Reflecting on a career in pharmacology: what can one learn from Witness Seminars and pioneers’ interviews?

A. Zarros, T. Tansey. History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, Queen Mary University of London, London, UNITED KINGDOM

Background and Aims: The History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, funded by the Wellcome Trust, focuses on the study of the history of recent biomedicine, by primarily employing oral history methodology. Pharmacology is a major focus of our work: both basic and clinical pharmacology have shaped and continue to define the way biomedical innovation and therapeutic advancements have been made and deployed over the last century. We illustrate this work by highlighting the professional pathways of some pioneers in the field; examining their career options; considering the important and sometimes coincidental factors that shaped their work; their ‘eureka’ moments; and their own reflections on the high and low spots of their careers.

Summary of work and outcomes: The Group’s systematic work has generated a number of significant resources such as individual interviews, Witness Seminars (more than 60 volumes of transcripts have been published), and other outputs(1). The pharmacology-related Witness Seminars cover topics ranging from the broad development of clinical pharmacology as both a scientific discipline and a medical speciality, to the discovery and introduction of novel treatment approaches (such as monoclonal antibodies; the semi-synthetic penicillins; platinum-based chemotherapeutics and the medical use of cannabis). We have also undertaken, edited and published a number of interviews with distinguished pharmacologists, organized under the thematic title ‘Drugs and Pharmacologists’(2).

Discussion: Our work facilitates the creation of invaluable accounts of modern pharmacological advances that emphasise personal, social, institutional and scientific contexts. These narratives shed light not only on the ways the pharmacological community has embraced the challenges of modern drug discovery, but also on the individual career pathways of pharmacologists within this dynamic and complex scientific field. Collegiality, mentorship, funding, luck, the nature of academic and industrial research, as well as the role of learned societies (such as the British Pharmacological Society); these are some of the aspects that have shaped modern pharmacology and that are revealed in these accounts.

Conclusion: Oral history methodologies have generated unique resources that inform our understanding of important aspects of the recent history of pharmacology as a discipline, and the career pathways of individuals who were significant in the shaping of that discipline.

Acknowledgments: The support of the Wellcome Trust is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank our colleagues, Mr Adam Wilkinson and Mr Alan Yabsley, for their valuable assistance.

References:

(1). History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group’s website, http://www.histmodbiomed.org/.

(2). History of Modern Biomedicine Interviews (Digital Collection), https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/12359.