Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine

The former Lister Institute in about 1985. Now the private Lister Hospital in Chelsea Bridge Road, London

The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, using a grant from the Guinness family. It had premises in Chelsea in London, Sudbury in Suffolk, and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. It was the first medical research charity in the United Kingdom. It was re-named the Jenner Institute (after Edward Jenner the pioneer of smallpox vaccine) in 1898 and then, in 1903, as the Lister Institute in honour of the great surgeon and medical pioneer, Dr Joseph Lister. In 1905, the institute became a School of the University of London.

History

Until the 1970s the Institute maintained laboratories and conducted research on infectious disease and vaccines. It was funded by manufacturing and selling vaccines.

In the 1970s the Institute ran into financial difficulties. It had continual annual deficits, plus the need for major expenditure to modernise the Elstree, Hertfordshire, production facilities. Professor Albert Neuberger became involved as chair of governing body in 1973-74, at which point he became aware of the difficult financial problems. The endowment funds were insufficient to cover their requirements and it failed to get Government support. Neuberger came to the conclusion that within five to six years it would be bankrupt and he persuaded colleagues to dissolve the Institute. He persuaded Westminster Council to change the use of buildings. The Chelsea laboratories were closed in 1975 and Elstree in 1978. The assets were sold, the most valuable being the Chelsea site.

This raised enough money to annually endow a number of Senior Research Fellowships, which is the Institute's legacy. From that point it became a science funding body, and it now awards the Lister Institute Research Prize Fellowships to researchers working on infectious disease in the United Kingdom. The Institute's assets in 2010 amounted to about £33m.

Achievements

Staff took considerable risks in early research: investigating plague in India in the early 20th century the method of transmission was established when a female worker put her hand into a flea cage and saw how high the fleas jumped. Joseph Arkwright (great grandson of Richard Arkwright) joined the institute in 1906 and studied typhus by allowing himself to be bitten by infected lice. He survived, two others did not. Other major achievements include:

Prior to the First World War

These included the physiology of diving; the lethal effect of ultraviolet light on bacteria; fat metabolism; the role of vitamins in nutrition (the term 'vitamine' was coined by Casimir Funk when working at the institute). The Director, Sir Charles Martin, made outstanding contributions to the study of plague and its transmission.

First World War

Tetanus antiserum production at Elstree was increased. The bacteria causing gas gangrene of infected wounds were identified.

Inter-war years

The discovery of co-enzymes by Sir Authur Harden FRS and his colleagues winning him a share of a Nobel Prize in 1929. The institute played a major part in defining the role of vitamins in post-war nutritional deficiency diseases that were widespread in Europe and elsewhere. Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel pioneered the study of mycoplasma and in 1935 discovered and cultured unusual strains of bacteria that lacked a cell wall, naming them L-form bacteria after the institute where she worked.

Second World War

The war made heavy demands on the Lister for production of antisera and vaccines. There was also need for expertise in nutrition.

Post war to 1970s

The institute took some time to settle after wartime upheaval. In 1952 Ashley Miles was appointed as director. The institute remained an important manufacturer of vaccines and antitoxins. It produced the 'triple vaccine' for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (commonly called whooping cough) and vaccines for cholera, typhoid, rabies vaccines and smallpox. It also produced antisera for diphtheria, tetanus, gas gangrene, rabies and scorpion venom. There were also further important research activities:

Biochemistry

• the role of enzymes in the metabolism of plant and animal carbohydrates was elucidated
• the first synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by Alexander Todd PRS in 1949
• the structure of co-enzyme A was defined by James Baddiley, together with other workers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
• Discovered that immunological specificity of bacteria is conferred by certain oligosaccharides on their surfaces
• Determined the chemical nature of the human A, B, H and Lewis blood group antigens, their biosynthesis and genetic control

Blood and blood products

• Invented the ether method for fractionating blood plasma to obtain fibrinogen, thrombin, albumin, immunoglobulins and others for clinical use
• Large-scale production of dried human plasma
• First clinically effective Factor VIII concentrate prepared for the treatment of haemophilia by Ralph Kekwick
• First anti-D immunoglobulin for treating rhesus negative mothers
• Development of radio immunoassay to screen blood for hepatitis B
• Blood group genetics

Microbiology and immunology

• Established life cycles of trypanosomes (Muriel Robertson FRS)
• Devised a method for identifying the blood meals of insect vectors
• Discovered that sequential mutations in surface antigens hinder development of protective immunity
• First isolations of chlamydias affecting the eye and genital tract
• Discovery of the 'Vi' antigen of Salmonella typhi
• Motility of flagellated salmonella strains used to study phage transduction
• First description of the bacterial sex pilus and exploitation for studying bacterial plasmids, including antibiotic resistance

Vaccines and antitoxins

• Medical Research Council field trials of pertussis vaccines
• Development of the freeze-dried heat-stable vaccine used in the smallpox eradication programme

Locations

Elstree

The old Elstree site is located off the north-west side Dagger Lane, off Tylers Way, Bushey, between the Hillfield Park and Aldenham reservoirs in Aldenham Country Park. It was until recently shown on Ordnance Survey maps as the Lister Institute, though more recently the Master Atlas of Greater London (2007) shows it as 'laboratories'. Many of the original buildings still exist including one of the old lodges (Queensbury) and the old stable block. The site now forms part of the British National Health Service Blood and Transplant Authority and is the site of its bio products laboratory and houses the UK national plasma fractionator.

Chelsea

The British Institute of Preventative Medicine was established in 1891. This building, along with another adjacent building, forms what is now the private Lister Hospital, which opened in 1985. The Grade II Listed building is located on Chelsea Bridge Road at its junction with Grosvenor Road and Chelsea Bridge on the north bank of the River Thames which it overlooks.

Bibliography

• Leslie Harold Collier, The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine: a concise history, Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, 2000, 66 pages.
• Harriette Chick, Margaret Hume, Marjorie MacFarlane, War on Disease: a history of the Lister Institute, London: A. Deutsch, 1971, ISBN 0233962204, 9780233962207, 251 pages.

External links

• The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine
• Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, Registered Charity no. 206271 at the Charity Commission