Lecture by the President of the World Cultural Council

One Health. The Future Challenge for Medical Research
Modern medicine is founded on many disciplines, including biomedical sciences, genetics and genomics, epidemiology and social sciences. But the new concept of One Health, embracing the complexity of food chains and ecosystems as well as veterinary and human medicine, demands a commitment to interdisciplinary research unprecedented in scale. I shall explore four examples – Nipah Virus, Mad Cow Disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), transmission of the rabies virus, and the aetiology of amblyopia ex anopsia (‘lazy eye’). Knowledge of neuroscience, developmental biology, molecular genetics, anthropology, public engagement, psychology, food science and government policy were essential for understanding of these disorders and for designing strategies for treatment or prevention. Research in One Health will need new approaches to nurture interdisciplinarity.

Professor Sir Colin Blakemore
President of the World Cultural Council
Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience, City University of Hong Kong
Sir Colin Blakemore is Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience at City University of Hong Kong, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford and Visiting Professor of Neuroscience & Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, London. He worked in the medical schools of Cambridge and Oxford for more than 40 years and from 2003-7 he was Chief Executive of the UK Medical Research Council. His research has focused on vision, development and plasticity of the brain, and neurodegenerative disease. Colin has been President of the British Science Association, the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Royal Society of Biology. He is a member of 12 scientific academies, including the Royal Society and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and his honours include both the Faraday Prize and the Ferrier Prize from the Royal Society. He has been involved in scientific advice to government and in public communication about science. Sir Blakemore is a founder member of the World Cultural Council and has been its president since 2014.

One Health. The Future Challenge for Medical Research
Modern medicine is founded on many disciplines, including biomedical sciences, genetics and genomics, epidemiology and social sciences. But the new concept of One Health, embracing the complexity of food chains and ecosystems as well as veterinary and human medicine, demands a commitment to interdisciplinary research unprecedented in scale. I shall explore four examples – Nipah Virus, Mad Cow Disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), transmission of the rabies virus, and the aetiology of amblyopia ex anopsia (‘lazy eye’). Knowledge of neuroscience, developmental biology, molecular genetics, anthropology, public engagement, psychology, food science and government policy were essential for understanding of these disorders and for designing strategies for treatment or prevention. Research in One Health will need new approaches to nurture interdisciplinarity.

Speaker

Professor Sir Colin Blakemore
President of the World Cultural Council
Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience, City University of Hong Kong
Sir Colin Blakemore is Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience at City University of Hong Kong, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford and Visiting Professor of Neuroscience & Philosophy at the School of Advanced Study, London. He worked in the medical schools of Cambridge and Oxford for more than 40 years and from 2003-7 he was Chief Executive of the UK Medical Research Council. His research has focused on vision, development and plasticity of the brain, and neurodegenerative disease. Colin has been President of the British Science Association, the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Royal Society of Biology. He is a member of 12 scientific academies, including the Royal Society and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and his honours include both the Faraday Prize and the Ferrier Prize from the Royal Society. He has been involved in scientific advice to government and in public communication about science. Sir Blakemore is a founder member of the World Cultural Council and has been its president since 2014.