Month: November 2016

Preamble

The 70s were marked by a rapid growth and expansion in staff numbers, resources and the moving into a new purpose-built building. The justification for the 8-storey building only consisted of seven pages of single-sided foolscap and some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the projected numbers of students and staff.  The budget for the building was capped at $2 million. The approach we took was to build it as economically as possible and use the rest of the money for equipment and research facilities. (It is interesting in hindsight that the recladding of the exterior and adding air-conditioning to the building in 2010 cost >$9 million.) At the time of construction, each staff member had almost half a floor of laboratory space. I was in charge of the equipment requests from staff and for the tendering and purchase. The equipment needs of the Department were modest and it was necessary to push people to think beyond bench microscopes, bench centrifuges, UV lamps and Petri dishes. 

The budget for equipment ended up being about $0.5 million – this was in the early 70s when a $NZ = 2$US dollars. Having recently come from the Molecular Biology Lab in Berkeley, I had some ideas of how to spend the money. Those were heady days being sought after by scientific supply companies and being taken out for lunch. What we didn’t spend we would have to give back, so we were determined to spend it all as strategically as possible. For example, when it came to ultracentrifuges, which weren’t cheap and were serviced far away in Pal Alto, California. USA - we bought three. The idea was that if you needed two, you bought three Beckman, state-of-the art machines -- so at least one centrifuge was in running order.  Besides the purchase of a video plate bacterial counting device, the equipment we bought served us well, including the high-resolution Hitachi electron microscope. These expenditures were made despite the hard economic times brought on by the Muldoon government and the wage and price freeze during this time.

The NZ economy at that time was based on the cost-plus principle – in other words, whatever it cost to produce something, add another 20-30% for profit and that was the cost to the consumer. In terms of overseas exports, the main market was England and they were moving into the European Union. The currency, like the Russian ruble of the day, could not be traded on the international market. Any major purchase had to go through government regulatory bodies and the advice when I was coming to NZ was to bring a car, otherwise overseas currency was needed to buy a car. It almost required an Act of Parliament to get money out of the country and this applied to expenses for overseas travel, a daily allowance was enforced – somewhat restrictive by today’s standards.

Given the hard times, the event that shaped the future of the Medical School and the future of the preclinical departments was the Christie Report of 1968. The recommendation was to build and expand the Medical School in Dunedin. There was a group that wanted to break away and build a third Medical School in Wellington.  Rob Irvine, who was the Clinical Dean at the time, was the leading exponent of the expansion in Dunedin. Later in 1972, more than coincidentally, he became the Vice Chancellor of the University. The Medical School became a centre of power and influence that continues into the present day.

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Frank Griffin

Frank joined the Department in 1973 and we have had a loyal friendship that spanned over 40 years, both as colleagues in the Department and friends in the outside world of personal affairs. Frank must have kissed the Blarney Stone several times since he loved telling stories and anecdotes about his work and his life in the antipodes. In the years while he worked with AgResearch at nearby Invermay, he was often featured in press releases from that research station. He was awarded a personal chair in 1997, and the ONZM (Honorary Officer of the NZ Order of Merit) in 2003 for services to science and the deer industry. He served as an aspirational HOD of the Department from 2004 to 2012.

But no one can tell a good story like Frank, so below are quotes from the man himself -- the first one being an introduction he wrote about himself for a Department newsletter as an introduction to a seminar he gave to the Department in September 1994:

"As one who has lived his life in equal parts in two of the world's most unique habitats. I consider myself to have had a charmed existence. My developmental years were spent in the Emerald Isle; one of the World's special social institutions; the only open-air lunatic asylum in the world. This conditioned me to enjoy in full measure my subsequent sojourn in Godzone, which is unquestionably nature’s unique biological laboratory. Having seen fees in 1963 in Ireland which match in real $ terms, the excesses being visited on New Zealand students in 1993, one continues to experience that (redundant) human emotion: ‘The triumph of hope over experience' (borrowed from Oscar Wilde; the only Irishman ever to be on record (and jailed) for his homotrophic proclivities).

At my age, one thinks in decades rather than years, so I'll relate my background in (relatively) large bites. To cut a long story short, l arrived in Dunedin in January 1973 as a fresh-faced post-doc knowing everything about nothing and have progressed in the subsequent two decades, realising that now I know practically nothing about everything. As my father predicated at an early age; 'You have all the attributes of one who started life on the bottom of life's ladder, and are destined to go down' - hence my gravitation from 44^oN to 44^oS.

I spent the 70's, grappling with the challenges of conveying the concepts of ever changing scientific models (immunological to a generation of science and pseudo· clinical students, while floundering to satisfy my secondary job description (research). Research in that decade was preoccupied by the challenges of immunoreproduction (pregnancy toxaemia) and autoimmunity (NZB mice). A years study leave (1980) in Leeds, rekindled some vestige of self belief that I could design and execute a workable experiment, but more importantly the realisation that the ability to do something relevant from a NZ perspective is premised by one of two requirements:

(a) Novel (leading edge) methodology, (b) Unique resources: Guess which I chose?

In 1981 we positioned our research, and developed the collaborative (still vital) links, with Invermay to access an unique resource. While I began work on sheep (maternal-fetal immunisation) with George Davis (one of Nature's finest fellows) this evolved in 1984 to embrace deer (and Colin Mackintosh; one of nature's most incorrigible and fine fellows). Academic motivation divined that deer were a unique model to study the impact of management stress in the only large wild animal subjected to intensive domestication in the past 5000 years. Pragmatism quickly redirected our efforts, as Tb (the perceived disaster) became the war cry of the emerging deer industry. Since 1985 we have enjoyed (and hopefully justified the support and confidence of) some very special people who make up the NZ deer industry. James Innes entrusted us with the resources to launch the Deer Research Laboratory (his quote; 'Problems are opportunities in disguise, if you can sort them'), Walter Sommerville; a sound Southern man with the intellect to recognise deer as a quarry (for the hunt) or a super source of venison (for the consumer), the ever present Colin, and a generation of farmers and vets who were convinced that 100 year old technology for Tb diagnosis, though relevant, needed to be refined. In contrast with these highs, there have been the inevitable troughs [bureaucracy - where, as the only autonomous laboratory in NZ, we were destined to live with their reaction to our challenge, (of their being challenged)

My experiences in this special area of science has taught me many lessons:

1. 1. NZ and Dunedin (OU) is blessed by the challenge that accompanies isolation.

   2. OU is remarkably proactive in sustaining the entrepreneurial ethic.

   3. Nature (Biology) abhors (will not tolerate) soft scientific outcomes, The Kiwi joker is not overly impressed by stats or p values. Rather their imperative is, does it work (for me 100% of the time?

   4. Providing you offer realistic expectations, people will forgive you for your mistakes, but won't necessarily reward you for your success (it is the expected outcome for a job properly done), We need their confidence to live through the reality that 'overnight success is usually founded on twenty years of solid 'input'.

   5. My mother defined the parameter.' which circumscribe the term 'what’, it is the scientist's imperative to elucidate 'why'.

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TB or not TB -- 1993

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The following was written by Frank in response to my request to provide some archival material for the forthcoming book: A History of the Microbiology Department 1950 - 2010 

What was your academic background before joining the department?

1964 - 1967: BA (Mod)* Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
1967 - 1970: PhD Reproductive immunology, TCD
1970 - 1972: PostDoctoral Fellow, TCD
* BA is the only primary degree offered at Trinity, irrespective of discipline. Mod – Moderatorship is the Honours qualification obtained after a 4 year degree.

Why or how did you come to the University of Otago?

Two lectureships were advertised in Microbiology and Immunology. On applying for the post in Immunology I was advised that this post was not being filled as the incumbent had not left. One month later a message came from John Miles advising that Immunology position was now on offer. In responding I attempted to get an indication from John that my application would be likely to succeed – in response John demonstrated an ability in side-stepping that would have done justice to Bernie Fraser. I was offered the job and arrived with Vi in Dunedin to brilliant sunshine on 22nd January 1973. This seemed a reasonable alternative to a more challenging climate in CSIRO, Townsville, where I had another job offer.

Reason for coming was that I had first hand experiences of Yanks and Ozzies and as a naïve/idealistic youth I considered that countries like Canada/NZ would offer a more inclusive lifestyle. Historically many family links with NZ and the perception that NZ was a social paradise in the South Pacific with a particularly good rugby team. Due to my associations with veterinary sciences, the only academic activity I associated with Otago was the leading research being carried out by Mike Gemmell in the Hydatids Research Unit.

What do you consider your main achievement?

Above all else the high points of my career have been the birth of Tane, our son and Kiri our daughter, with the recent addition of Lilah and Hugo, our grandchildren.

Professionally my modest achievements include:

1. An attempt to advance democracy in the feudal 1970s University environment. More latterly advocacy to empower general staff and have their role rightfully recognized in the fabric of academic life.

2. Contribution to charting Immune functions involved in disease control in domestic livestock

3. Development of novel models to study infectious disease ‘in natura’

4. Advocacy for farmers faced by bureaucratic and inflexible regulations

5. Being privileged to have access to more than 60,000 undergraduate students over the past 37 years, and the opportunity to imbue them with some of the passion for science that has sustained my working life.

6. The award of ONZM for my contribution the diseases in deer, in June 2003, affirmed that I had made some modest contribution as an immigrant-citizen with Permanent residence in Godszone.

Any outstanding events in the Department during your time there?

1. The evolution of Microbiology teaching/research from its traditional role as a descriptive quantitative science to become a leading qualitative science based on molecular biology/genetics.

2. Fostering the growth of Immunology teaching/research from 1.0 EFTS in 1973 to a 4.0 academic EFTs and multiple Researchers in our Immunology programme in 2010. Developing the only comprehensive undergraduate immunology programme offered in New Zealand.

3. The emergence of a number of world leading scientists as colleagues within the Department

4. Collegial support and benevolence within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Sharing many happy evenings with Sandy and The Boyos over an ale or three

5. Shedding the mantle that Microbiologists ‘Do Stuff’ to the recognition that the Department of Microbiology and Immunology provides a platform of teaching and research that is of world standard, underpinned by a mantra that attempts to aspire to ‘Excellence in Everything’

6. Establishing the relevance of large animal models for infectious disease research/teaching as a core resource at the University. Outreach through research to NZ’s farming sector and a group of valued colleagues throughout the world

7. Discovery of heritable resistance/susceptibility to mycobacterial infections. Establishing breed-lines of deer that display extreme phenotypes for resistance or susceptibility to chronic intracellular infection

Any concluding comments?

I affirm that it has been a privilege to spend a career in an area of science that has practical relevance and has always been my source of recreation rather than work. I’d be happy to work here for no pay if I could afford it.

1. The satisfaction of working with students far more capable than myself, without constraining their potential or damaging their dreams. 

2. The hope that springs eternal from working in an area of biology with inbuilt redundancy and ever expanding knowledge

3. A life’s effort that I trust leaves the department better for my contribution with limited harm or damage along the way.

4. The joy of a life spent in the world’s most educated city, nestled in an Antipodean Garden of Eden.

5. My appreciation for a career in academic life, that has progressed in spite of my foibles and shortcomings, that allowed me to express any minor talents I possess, without personal compromise.

6. Working in an environment where “ I did not have to compromise my Passion or Anger” for all the things I believe affect our community and the Institution which I am proud to have been part of for almost 40 years.

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Fast Forward to 2016

(ODT article June 20, 2016)

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