Dr Hayley Whitaker is a Cancer Research UK scientist who specialises in prostate cancer. We hear about her quest for better screening for the disease. Dr Whitaker is lead author of a study about how a particular protein helps identify if a prostate cancer patient needs more intense treatment. The protein is called NAALADL2 and is linked to the spread of prostate cancer tumour cells to surrounding healthy tissues. Every year 41,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK. Dr Whitaker hopes that a test for the protein may spare patients unnecessary treatment.

We hear from Cambridge University Professor Derek Smith, how flu, also known as Influenza, so successfully eludes the immune system.

In times when cancers can be treated, FLU or INFLUENZA continues to infect vast numbers of people. And why is it that the FLU VACCINE you had years ago offers little immunity against getting the flu again? Did you know you’ve a 1 in 10 chance of getting the flu?

Derek Smith is a Professor of Infectious Disease Informatics at Cambridge University. He is also the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Modelling, Evolution and Control of Emerging Infectious diseases. Smith uses a method called antigenic cartography to study the phenotypic evolution of rapidly evolving pathogens.

At the Centre for Atmospheric Science in Cambridge University, we speak to Professor John Pyle about modelling the lower atmosphere using supercomputers. See www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk

Dr Ingrid Cnossen is an earth scientist who works for the British Antarctic Survey. She studies the ionosphere, a layer of the atmosphere where satellites orbit the earth. Find more of her work here

A UK biotechnology company has been developing and testing vaccines for common allergies. The vaccines use SPIREs (synthetic peptides that regulate immune system cells) to help people fend off their allergies to cats, grasses and dust mites. The Science Show's Chris Creese spoke with Professor Mark Larché who is leading these clinical trials.

Want to learn more?

Research: McMaster T-cell Epitope Centre

Biotech: Circassia ToleroMune technology