Keep our ‘brightest and best’ skills here
There’s nothing that annoys Professor Graham Le Gros more than seeing intelligent young Kiwis take their skills overseas.
As director of research at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, the Marlborough-born and raised professor would like to see more young minds devote their talents within their homeland.
‘‘We’ve got to believe in ourselves as Kiwis and stop trying to pretend we can get it from the States and elsewhere,’’ he said.
‘‘We send our brightest and best over to Oxford and Cambridge, Boston and Harvard ... we want them to come here and make the Bostons and the Cambridges in New Zealand, because we want the power and the intellectual force of those people between the ages of 25 and 35.’’
The Malaghan Institute is an independent institute specialising in research on the immune system, particularly in the fields of cancer, allergies, gut health and infectious diseases. Le Gros’ own expertise is in allergies and asthma.
Last year it launched a CAR T-cell trial using immunotherapy to treat types of lymphomas and leukaemia.
Le Gros visited his hometown last week to give a talk at Bayley’s Marlborough about the institute’s latest research, including the CAR T-cell trial.
To people who suffer from immune system-related illnesses, such as cancer, asthma, allergies or gut diseases, Le Gros assured ‘‘breakthroughs are on the way’’.
‘‘They don’t have to be expensive and only accessed by certain elites,’’ he said.
Le Gros said we often don’t give enough sympathy to those suffering from allergies and asthma – prevalent health conditions in Marlborough.
One thing they did know was a person’s immune system was basically set in stone within the first five years of life.
‘‘Once your immune system’s set ... it does everything in its power not to change,’’ he said.
A higher prevalence of asthma, allergies and inflammatory diseases such as Crohns could be down to more protective parenting, and an increase in obesity.
‘‘What’s changed? Mums and dads have changed. It’s those first years that protect you for the rest of your lives.
‘‘Maybe we’re getting a lot of these inflammatory diseases because we didn’t let our immune system in our guts get educated to them . . .’’
However, Le Gros said he did not want to add to the pressure on parents, and said to ‘‘have hope’’ for breakthroughs in immunotherapy.