15 October 2010
Renowned early 19th century French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur once said "chance favours the prepared mind". While serendipity plays an important role in scientific breakthroughs, it is the ability to recognise the potential of a chance discovery and turn it into something useful and innovative that exemplifies a truly great scientist.
Scientists at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research strive to be at the forefront of innovation and creativity, and in this issue of Scope we showcase our asthma research programme as an example of this. We also discuss how our scientists are using techniques learned through researching cancer techniques to study a rare disease that has no known cure, and how they are applying their knowledge of therapy-resistant cancer cells to the development of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.
In doing so, our scientists are challenging the way we currently treat certain diseases and offer practical solutions for how we might improve these therapies in the future.