The sixth lecture in memory of Alex Hopkins was held on the 22nd March 2013 in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre in the Department of Chemistry.
The lecture, given by Professor David Phillips CBE, FRSC, was entitled: ‘A Little Light Relief’ and explored the science of photo-medicine from a chemist’s point of view, including the effects of light on the skin and diagnostic and therapeutic uses of light.
Professor Phillips gave a master-class in presenting science to a non-specialist audience. His lecture was peppered with inventive demonstrations including a glass baby named Bobbitt after the unfaithful American husband whose wife exacted her revenge in a rather merciless and painful manner. Bobbitt, whose own appendage is a rather delicate stopcock which apparently regularly breaks off, was used by Professor Phillips to demonstrate how blue light can break down bilirubin in jaundiced babies.
The main thrust of the lecture investigated the use of lasers in tandem with chemical photosensitisers to destroy tumours selectively (photodynamic therapy). As part of this discussion, Professor Phillips’s introduced the audience to his own work using sensitiser/monoclonal antibody fragment conjugates.
The lecture proved scientifically illuminating in many ways and was a fitting tribute to Alex, who would no doubt have approved of the light-hearted delivery!