The life scientific : 7/8 [Jeremy Farrar].

Part of a series of programmes in which Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work. This part features clinical scientist and doctor, Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust. For 18 years he ran the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City studying and directing research in infectious diseases. He then became director of the Wellcome Trust and this is briefly introduced in terms of its size and impact, particularly internationally. Jeremy Farrar talks about his early life growing up in various countries around the world and how he became interested in clinical research during his time at university. Working as a doctor in the 1980s and experiencing treating people in the early days of HIV transmission had a profound impact on him and his decision to pursue a career in infectious diseases. He talks about his decision to go to Vietnam in 1996. Whilst he was there he was at the centre of dealing with SARS and H5N1 bird flu outbreaks which he elaborates. The first cases of H5N1 were diagnosed at the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and Jeremy Farrar discusses how it felt to be there. He talks about how dealing with both diseases affected him, personally and professionally, and made him aware how local disease outbreaks affect us all globally. His time building up the research unit in Ho Chi Minh City is discussed, including what he hoped to achieve. There are contributions from two colleagues, HIV researcher Thuy Le in Ho Chi Minh City, and Nick White, professor of tropical medicine in Bangkok. Jeremy Farrar talks about the culture of research in Asia, and Vietnam in particular including how the politics there affect health research. The Wellcome Trust is then considered. He mentions the scope he has, as a new director, to reprioritise the direction of research should he wish to, particularly in support of international health in its broadest context. He talks about medical research funding areas generally and considers key areas of the Trust that are likely to be critical in the coming decades. These include, genomics and how this will work in areas of medical research, the brain and mental health, infectious diseases especially in relation to drug resistance, and sustainability of health and how we live, including the medical humanities. He talks too about climate change and how it is linked with societal changes. He thinks the Trust has been very forward thinking in working in the area of culture, society and the humanities in relation to science. Finally he talks about what he misses from Vietnam and in no longer being a doctor.