Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute - The Baker Heart Research Institute

The Baker Heart Research Institute

The Baker Heart Research Institute was established in 1926 in Melbourne with financial support from Mr Thomas Baker, his wife Alice Baker and her sister Ms Eleanor Shaw and was a major collaboration with the Alfred Hospital. Its first Director was Dr W S Penfold, who served in that role until 1938. The first Director of the IDI was Professor Paul Zimmet and he held that position until the merger in 2008. He is now Director Emeritus, Director International Research, in Baker IDI.

JF Mackeddie, a pathologist originally from Scotland, but who practised in Melbourne in the early 20th Century, became a close friend of Thomas Baker through being neighbours on land south of the city. Mackeddie was “concerned with the science of diseases and the need to apply the advancing knowledge of biological science to human illness…” After convincing Baker to donate funds, firstly to the Alfred Hospital and then for research, he went on to become one of the founding Trustees of the Baker Medical Research Institute. Mackeddie recruited AB (Basil) Corkill as a biochemist for the new Institute. The salary was paid by Thomas Baker.

"The only consistent basic research in relation to diabetes and carbohydrate metabolism in the 20 years from 1925 was carried out at the Baker Institute in Melbourne" F.I.R. Martin

The initial project dealt with new techniques for diagnosing diseases of the nervous system, in particular, the changes in cell content and chemistry of cerebro-spinal fluid in various diseases. Other projects in the early days involved bacteriology, at the time the Institute was started, the advancing edge of scientific medicine, and its application to the management of infectious disease in man. In the 1930s microbiology was a focus, with many of those projects reliant upon blood cultures and the techniques developed were published in a monograph – "Blood Cultures and their Significance" by H Butler in 1937. The Monograph Series lasted until 1974 – with 9 published. They covered anaesthesia, tumours, the cardiovascular system and scleroderma.

Basil Corkill described the methods of diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus at the Alfred Hospital in 1927. Twenty years later, in 1947, Joe Bornstein a young biochemist was introduced to Basil Corkill, who by then was Director of the Baker Institute. Their work together resulted in the discovery of the 2 forms of diabetes – insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). This discovery in 1949 “..literally changed the concepts, research and treatment of diabetes”.

"In the circumstances of the formation of the Institute it was to be expected that much of the research, at least in the earlier years, would be directed to the application of existing knowledge to the practical problems of clinical medicine" T.E. Lowe

In their collection of memoirs of Baker Medical Research Institute Alumni, Andrew and Barnett describe the work of the Baker Institute to have “..always been in the interface between scientific medicine and the practice of medicine, a field engendered and enhanced by its association with Alfred Hospital.” They remark that from its earliest days, the staff were involved in communicating the outputs of research to the clinical community and the community in general. An example being the state-wide tours of Victoria that Basil Corkill and Ewen Downe made to introduce the new insulin treatment of diabetes mellitus.

In 1940, Paul Fantl became interested in blood clotting. At the time, synthetic Vitamin K was being produced and was often in short supply. Using very simple equipment – test tubes, water bath, stop watches and a centrifuge – he was “in the forefront of a revolutionary concept that led to the recognition of Factors V, VII, and X”, and with Miss Nance, internationally credited with the discovery of Factor V. He went on to become a member of the International Committee for the Standardisation of the Nomenclature of Blood Clotting Factors in 1956. In 1963 he was honoured when the Fantl-Koller Schema was declared.

Other areas of research up to 1949 included asthma, eye disease, immunoproteins, scleroderma and surgery. The research on surgery lead to the development of cardiac surgery at the Alfred Hospital.

In the 1950s Tom Lowe decided to make a study of congestive heart failure. He concluded “that the body's fluid system was an 'open system' with an intake and output and divisions of the contents under control of various factors”. He was also interested in electrocardiography, especially vector cardiography and had machines constructed to show the three dimensional view.

Between 1949 and 1974, staff at the Baker Medical Research Institute also devoted a significant amount of time and energy to equipment construction to meet the needs of their researchers, this included some early, crude versions of heart-lung machines to aid in cardiac surgery. Some research on the alimentary canal also was undertaken, however this work ceased in 1968.

In 1949, cardiovascular research was one of the major growth edges of medicine was cardiology. At the time, it represented two thirds of the total research in the Baker Medical Research Institute. Cardiology research included:

• Further development of cardiovascular surgery
• New techniques of ECG and phonocardiography
• Introduction of cardiac catheterisation to record blood flow and pressure in circulation and introducing diagnostic materials
• Development of plethysmography to measure blood flow in limbs
• Clinical pharmacology of various cardioactive drugs
• Treatment of congestive cardiac failure and of arterial hypertension