Research

Poverty in ethnic groups tackled by sociologist

A researcher in the Department of Sociology will investigate ethnic minority disadvantage and poverty in a study launched recently.

Dr Lucinda Platt has been awarded almost £34,000 by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for the one-year project entitled 'Britain Divided: A Review of Poverty and Ethnicity.'

Dr Platt will conduct a systematic survey of poverty and disadvantage across ethnic groups that will summarise current knowledge and highlight gaps in it. She will look at how residential concentration and housing, education, family structure, employment and economic (in)activity, disability and ill-health, and migration affect poverty in Britain.

Dr Platt explained: 'The poverty rates of Britain's different ethnic groups vary enormously. Despite the fact that the first race relations legislation was brought in nearly 40 years ago, striking ethnic inequalities remain. A systematic review such as this is critical to informing our understanding of one of the most troubling and persistent divisions within society.'

In conducting the project, Dr Platt will draw on the expertise of Judi Egerton in the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER). It is anticipated that as well as producing a report of the study, Dr Platt will publish a book and a searchable database available on the internet.

Project could lead to anthrax drugs

A project launched in the Department of Biological Sciences could lead to the development of drugs capable of reversing the effects of the anthrax bacteria.

Dr Metodi Metodiev, who joined the Department from the University of Illinois in November, has been awarded almost £62,500 by the National Institute of Health, USA, to investigate the deadly effects of the anthrax bacteria on human cells.
The aim is to create a screening platform by which scientists can select 'inhibitors' capable of stopping the progress of anthrax.

Dr Metodiev said: 'Anthrax kills human cells by invading them and binding to proteins vital for specific signal transduction pathways, the signalling process by which the cell communicates with the environment and with other cells. By interrupting that signalling pathway, anthrax kills the cell and eventually the patient.'

Yeast will be used to create 'yeast cells' with the same signalling abilities of a human cell. These will be grown in a variety of different conditions replicating the effects of anthrax, and the signalling abilities will be monitored in the presence of different test compounds.

Dr Metodiev explained the advantages of using yeast: 'It allows us to screen potential therapeutics by genetic selection. As well, 'yeast cells' can be grown quickly which is hugely beneficial because, if anthrax were used as a bio-weapon, it is likely to have been engineered and could therefore be resistant to existing drugs. By using yeast, we may be able to subject our imitation human cells to a number of different scenarios and identify and counteract the effect of the anthrax bacteria within days.'

The project is scheduled to last for two years but Dr Metodiev hopes to extend the project by a further five years depending on the outcomes of this stage.

Researchers urge us to buy food locally

Scientists in the Centre for Environment and Society and Department of Biological Sciences, in collaboration with City University, have calculated the environmental cost of food production, its distribution and how we get to and from the shops.

Professor Jules Pretty and Dr James Morison from Essex, and Professor Tim Lang of City University, have found that more than £4 billion a year of environmental costs could be saved if farmers grew organically and if consumers shopped for local produce.

Their argument centres on the concept of 'food miles' which refers to the distance travelled by produce between the farm and our homes.

Professor Pretty explained: 'If all our food came from within 20km of where we live, we could save £2.1 billion a year in environmental and congestion costs. And, if we all left our cars at home and travelled to the supermarket by bus, bicycle or on foot, these savings would amount to a further £1.1 billion.

'Lastly, the costs to the environment could be cut from £1.5 billion a year to less than £400 million if all farms in Britain were to follow organic principles. However, food miles are more important than we thought and buying local is more important than buying green. It's better to buy a local lettuce than an organic one from the other side of Europe.'

The research has been published in Food Policy, issue 30.

Also in the printed May edition of Wyvern:

• Hot topics for the coming election?
• Book will study First World War relationships