00:00 Exterior,
Birmingham International Airport
c.u.
Arrivals sign
Travellers
outside airport
Arrivals
screens inside airport
Arrivals
sign inside airport
Travellers
arriving in airport
2
shot - Researchers in laboratory
Single
of researcher preparing samples
Holiday travellers returning from abroad often find
they’ve brought an unwanted souvenir home with them.
“Delhi Belly”, “Travellers Tummy” or simply
diarrhoea, will occur in approximately 50% of travellers from
industrialised nations to less developed countries. In 70% of these
cases the cause will be Enterotoxigenic E.coli, and it can be
considerably more serious than a simple upset stomach.
Now researchers in the UK, at the University of
Birmingham’s Medical School, are set to sequence the DNA of
the bacteria - this will identify causes of illness and help to
point the way to better cures.
00:37 SOT: Dr Ian
Henderson, Lecturer in Infection, University of Birmingham Medical
School - “This type of E.Coli - which we refer
to as ETEC, or Enterotoxigenic E.Coli, because it produces a toxin
which causes the diarrhoea - this actually contributes to about 650
million cases of diarrhoea worldwide and it’s most important
in the third world or developing countries, where you see about 6
– 8 hundred thousand deaths a year, particularly in children
under the age of five.”
01:12 Wide
of laboratory, researcher walks into shot
Researcher
putting samples into agar tray
c.u.
samples being placed in agar
Wide
as above – camera follows movement
E.Coli is a normal bacteria which mammals must have in their
intestines – it’s known as a commensall bacteria and
it’s needed in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But E.
Coli can become pathogenic and, under certain conditions this can
cause disease. As well as diarrhoea it’s responsible for
causing most urinary tract infections and is also linked to causing
meningitis in children.
01:37 SOT: Dr. Henderson -
“We hope that through this work we will be able to define
the pieces of DNA and the proteins that are in ETEC that allow the
organism to cause Travellers Diarrhoea and through that work to be
able to design vaccines and drugs to prevent the
disease.”
01:59 Female
researcher preparing samples
Dr
Henderson walking through corridor
Researcher
preparing agar tray
c.u
agar sample tray
Researcher
puts lid on tray and connects to preparation timer
c.u
preparation timer
Wide
– researcher moving tray to imager
c.u
researcher’s hand on imager controls
Researcher
at computer screen putting up picture from imager
c.u.
image of E.Coli DNA sample
Researcher
and pan down to computer screen
Funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council (BBSRC), the research team, led by Dr Ian Henderson, intend
to sequence the DNA of one strain of ETEC E.Coli and then gather
samples from all over the world in order to compare all of these
strains and to build up a complete comprehensive picture of what
this organism does and how it causes disease.
Serious cases of diarrhoea can result in dehydration and it is
this aspect of the illness that is likely to have the most
devastating results. And it’s not just humans that suffer;
Enterotoxigenic E.Coli can affect all mammals and, in the United
States alone, scouring, a condition caused by ETEC in pigs and
cattle, costs the agricultural community one billion dollars a year
in lost livestock.
The research team’s work is complex science that could
have an impact on millions of people worldwide. Something that Dr
Henderson is particularly aware of.
02:54 SOT: Dr Henderson -
“The work we’re doing here at the University of
Birmingham to complete the ETEC genome sequence is probably the
biggest breakthrough in this field of research in the last 20
years.”
03:06
End of cut piece
Additional
Material
03:09 c.u.
alternative image of E.Coli DNA
pan
along DNA image
Travellers
in airport
Arrivals
board
Travellers
in airport
Tilt
down from arrivals sign to passengers
03:49
END
