may
Dundee cake
$4,000 man
Singing computers
p53 by keyhole
Professor David Lane, the man who discovered the "guardian angel of the cell" - the p53
gene, and Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri, pioneer of keyhole surgery, combined forces to
create a new department devoted to developing new cancer therapies for the 21st century.
The collaboration has allowed a 60 strong team of researchers to put to the test a radical
approach to treating cancer by delivering genetically engineered products directly to
tumours via "keyhole" surgery techniques.
Breath tests using a specially developed "Dundee Flapjack" were the subject of trials by
scientists from the department of anatomy and physiology seeking an alternative to
painful, expensive and invasive tests for certain medical conditions. Dr Wolfram
Meier-Augenstein, who won a rare international £356,000 grant to carry out the research
explains: "Patients breathe into a tube, eat the cake which contains a tiny amount of a
completely non-radioactive probe or marker substance, then breathe into tubes again at
regular intervals. Analysis of the breath samples should then cast light on various body
functions."
Professor Michael Ferguson, principal investigator of the molecular parasitology and
biological division at the Wellcome Trust Building was singled out from nominations from
around the world to win a prestigious $4,000 award. It was presented to the 1999
International Glycoconjugate Organisation Prize winner at an international conference in
Tokyo in recognition for his contribution to the fight against malaria, African sleeping
sickness and other parasitic diseases.
As election fever reached its climax, so did the singing career of one of Dundee
University's singing desktop PCs. The desktop PC singing "Flower of Scotland" was one of
over 20 projects to be demonstrated by honours year students of applied computing. The
karaoke project developed by 21 year old Martin Jenkins uses a programme enabling the
computer to synthesise both music and lyrics to sing along to its own version of the tune,
apparently a "very moving experience to witness" according to Martin's supervisor,
alumnus Dr Iain Murray.
