The Impact of Cambridge Pathology Research

Whilst we believe that most of our current research effort is already influencing the ways we think about and understand disease processes, there are often many years between a discovery in medical science and its exploitation in a manner that impacts on patients’ lives. Below is a selection of highlights from past work in which current members of the Department played critical roles and which are now evidently “making a difference”.

• The development of a new vaccine (now in trials in several countries of the world) to protect against infection by the human papillomavirus responsible for cervical cancer
• Solution of the complete genomic sequence of the human MHC Class I locus.
• Production of an antibody (CAMPATH-1), now in full clinical use and marketed as Alemtuzumab™ for treatment of certain types of leukaemia. CAMPATH-1 was developed by Prof Herman Waldmann and his colleagues prior to his move to head the Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford.