Dolly the Sheep: her place in history

Broadcaster: BBC Scotland/ BBC Two
Year: 2021
Genre: Documentary, Factual
Duration: 59 minutes
URL: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/210031

Dolly the Sheep was born on 5th July 1996. She stands as a pivotal breakthrough in cell biology, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell (not, as is sometimes mistakenly thought, the first cloned mammal per se). The BBC took the opportunity of the 25th anniversary to put on record a “behind the scenes story… told in depth for the first time by the scientists who created her“.

In keeping with that description, the programme is principally structured around a combination of recent and archive interviews with various members of the Roslin Institute team involved in the generation of Dolly. The Dolly research itself is presented in the context of the shift from Roslin as an agricultural research facility, to a centre conducting more biomedically-orientated, ‘translational’ research. As such, I think the documentary serves best as an artefact for study of the Sociology of Science or the History of Molecular Biology.

The Gene Revolution: Changing Human Nature (Storyville)

Broadcaster: BBC4

Year: 2020

Genre: Documentary

Duration: 90 minutes

URL: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/163119

This is an exceptional documentary, and I do not say that lightly. An absolutely terrific introduction to the history and potential of CRISPR-based genome editing. A well-spent hour and a half for anyone interested in molecular biology at any stage of their career.

The programme is divided into six chapters and I have prepared a set of structured notes with associated questions. Available via this link.

I have also prepared a transcript of the programme (this link).

At the time of writing (until 2020) the documentary is also available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000dt7d/storyville-the-gene-revolution-changing-human-nature

Impact of HPV Vaccine (BBC Breakfast)

Broadcaster: BBC1

Year: 2019

Genre: Magazine piece, interview

Duration: 4 mins

URL: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/147914

An interview was conducted jointly with Sophia Lowes from Cancer Research UK in the Salford studio, and GP Philippa Kaye (via link from London) to discuss a new paper in the British Medical Journal. See also this website for more details on the story. The resarch, a retrospective population study, compared rates of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in 20 year old women who had been vaccinated aged 12-13 and those who had not.  The results give strong support to the vaccination programme.

In this clip (4 mins, broadcast 4th April 2019), Health Information Officer Lowes and GP Kaye discuss the importance of the research in justifying vaccination of girls before they become sexually active.

See also this clip from the 6 O’Clock News on the same day.

Zooming in on the molecules of life

Broadcaster: Radio 4

Year: 2018

Genre: Radio interview

Duration: 30 mins

URL: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/120946
also available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09r4c8f

Review by Peter Watson

The remit of Radio 4 series The Life Scientific is to “interview the most fascinating and important scientists alive and find out what makes them tick”. It provides a fascinating mix of biography and science and really helps to get behind what drives researchers to study the things that they do.

In a recent edition host Prof Al-Khalili spoke with pioneer of Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM), Dr Richard Henderson, about his life and work. The interview is very timely as Cryo-EM has undergone a revolution of late and Richard Henderson along with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work on developing Cryo-EM. It also provides a good introduction to the Cryo-EM as a method and offers plenty of history about its development from the early days to the present cutting edge.

As ever, the program started with an exploration of Richard’s early life and education. He describes growing up in the Scottish Borders spending his time in the outdoors exploring and cycling. What comes across strongly is not that Richard Henderson had a clear idea from an early age what he wanted to do but that he enjoyed school and placed great value on his education. After school Richard studied Physics as an undergraduate in Edinburgh and then moved to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) in Cambridge in 1973 to study for his PhD.

Anyone for Gene Editing? (Panorama)

Broadcaster: BBC1

Year: 2016

Genre: Documentary

URL: http://bobnational.net/record/421686

In June 2016, BBC current affairs programme Panorama conducted a whistle-stop tour around potential applications of CRISPR, the emerging gene editing technology.

In Medicine’s Big Breakthrough… Editing Your Genes (30 mins), Fergus Walsh talks to a number of key players in the field. These include Jennifer Doudna, credited as one of the co-creators of CRISPR as an editing took, George Church who is looking to humanise pig organs to reduce the likelihood of rejection, and Fyodor Urnov (from Sangamo Biosciences) who is trying to use the technology to tackle diseases such as AIDS and haemophilia. Alison van Eenennaam discusses genetic approaches to making horn-less cattle (which, she argues, is more humane than the current methods for removing existing horns). Walsh also visits biohacking entrepreneur Josiah Zayner, and Kathy Niakan from the Crick Institute who has the UK’s first licence to use CRISPR with human embryos.

The video is good at raising ethical as well as scientific questions. I can see this episode either serving as a very nice introduction to the topic, which students could be asked to watch before a face-to-face teaching session, or alternatively one or more of the vignettes could be used as illustrative clip(s) within a lecture.

A transcript of the programme is available via this link.

There are a several introductory videos about CRISPR on YouTube. These include one produced by The Royal Society, available via this link. It starts from quite a low level, and so is probably most applicable for a school audience. A second, longer, video produced by Kurzgesagt (German for “in a nutshell”) is available via this link.

Grow your own fillings? (Inside Science)

Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4

Year: 2017

Genre: Radio magazine

URL: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/86523

Review by Eunice Muruako

In this 4 minute clip from Inside Science, presenter Adam Rutherford interviews Professor Paul Sharpe from King’s College London about the use of stem cells to regrow damaged dentine. Sharpe and his team have used Tideglusib, a drug originally as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in order to regrow teeth.

Below a thin layer of enamel, there is a thicker layer of another material called dentine. Although enamel cannot be regrown, it is possible to stimulate immature stem cells to become dentine, offering a natural alternative to metal or porcelain fillings.

After the rotten area of the tooth has been drilled out, Sharpe and his team insert a swab impregnated with the drug Tideglusib into the hole. The drug stimulates the Wnt signalling pathway, activating more stem cells. So far the work has been done in mice. In doing so they are taking advantage of the fact that the drug has previously been put through extensive safety trials when being considered as a treatment for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Sharpe hopes this might speed the process to clinical trials for this novel dental application, though even then clinical trials are unlikely to start before 2018 at the earliest.

For further information see this press release from the King’s College website.

Tackling tuberculosis (Countryfile)

Broadcaster: BBC1
Year: 2016
Genre: Magazine

URLs: (full episode) https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0D9D7D7F
Clip 1 (6:43): https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/23517
Clip2 (6:16): https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/23518

The BBC’s rural affairs programme Countryfile (first broadcast on 9th October 2016) looked at ongoing issues with TB infection cattle populations. The topic was covered in two sections. The first focuses on the current tests for TB infection. The second looks more closely at the science being used to develop new tests and better vaccines against TB.

Performance enhancing drugs: the dark side of doping

Sprinter Tim Montgomery was the 100 metre world record holder, but was later caught using performance-enhancing drugs and was banned

Broadcaster: Al Jazeera

Year: 2015

Genre: Documentary

URL: http://bobnational.net/record/351053

Review by Ella Yabsley

In this Al Jazeera Investigates documentary, former UK hurdler Liam Collins embarks on an undercover investigation seeking to expose ‘the dark side’ of professional sports; blood doping and the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) by professional athletes. This 16-minute clip splices together key sections of the documentary (The full programme can be seen on YouTube as well as on Box of Broadcasts).

“I can take a guy with average genetics and I can make him a world champion. I can with drugs. Oh absolutely.”

The documentary stirred controversy, primarily for featuring accusations regarding several NFL footballers,  notably Peyton Manning, who went on to steer his Denver Broncos team to success at Superbowl 50 before announcing his retirement. More importantly, the documentary highlights loopholes in the drug testing regimes of several popular sports. Athletes play a ‘cat and mouse game’ with the testing system; timely drug administration combined with an awareness of testing procedures results in athletes coming up negative in tests.

Immunotherapy for Type I Diabetes (News)

Broadcaster: BBC1
Year: 2016
Genre: News
URL: http://bobnational.net/record/393710

In this three minute clip, Fergus Walsh reports on a trial being conducted at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (London). The research, led by Prof Mark Peakman, is using a combination of protein fragments (MultiPepT1De) to try and trigger a “protective” immune response, rather than the inappropriate antibody production against islet cells that underlies Type 1 diabetes.

This link includes a video by Prof Peakman introducing the biochemistry of Type I diabetes and the basis of their research (5 mins). See also this article by Peakman on the principles behind the new approach.

The same news item is currently also available on the BBC news website.

The Donation Dilemma

Broadcaster: BBC News

Year: 2015

Genre: Documentary

URL: http://bobnational.net/record/307809

Review by Emma Sterling

“For people from an ethnic minority background like me and my family, finding yourself in a situation where you need an organ transplant can sometimes feel like a death sentence.”

This short documentary (26 minutes) investigates the lack of Black, Asian, Minority ethnic group (BAME) organ donors and explores the influence this shortage has on the transplant black market overseas. The programme follows BBC news presenter Seb Choudhury as he donates a kidney to his mother Sakina, who had been given 3 years to live without a transplant (whereas the waiting list without his intervention might have been up to 10 years).