidence.”
