Mel Greaves ( now Sir Mel ) was knight last Friday for his 35 - year donation to explore into the causes of childhood cancer of the blood withThe Institute of Cancer Researchin London , UK .

jambeau ' career began in the 1970s , when he was root on by the troth of young cancer patients in Italy and at Great Ormand Street Hospital , London . He was particularly struck by the way leucaemia develops in tiddler who are   – in all other elbow room – healthy and has , since then , been instrumental to the theory that cancer develop to become more malignant and repellent to drugs in a cognitive process akin to instinctive selection . His ultimate goal is to create a yogurt - like drunkenness that can kibosh nipper develop the disease in the first post . A medicinal Yakult , if you will .

Greaves has called leukemia a " paradox " of advance in modern societies , where it is increasing in incidence by close to   1 percent every year . It is , he says , a deficiency of exposure to microbes in early life that set off an immune organisation malfunction , which can ( in some case ) lead to acute lymphoblastic cancer of the blood ( ALL )   – the most vulgar type of leukemia .

Greaves ' knighthood add up the same year as a major new depth psychology investigate ALL , write inNature Reviews Cancer . The composition was authored by Greaves and involved a staggering amount of research . ( More than 30 years ' worth , to be exact . ) In it , he lays out a two - step cognitive operation of familial mutation and photo to contagion , which combined can set off puerility cancer of the blood .

The first stone’s throw is a genetic mutation that come in the uterus and predisposes the child to leukemia . While this increase the probability of developing the disease , it is n’t enough to cause it by itself . In fact , just   1 per centum of children born with this particular genetic mutation will go on to develop leukemia . For this to happen , the fry need to be exposed to one or more rough-cut infections . Which , Greaves say , is more likely to happen to children who have less fundamental interaction with   other kid as infants and a so - call " clean " fostering . The irony here is that our militaristic   economic consumption of anti - bac and phobia - like fixation with germs and grime is actually exasperate the job , possibly even get it in the first place .

Perhaps the most exciting takeaway from this research is the idea that puerility leukemia may be preventable . Greaves compares it to conditions like Type 1 diabetes and allergy , which can , at least partly , be forbid by certain lifestyle gene . In the causa of leukemia , this may intend " prim " a child ’s immune system during the first class of life .

So how exactly does one go about this ? Previous studies have linked day care attendance and wet-nurse to a lower incidence of ALL . However , Greaves wants to arise a more direct approach   – which takes us back to yoghurt .

He is presently working on a project to see whether or not unmediated pic to harmless " bug " in early life can keep childhood cancer of the blood . Right now , he is testing this hypothesis on mouse but the Bob Hope is that one sidereal day a similar process can be used to stop leukemia developing in children .

Speaking of his knighthood , give up during   the annual New Year ’s honors listing , Greavessaidhe is " honor " if " pretty bewildered " .

" It has been a wonderful journey over the last 40 eld since I first started studying leukemia , and I feel very inner to have been able to bring towards the unpicking of this once mysterious and deadly disease , " he said .