On the eve of his inaugural lecture, Prof. Peter Emery, head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at King’s College London, talks about his work and play.
Matt Brown
My Science
How do you describe your work when asked by a non-scientist?
I am interested in patients who lose weight when they are ill, for example cancer patients or those who are undergoing surgery. I am trying to find out the reasons why they lose weight, and specifically lean tissue such as muscle, and whether this can be prevented by nutritional or other interventions.
What would you say is the cutting edge of your field right now?
Being able to identify changes in the expression, and more importantly the synthesis rate, of more and more individual proteins in vivo in pathophysiological situations – in my current work, this is in healing muscle wounds.
Why do you choose to work in London as opposed to, say, Oxford or Cambridge?
Neither of those has a university department of nutrition. The department at King’s is the oldest, probably the largest and in my view the best in the country. It is also where I did my MSc and PhD so I may be biased! The department in Cambridge where I did my first degree closed some years ago, a victim of the first RAE.
How could science be improved in London?
The same way it could be improved throughout the country, by making more secure, long-term positions available for good postdocs. These are the people who actually do the experiments and produce the results. We invest a lot in training them to a high level, then all too easily lose them for lack of funding, leaving them with no career and the academics frustrated at not being able to carry on promising lines of work. And if there were a good career structure for researchers we might be able to persuade our brightest graduates to stay on for PhDs instead of going to earn megabucks in the City.
In this globalised world, is it still important to interact with local scientific institutions and universities?
Yes, though the best interactions involve individuals, not institutions. There is no substitute for regular face to face contact and being able to send staff over to a collaborator’s lab whenever necessary.
My web
How is the web changing your field?
Fantastic increase in the speed and ease of access to information. So we hardly have to move from the desk from the beginning of the day to the end, thereby contributing to the rising incidence of obesity and related disorders.
Which scientific websites do you visit most regularly?
Equipment manufacturers.
My London
Where in London would you celebrate getting your paper on the cover of Nature?
Unfortunately, I don’t have a very high opinion of most London pubs these days, though I might start with a session in the White Hart. But as my hobby is bell-ringing, I might try to arrange a celebratory peal at St Mary Abbots, Kensington. This would work up enough of a thirst for further sessions in the Prince of Wales, the Elephant and Castle, the Windsor Castle, the Churchill, etc.
_Prof. Emery’s inaugural lecture as Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism, ‘Protein turnover – the biological basis of repair’, takes place on 24 April in the Franklin Wilkin building. Visit his homepage _