Organisation

History

Landmark research

• Identification of the dietary cause of rickets by Sir Edward Mellanby
• Discovery, in 1918, that influenza is caused by a virus
• Description of neurotransmission and the first neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, by Sir Henry Hallett Dale and Otto Loewi, leading to a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1936;
• Development of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming, Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Lord Florey, gaining them the 1945 Nobel Prize;
• Linkage of lung cancer to tobacco smoking by Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford Hill in the British doctors study, published in 1956;
• Discovery of the structure of DNA by James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Professor Maurice Wilkins. They would receive the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for their discovery.
• Development of magnetic resonance imaging in 1973 by Professor Peter Mansfield and independently by Paul Lauterbur. This would lead to the 2003 Nobel Prize.
• Development of monoclonal antibodies by César Milstein and Georges Köhler in 1975 (1984 Nobel Prize)
• The identification, in 1983, of folic acid as a preventive measure for spina bifida and neural tube defects
• Large studies, in the 1970s and 1980s, showing that aspirin can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease.
• The publication of the genome of C. elegans, the first multicellular organism to receive this treatment, in 1998.
• The ongoing Heart Protection Study, showing benefits of primary prevention with simvastatin in patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease.

CEOs