Forefront of Research In the research world, if all goes well, success leads to further success: the money keeps rolling in; the best people are recruited; an unstoppable momentum builds up. This may be an oversimplification in some respects - getting to that point is the result of solid achievement over many years. However, we are fortunate to have reached that critical mass state in our internationally-rated research areas.

Child Health The recently-opened Tayside Institute of Child Health (TICH) has provided, as hoped, a stimulus for new research into conditions which take the lives of thousands of babies each year. By the end of the period covered in this Report, research funding of over £2 million had been secured in the first eight months of 1999. Lung Disease The largest single grant will target lung disease which particularly affects premature babies and is still the most frequent cause of deaths in the first months of life. Medical scientists at Dundee already have an international reputation in this field and the latest study headed by Professor Richard Olver and his colleagues, Dr Stuart Wilson and Dr Steven Land, will examine at a cellular level exactly what happens when babies begin to breathe and why the process can go wrong. It is hoped that infant lung disease will be treatable in future by drug and gene therapy. Improving Lung Growth In another project Professor Olver is collaborating with Professor of Developmental Medicine, Bob Hume, and Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri plus a team based at Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow, to discover why some babies are born with inadequate lungs. They hope to develop ways of improving lung growth while the baby is still in the womb using minimal access surgery. This promising technique involves stopping the outflow of liquid from the lung and allowing the lung lining cells own molecular pumps to expand the lung. Cystic Fibrosis In a third study Dr Sarah Inglis will use a new technique to study the effects of a new kind of drug designed to unblock the airways of cystic fibrosis sufferers (some 6000 children and adults in the UK alone).

Breast v Bottle Research on breast versus bottle feeding of babies, reported in earlier Annual Reports, has been gathering momentum with the award of two further research grants amounting to £311,000. Dr Peter Willatts, Psychology, and Dr Stewart Forsyth, Child Health, have now found hard evidence indicating that long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) naturally occurring in breast milk may play a significant role in babies’ brain development. Until recently these fatty acids were absent from formula milk as it was assumed that babies could synthesise their own. Heart Disease A study by Jill Belch, Professor of Vascular Medicine, has revealed that one in four Scottish children show signs of heart disease not normally expected until middle age. The children studied showed abnormally high levels of cholesterol and blood sugars. They came from all social classes and there was no obvious link between high scoring and poorer backgrounds. Lack of exercise is the major factor contributing to the findings as none of the children could be described as significantly overweight. Infants and Solid Food Dr Stewart Forsyth, Clinical Director of Paediatrics, Dr Elizabeth Alder, Epidemiology and Public Health, and Professor of Food Choice, Annie Anderson, have received £115,000 to take their existing research on infants and solid foods a step further. Having established a clear link between the early introduction of solid foods into babies’ diets with respiratory disease and increased body fat, the new study will determine why some mothers continue to feed their babies solids under the age of four months despite advice to the contrary from the medical profession. /contd.

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