Inspire Wales Award in Science & Technology won by Prof Campbell
20 June 2011
Forty years of scientific curiosity and enthusiasm for research were rewarded when Professor Tony Campbell was given the Inspire Wales Award for Science & Technology at a gala dinner in Cardiff on Friday 17th June.
These Awards are run by Institute of Welsh Affairs and the Western Mail to celebrate figures who encourage active citizenship in Wales and promote their communities. The Science & Technology award was sponsored by the University of Wales.
In response to this success, Prof Gary Baxter, Head of the Welsh School of Pharmacy said - Tony's Inspire Wales award for Science & Technology is a richly-deserved recognition of his lifetime passions for discovery and communication. One only has to be in Tony's company for a few minutes to gain a sense of his scientific originality, creativity and enthusiasm. It is a real privilege to work alongside our 'curious Professor'
In past decade, Prof Campbell's research interests in food intolerance have brought him closer to research teams in the School of Pharmacy and he transferred from. the School of Medicine in 2010. He has put forward a revolutionary hypothesis that metabolites produced by bacteria in the gut are the cause of one of the major causes of illness seen by GPs and gastroenterologists, i.e. irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This also explains the illness that afflicted Darwin for 50 years. A further proposal is that these metabolic toxins play a key role in diabetes, heart palpitations, some cancers, and brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. He is currently working on a model test system using the water flea Daphnia to verify this hypothesis.
Reference:
A.K. Campbell, S.B. Matthews N. Vassel, C.D. Cox, R. Naseem, J. Chaichi, I.B. Holland, J. Green, K.T. Wann Toxicology 278 (2010) 268–276 doi:10.1016/j.tox.2010.09.001
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