From hairy roots to new medicines Botanic Garden

Modern medicine uses many compounds which are isolated from plants. For example, vinblastine, which is used to treat many types of cancer, is isolated from the leaves of the Madagascar periwinkle. Sarah O'Connor will talk about her work in understanding the process by which the plant makes this substance. Not only will this lead to cheaper vinblastine but also to the production of slightly modified versions of vinblastine which may have improved medicinal properties. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/