The BRCA2 gene, which transformed breast cancer testing, is back in the headlines following the launch of the NHS's genetic screening programme for those with Jewish ancestry.
It's not generally known that having Jewish ancestry increases your risk of having a BRCA gene fault, but it's estimated that 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews and around 1 in 140 Sephardi Jews have a faulty BRCA gene, compared to around 1 in 250 individuals in the UK general population.
We spoke to Professor Sally Swift – now a lab manager of the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre at ICR – who played an important role in the discovery after mastering a complex technique, enabling her to precipitate a vital piece of DNA.
Swift's (and the wider research team's) contribution was recently celebrated through the installation of two commemorative plaques at The Institute of Cancer Research (TCR) on the two discovery sites in Chelsea and Sutton. The plaques were installed by the global life science company abcam, which recently commissioned research that found a staggering 70% of UK adults don’t know what the BRCA2 gene is.
GLAMOUR spoke to Sally Swift to find out more about what it was like to be a woman – who also happened to be pregnant – during the groundbreaking research time, why she thinks public awareness about the BRCA2 gene is so low, and how it feels to be celebrated for her efforts.
GLAMOUR: Hi Sally, it's great to chat with you today! Can you tell us a little about your career journey as a woman in a scientific field?
Professor Sally Swift: God, I never thought of that before. I've always just called it my job.
I guess my career journey started... I was one of the first people in my family to go to university. I come from a very working-class family in Nottingham; dad worked down in the mine, mum worked in the Co-op. I was encouraged by my mum to go to uni. "Give it a go," she said. So I did, and I did, and I did biochemistry.
And then I was very lucky to be on a course that... It was called a sin sandwich course, where you got to do three different work experience placements. I don't know if they exist anymore. So I did six months at uni, six months work, did that for three years, went back, did my final year. And my last placement was here at The Institute of Cancer Research. So I left here, returned to uni, did my finals, applied for jobs, and wrote back to the institute for a reference. And they said, "Why are you applying for jobs? Just come back here, Sal." This is the world in 1985.
And so I did, and I've never left. And I've never had a job interview.
"You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy."
Can you talk us through the discovery of the BRCA2 gene and why it was so important?
Everybody's got that gene, and it normally helps to suppress cell growth. The discovery we made is that a tiny change or mutation, as we call it, in that gene gives people a much higher risk of getting breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer.
The discovery was hugely important. And I don't think I realized at the time just how massive this was, or how massive it would be. Obviously, discovering the gene was a major scientific breakthrough, which allowed families with a history of breast cancer to receive genetic testing, and to be assessed for future risk, allowing them to make some pretty massive decisions in their life.
In my early thirties in 1995, I was just working in a lab like a maniac. And I was working with a man called Professor Alan Ashworth, who was my team leader. He was key to helping the team find this gene.
I basically spent years and years and years working with him, cloning different genes. And then I remember, I think it was April of '95, he was going off to India to do some big trip. And he came into the lab and he goes, “Hey, Sal, I want you to prepare this bit of DNA, because there's a big project coming up. I want you to do... It's really, really hard. I don't know if you'll manage it, if you can do it.”
So I worked really, really hard on this, but two weeks into it I started to feel really tired and really sick. And I was going, "Uh-oh, goodness." Actually, I was pregnant, but I carried on, carried on doing the work. And then he came back in about June I called him in and I said, "Alan, I've got something to tell you." He goes, "Oh, did you manage to do that bit of work?" I said, "I did, Alan." He goes, "Oh, well done." I said, "But there is something a bit bigger going on in my life."
I just remember his face. He wanted to smile. He wanted to be really excited for me, but it was like, "Oh, no. She's not going to be well." But actually, it didn't affect it. I carried on working really, really right up to the bitter end. Yeah. So we claimed the gene, big press release, all very exciting. Christmas came, New Year's Day came, I went into labour, I had my son.
Wow.
A while later, I got invited to this big event about the BRCA2 gene in London. A lady stood up, she was about my age at the time, so in her early thirties. And she was saying that because we'd found the gene she'd been tested and was found not to have the mutation. She was all geared up to have the prophylactic surgery. And then she said, "I don't have to have it now. And better still, I know I haven't passed that on to my daughters." That really brought home to me just how massive the discovery was.
Do you think there are sufficient measures in place to support women in STEM who have had children?
I think here at The ICR, yes, definitely. We've got the Athena Swan Committee [part of a framework to transform gender equality in higher education] so I'm on the steering committee for that. And we've been working really hard to try and make it easier for women to progress through their careers. And obviously, unfortunately, what seems to happen is you do your postdocs and then you're at the point where you're thinking, "Actually, it's about time to have kids." So what do you do? Do you take a career break in science? That's quite challenging.
So I think here we have taken great measures to try and encourage women to stay in those... to try and go for the more senior roles. We have things in place like if you need to go to a conference, you can apply for funding for extra childcare. We try to arrange meetings between 10:00 and 4:00, so people can drop their kids off or put their kids up, doing stuff like lots of flexible working.
We have some phenomenal team leaders here who have got children. So, it can be done.
I can't speak for anywhere else because I've never worked anywhere else. But I think here at The ICR; we are trying hard to stop losing women at a certain time in their careers because they just can't juggle it all.
Research from abcam found that 70% of UK adults don’t know what the BRCA2 gene is. Why do you think public awareness of the BRCA gene is so low?
Well, I was chatting to my husband about this last night, and he's an intellectual bloke. He reads stuff, but he says that he's very rarely drawn to the scientific article because, I don't know, I think the way scientists present it is not very sexy. I think people just glance at it and go, "Oh, great, they've made some development in it," and they don't read the detail. I think people are a little bit scared of science. I think people are a little bit scared of too much knowledge. Do I want to know? That's a bit daunting.
When people talk about science, and in articles, it's very quick to slip into technical jargon. And often, when you say gene to people, they genuinely think you mean a pair of jeans.
So I think there's a fear. And I think people have this image of scientists being old guys with bald heads and big beards… I think when a celebrity like Angelina Jolie, talks about it – it really does raise massive awareness. And I think people call the BRCA gene, the Angelina Jolie gene. That's how... I've seen it described that way in the press, which it's not a bad thing, is it?
What does it mean to you to have this plaque commemorating you and the team unveiled?
Initially, I was mortified.
Really?
Yeah. I don't actually ever talk about it that much. Yeah. So when abcam approached me, I was like, “Oh my God. I so don't want to do this. Don't want a photograph taken. I'm so old, I'm really short. I'm going to look stupid.”
But I did it. And actually, I was quite impressed with the pictures. My daughter messaged. I don't do social media, so my daughter messaged me; she said, "Oh, mum, look at this great picture of you." So, yeah, it is really, really nice to be acknowledged in that way. And chances are I'm retiring in a couple of years, and that is up there. It's lovely. It is really, really nice. And I think it was a great idea for abcam to do that and to acknowledge scientists, who we're not really acknowledged that much, are we, to be fair.
I think it's good. And I think there should be way more of it. I really do. I'm not saying we should have blue plaques everywhere, but yeah, I think it's just... Other people get recognized. Great actors and authors. Yeah, why not scientists?
Global life science company abcam unveiled two commemorative plaques to celebrate the team of 41 scientists behind the landmark discovery of the BRCA2 breast cancer gene. The plaques are installed at The Institute of Cancer Research, at the two discovery sites in Chelsea and Sutton, to honour this momentous development. To find out more, head to https://go.myabcam.com/setinstone.
One woman's powerful story.
.jpg)
