The work of the Institute has developed very quickly since 1989.  Notable successes include: the discovery of the molecular basis of several monogenic diseases and different kinds of mental retardation; a description of how viral proteins are processed and degraded within cells to provide peptide fragments that make their way to the cell surface where they are recognised by killer T lymphocytes; major progress towards an understanding of the inherited components of common diseases such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis and genetic factors that make individuals more or less susceptible to common infections such as malaria; description of how the AIDS virus evades the body’s defences; the discovery of how the production of part of the haemoglobin molecule is regulated; progress towards an understanding of the function of the protein that is defective in children with cystic fibrosis; identification of the genes that are involved in inherited disorders of facial development; understanding of how lack of oxygen affects the expression of important genes; development and trials of vaccines for meningitis in children; trials of a new type of AIDS vaccine for developing countries; identification of genes involved in controlling the life span of lymphocytes in the immune response and development of new blood and lymphatic vessels; a new mechanism by which natural killer cells in the blood are