ISSN 1359-9321 The

NEWSLETTER

Galtonia candicans Issue Number 82 Spring 2014 Contents

PROFESSOR SIR

Professor Sir Walter Bodmer has ences that his influence has been of been President of the Institute for the great value leading both to very high last six years. This is the maximum standards of scholarship and pro period allowed by our constitution grammes attractive in composition and, as from June 2014, he is being and presentation of cutting edge followed by Professor Veronica van knowledge. He has also been very Heyningen about whom information active in promoting new thinking in may be found elsewhere in this approaches to the presentational Newsletter. aspects of the Institute’s activities and in the financial support of promising

young scientists. The extent to which Presidents

influence the institutions they serve is extremely variable as is the measure In his career prior to becoming of benefit accruing to these bodies President Walter Bodmer had even in the case of very active Presi- achieved high international distinc- dents. The Galton Institute has, tion achieved through recognition of his outstanding ability as individual however, been exceptionally fortu- Published by: nate in having Walter Bodmer as its researcher, university academic, The Galton Institute President. The energy and commit- director of a large research organisa- 19 Northfields Prospect tion and head of an Oxford college. ment he has displayed, in this role, to Northfields developing the ability of the Institute The Galton Institute has, in turn, also LONDON SW18 1PE to fulfil its central objective of pro- benefited greatly from the exercise of Telephone: 020-8874 7257 moting public understanding of his manifold talents and he leaves the www.galtoninstitute.org.uk human genetics and its impact on Presidency with our warmest thanks cognate disciplines is both formidable and best wishes for the future. General Secretary: Mrs Betty Nixon and effective. It is perhaps particularly in the planning of the annual confer John Beardmore Newsletter Editor: Dr Geoffrey Vevers

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action with Nick Hastie and several ics) at MRC HGU. Other honours international collaborators to identi- include election to Fellowships of Professor Veronica van fy the Wilms’ tumour predisposition the Royal Society (2007), Royal So- Heyningen - gene (WT1) and the aniridia gene ciety of Edinburgh (1997), Academy the next President of which turned out to be PAX6. of Medical Sciences (1999); EMBO The Galton Institute Membership (2002); and appoint- PAX6 has remained a major focus ment as CBE (Commander of the of Veronica’s work, starting with British Empire) in 2010. Veronica clinical and molecular observations was also President of the European in patients; the group has explored Society of Human Genetics (2003) has been multiple aspects of the function of and of (2009- elected as the next president of The this gene: complex expression pat- 2012). Galton Institute and will take up this terns and their control by distant role following the AGM in June non-coding conserved elements, Membership of the Human Genet- 2014. evolutionary features and molecular ics commission for its first six years, interaction including those with from 2000, provided an opportunity Born in Hungary, Veronica was SOX2 and OTX2, other eye malfor- for Veronica to make contributions educated almost entirely in the UK, mation genes identified in the lab. to the debate in public fora on im- going to school in Leicestershire; portant ethical issues around new followed by undergraduate studies Another aspect of human disease genetic technologies, their applica- (1965-1968) at Girton College, Uni- pursued by the group is the underly- tions in medicine and their societal versity of Cambridge in Natural Sci- ing causes and mechanisms of phe- impacts. These interests were con- ences with a final year focus on Ge- notypic variation. The work has solidated by affiliation to the Edin- netics; a Master of Science degree yielded over 200 peer-reviewed pub- burgh arm of the ESRC Genomics from Northwestern University, Ev- lications it was supported by MRC Network in the School of Social Sci- anston Illinois; and a doctorate on core funding as well as a number of ences, including co-supervision of a early human gene mapping, com- additional grants, including from the PhD about perceptions of stem cell pleted in 1973, at the University of European Union, the Medical Re- research. Veronica has given a num- Oxford under the guidance of Walter search Council, the ber of public lectures, for example to Bodmer. and various eye charities. the University of the Third Age, in Edinburgh. Supported by a prestigious Beit Memorial postdoctoral fellowship, At the end of 2012 Veronica offi- Veronica was able to move in 1974 to cially retired from the MRC Human Peter Walker’s MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit, University of Edin- Genome Unit in Edinburgh when burgh, but continues to pursue sev- her husband was appointed Univer- eral ongoing projects there and also sity Lecturer in Biochemistry. Their has established new ones at the In- son and daughter were born in 1975 stitute of Ophthalmology, University and 1976 in Edinburgh. College London. She is Honorary Professor at both universities. She continues to serve on a number of In 1977 Veronica took up a tenure- committees (e.g. as Chair of the track postdoctoral position at what Muscular Dystrophy Campaign’s is now the MRC Human Genetics grant committee; member of Coun- Unit. Her early work there focussed Professor Veronica van Heyningen cil at the Academy of Medical Sci- on making and using monoclonal ences) and on several scientific advi- antibodies to explore the function of sory bodies (e.g. Chair of the SAB at cell surface MHC class 2 proteins An important early recognition the Centre for Genome Research in and also a number of other disease- and support was provided by a How- Barcelona). She is also the Patron of related soluble protein markers. ard Hughes International Research the patient organisation Aniridia Scholarship for five years from 1993. Around this time, Veronica was ap- Network UK. In 1984, as a tenured junior group pointed the Head of her Section leader, she set out on a fruitful inter- (Medical and Developmental Genet- Dian Donnai

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UCL. Sir Walter Bodmer’s papers have been acquired by the Bodleian Library, which also holds papers of E. Archival records of B. Ford, C.D. Darlington, and J. R. 10 heredity and genetics Baker. The papers of R. A. Fisher are at the University of Adelaide: alt- Lesley A. Hall hough he had had no academic con- Wellcome Library nection with this institution, he had retired to Adelaide in 1959, dying there in 1962. A digitisation project is 11 in progress. A very substantial collection of ma- A significant amount of material terials relating to genetics in the relating to the study of heredity and American context is to be found the genetics has already been digitised American Philosophical Society Li- and is now available online for the 12 brary in Philadelphia, which holds benefit of researchers. Charles Dar- records of numerous notable US ge- win in particular is well-represented Francis Crick, sketch of the double neticists and influential organisa- on the World Wide Web. The Univer- helix of DNA, c. 1953, Crick papers, Wellcome Library PP/CRI/H/1/16 tions, and their interactions with UK sity of Cambridge has undertaken a counterparts, as well as some hold- massive project to bring together his ings of papers of British scientists. 1 correspondence as a digital resource, It provides a valuable starting point Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory also while Darwin Online provides access for the researcher, accessible from holds significant collections of per- to texts of his published works, be- the comfort of their own home - sonal papers of scientists associated sides an image gallery of manuscript providing they have registered (it is 13 with it, as well as its own institu- materials from the Darwin papers in possible to e-register online) as Li- tional archives and those of its prede- 2 6 Cambridge University Library. Cam- brary users. They may not only view 14 cessors. bridge University Library holds the the contents of these collections major collection of Darwin material, (apart from some items restricted although some items are to be found under the Data Protection Act, which In many instances, records of an in other repositories. The Natural still have to be consulted in person in individual are most likely to be found History Museum has undertaken a the Library), but download images as among the special collections of the similar project for the correspond- pdfs or high- or low-resolution jpegs. library of the institution at which they 3 worked, although this is not neces- ence of Alfred Russel Wallace. However, its coverage of the subject is as yet far from exhaustive and sarily a good guide in the case of much material as yet remains undig- those who had peripatetic careers, or The recently launched digital pro- itised. papers may be scattered in several ject, ‘Codebreakers: makers of mod- different locations. It is probable that 4 ern genetics’, draws not only on the The Wellcome Library holds a sig- the library of any institution which rich resources of the Wellcome Li- nificant amount of archival and man- was a particularly noted centre of ge- brary – books and journals of rele- uscript material on heredity and ge- netic research will include papers of vance as well as collections including 7 netics, not all of which has so far individual researchers, the records of 5 departments, laboratories and re- the archive of the Eugenics Society, been included in Codebreakers - the search units, and also possibly of rel- the papers of Carlos Paton Blacker, Archives and Manuscripts catalogue, evant societies and associations. For and of Francis Crick, co-discoverer of with further details, can be found at example, the John Innes Centre His- DNA - but also the holdings of part- http://archives.wellcomelibrary.org torical Collection not only holds the ner institutions: University College – but it is far from the sole repository papers of several eminent individuals London, King’s College London, Glas- anyone interested in the history of who were associated with it, includ- gow University, and Cold Spring Har- these topics is likely to want to visit. ing William Bateson and C. D. Dar- bor Laboratory, Long Island, New For example, two major collections of lington, but also the papers of the York, USA, bringing together an im- early pioneers, the papers of Sir Fran- pressive array of twenty important 8 Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory and of cis Galton and of his disciple Karl 15 archival collections and making them 9 the Genetical Society. digitally available via the Wellcome Pearson, are both held in University Library website. These include, be- College London but have not yet been The first resort for finding out sides Crick’s papers, those of James made digitally available. There are about the papers of any specific indi- Watson, Maurice Wilkins and also substantial groups of papers of J. vidual or institution is the National Rosalind Franklin. B. S. Haldane held elsewhere than Register of Archives, maintained by

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the Historical Manuscripts Commis- tive, Department of Education and ENDNOTES: sion, which is now part of The Na- Science, the Agriculture, Fisheries 1 http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/ tional Archives. This is a central and Food Department, the Ministry darwins-letters point for the collection and dissemi- of Health and even the Foreign Of- 2http://darwin-online.org.uk/ nation of information on the wherea- fice. 3 bouts of manuscripts and archives. It http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research- curation/scientific-resources/collections/ is searchable by personal and corpo- The Wellcome Library is currently rate names, and in the case of indi- library-collections/wallace-letters- engaged in an exciting new initiative online/index.html viduals, by the terms used in the de- to collect and preserve the records of 16 4 scription (e.g. ‘geneticist’). The the Project. The http://wellcomelibrary.org/using-the- NRA is particularly useful as besides preliminary steps of this involve library/subject-guides/genetics/makers- of-modern-genetics/ indicating the location of an individ- identifying and locating individuals 5 ual’s own personal papers, it lists and institutions of interest and dis- For further information on this particu- significant groups of correspondence covering whether historical records lar archive, see Lesley A. Hall, with family, friends and colleagues to survive and if arrangements have ‘Illustrations from the Wellcome Insti- be found among their papers. already been made for their transfer tute Library: the Eugenics Society ar- chives in the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre’, Medical History, Vol. 34 no. 3, July 1990 http:// www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ pagerender.fcgi? tool=pmcentrez&artid=1036145&pagein dex=1 and ‘The Eugenics Society ar- chives in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medi- cine’, Galton Institute Newsletter, 45, Sep 2002 http:// www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/ GINL0209/ Eugenics_Society_Archives.htm 6http://wellcomelibrary.org/using-the- library/joining-the-library/ 7Downloadable pdf available at : http:// wellcomelibrary.org/content/ documents/31302/heredity-and-genetics- archives.pdf 8http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/special- coll/galton.shtml Eugenics Society exhibition stand, 1930s, Wellcome Library, Eugenics Society 9 archives, SA/EUG/G.40 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/special- coll/kpearson.shtml Besides the papers of individuals to suitable repositories for the bene- 10http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/ and the archives of institutions, soci- fit of future researchers, and to en- finding-resources/special/ eties and funding bodies, the records courage both individuals and organi- sations to think about the records western_rarebooks/scientific of central government held in The 11 National Archives may also prove they are creating and to take http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/ useful: the records of the Medical measures for the preservation for special/digital/fisher/aims.html Research Council are a particularly posterity. This enterprise involves 12http://www.amphilsoc.org/library some specific challenges because of rich resource for material on genetics 13http://library.cshl.edu/personal- the significance of computing and in the twentieth century, even if they collections/about-personal-collections digitally-born records in the study of do not contain the records of specific 14http://library.cshl.edu/special- the genome. A number of collections MRC research units – the archives of collections/about-special-collections the MRC Blood Group Research have already been transferred to the 15 Wellcome Library or have been http://www.jic.ac.uk/corporate/ Unit, for example, are now in the services-and-products/library/historical- promised: the first is already cata- Wellcome Library and form part of collections.htm logued and available to researchers Codebreakers, along with the papers 16http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (a special prefix, GRL, identifies Hu- of Robert Race and Ruth Sanger. nra man Genome Project collections in Additional relevant material can be 17http://nationalarchives.gov.uk found in the records of the Health the Archives and Manuscripts cata- and Safety Commission and Execu- logue).

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ductive cultures that cannot be sub- analysed the archives of classic stud- sumed under ‘parenting culture’. ies of working class British commu- Uniquely, the seminar series also nities from the 1960s, such as Den- Generational change in brought together historians with so- nis Marsden’s study of Salford slum reproductive cultures ciologists and anthropologists work- rehousing. In the 1960s, babies were ing on inter-generational inheritanc- routinely left alone so that mothers es. could go to work; young children Fertility and Reproduction Studies played outdoors, unsupervised, late Group seminars The paper by Charlotte Fair- into the night; and accidents were cloth and Ellie Lee (University of relatively frequent. By today’s stand- Autumn/Michaelmas term 2013 Kent) set the stage by reviewing re- ards, the parenting practices re- cent debates on ‘parenting culture’ in vealed in the data would likely be countries like Britain. Whilst adults condemned as irresponsible. have been caring for infants and chil- This timely seminar series, gener- dren for millennia, there has Other papers examined inter- ously funded by The Galton Insti- emerged a new and particular lan- generational relations as a nexus for tute and the University of Oxford’s guage for bringing up children in the analysis. Two of these papers fo- Institute of Social and Cultural An- west: that of ‘parenting’. The use of cussed on memories or construc- thropology, set out to examine inter- the noun ‘parent’ as a verb, ‘to tions of one’s own parents. Angela generational transmission in the parent’, used to mean ‘to beget’. Davis (University of Warwick) pre- bringing up of children. However, use of ‘parenting’ has esca- sented oral histories with British lated since the 1970s, according to women who became mothers be- In Britain, parenting has become Faircloth and Lee, and has shifted in tween the 1960s and 1980s, and ex- increasingly prominent in political meaning. Contemporary ‘parenting’, plored how their relationships with and social discourses. New Labour they argued, is characterised by its their mothers influenced their moth- policies that aimed to reform the privatized focus on the mother and ering. Davis proposed the psychoan- parenting practices of ‘socially ex- father, at the expense of allo- alytic theories of Nancy Chodorow to cluded’ families have developed into parenting; deference to expert au- be useful in understanding how Coalition policies aimed at redress- thorities; child-centrism; labour in- motherhood is reproduced across ing the inter-generational inadequa- tensity and emotional burdens; and generations, in both its conscious cies of the ‘100,000 troubled fami- expense. Importantly, this new cul- and unconscious dimensions. Intri- lies’. Amidst these policy-driven anx- ture of ‘intensive parenting’ is not guingly, whilst Faircloth and Lee ieties, this seminar series provided a undergirded by material concerns proposed that the 1970s were a cru- corrective to assumptions about in- about children’s health or safety, as cial period for the emergence of ter-generational continuities in children have, by all accounts, never ‘parenting culture’, Davis found that ‘problematic’ parenting. The eight been healthier or safer. Rather, it is across the decades of her study there diverse papers demonstrated pro- because perceptions of children have were some women who wanted to found changes across generations, as changed. Children are seen as vul- emulate the kinds of mothering prac- parents chose to make selective and nerable and perfectible; the role of tices that they had experienced in critical use of the practices, cultures parents has taken on a concomitant- their own childhoods, but others and narratives with which they be- ly greater importance. constructed a narrative of distancing lieved they had been brought up. themselves from the model present- Building on this depiction of gen- ed by their mothers and seeking to More importantly, many of the erational shifts towards ‘parenting do things differently. The idea of co- papers considered generational culture’, Rosalind Edwards and hort changes over this period thus change not from the perspective of Val Gillies (University of South- seems to be much more complicated. cohorts, but in terms of interactions ampton and London South Bank across generations within families. University) compared everyday ac- Similarly, Punita Chowbey and The papers explored the subjective counts of parenting in the 1960s with Sarah Salway (Sheffield Hallam processes through which parenting contemporary ideas about a University and the University of practices and advice are resisted, ‘parenting deficit’. Whilst British Sheffield) presented narrative data taken on or negotiated. Studies of politicians today claim that on South Asian fathers in London working class, minority and non- ‘disengaged parenting’ was not the and Sheffield. They examined fa- heterosexual British families provid- issue in the past that it is now, Ed- thers’ memories of their own fathers, ed new perspectives. Studies from wards and Gillies showed that these and demonstrated their significance non-western societies such as Ama- invocations of a ‘golden age’ of fami- in providing a model against which zonia, Japan and the Caribbean ly in the 1950s and 60s are histori- they evaluated themselves. To date, brought out the diversity of repro- cally inaccurate. They have re- South Asian fathers have been stere-

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otyped in terms of a ‘deficit’ model. with their parents after telling them West Amazonian culture as intensely Existing work has suggested inter- that they were pregnant. However, in focussed on reproduction, the Do- generational transmission of the context of limited state support minican grandfathers explored by ‘deficits’ as fathers replicate their for single mothers in Japan, the Adom Philogene Heron own experience, such that, for exam- women felt caught in the moral bind (University of St Andrews) superfi- ple, fathers who didn’t have resident that – having to support themselves cially seem to present an opposite fathers are found to be less likely to and their child by going to work – case. In Caribbean ethnography men be living with their children. Howev- they were simply unable to bring up have been depicted as uninvolved in er, Chowbey and Salway found that a child without their parents’ practi- reproduction aside from getting the majority of fathers were actually cal support. women pregnant; families are matri- reconstructing their role and identi- focal and the men are depicted as ties in relation to their memories of The theme of moral judgement peripheral. However, Heron chal- their fathers. They recognized how across generations was also brought lenged these stereotypes by salvaging their fathers had been constrained by out in the ethnographic work of Eliz- men’s experiences of kinship, and their recent migration to Britain, ill- abeth Rahman (University of Ox- specifically, the experiences of older paid shift work as well as patriarchal ford/Anglo-Spanish Foundation) on men. ‘Papa’, in Francophone creole, models of fatherhood, but they want- the Xie people in North-West Ama- is a respectful term for ‘grandfather’, ed more involvement for themselves. zonia. She examined Amazonian but one that conveys informality, practices of washing newborn babies proximity and demonstrative prac- Moving on from memories to com- and infants, which are morally val- tice. The ‘papas’ he worked with are, munication between generations, ued to a high degree. A newborn is as they age, becoming more closely Robert Pralat (University of Cam- supposed to be bathed at home in a involved with their families than at bridge) presented a study of the fam- basin of cold water, by the maternal any other stage in their life. They ily planning ambitions of young non- grandmother, every 4-5 hours, day come to experience a powerful sense heterosexual people in Britain. He and night, and for as long as 15-20 of moral responsibility, give up wom- demonstrated that it is not necessary minutes; after the cord stump falls anizing and take seriously their posi- for communication to be voluble for off, babies are bathed even more vig- tion as economic provider/protector it to acquire great significance. orously and lengthily in the waters of and patriarch. They are hugely Whilst there is an older cohort/ the Amazon. This practice is held to demonstrative and affectively close generation of gays and lesbians who produce children who are cool- to their grandchildren; the strictness have become parents, making use of minded, hard and strong, “like wom- and distance they upheld with their the new reproductive technologies, en when they give birth”, as one Xie children gives way to an expressive, they were a far less significant influ- woman explained. Rahman linked affective world. Heron showed that ence on the thinking of young non- these bathing practices to origin the men were ambivalent about this heterosexual people than their own myths and cosmologies about the transition and revisited their earlier parents. Memories of difficult con- founding of the Amazon by Naparuli, selves as ‘hot-boys’, through exuber- versations with their parents, or in the ‘great snake’, who gave birth to antly-told narrations about their ear- some cases ambiguous silences held the river itself. The Xie map a myth- lier adventures, directed at younger immense weight in their thinking scape onto the landscape of the river men. about parenthood. and can point to places where Napa- ruli adventured with riverine spirits. The seminars make an important In a very different reproductive According to the story of the first intervention in our understandings culture, Ekaterina Hertog pregnancy, the baby emerged with a of inter-generational inheritances. (University of Oxford) examined ille- fish-like body. Today too, babies are Communication across generations, gitimate pregnancies in Japan. born not-quite human, and are made moral judgements, emulation and Whilst Japan has undergone similar into human persons through these distancing, and myths and memories trends of increased sex outside mar- bathing practices, as well as other emerged as central elements that are riage and divorce as in the west, the forms of care. In this portrait of inter drawn upon in the bringing up of proportion of children born outside -generational transmission through children, a picture which offsets poli- wedlock has stayed at 2 per cent embodied practice and the narration cy discourses on inter-generational since the 1950s. Social surveys con- of myth, it is significant to note that inadequacies and ‘parenting deficits’. tinue to demonstrate extensive moral health professionals now advise the disapproval for women who become Xie to bathe babies infrequently, and Although all of the papers suggest- pregnant outside marriage. In this in warm water, in the interest of the ed that people sometimes grappled context, the women Hertog worked baby’s health; yet Xie women com- with fragments of ‘parenting culture’, with experienced extreme anxieties plain that “white people just don’t the authority of these cultural expec- about telling their parents that they know”. tations should be situated alongside were pregnant, and most experi- – and often as a relatively minor in- enced a rupture in their relationships Whilst Rahman presented North- fluence in comparison to – other oral

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and textual traditions and embodied Five of the seminars were recorded tion and Sexuality series of Berghahn practices. as podcasts, and are being made Books, to bring out an edited volume available at: on the basis of the seminars. Each of the seminars was attended by students and faculty from the In- http://www.isca.ox.ac.uk/ stitute of Social and Cultural Anthro- publications/podcasts/ pology, Institute of Human Sciences, Kaveri Qureshi (University of Medical School and Institute of Age- The convenors have submitted a Oxford) and Siân Pooley ing, as well as local health and family proposal to the Fertility, Reproduc- () practitioners from the city of Oxford.

Trust. This was complemented by the the way that new sequencing technol- opportunity to try practical experi- ogies are changing the way patients ments in Nowgen’s laboratory, to are tested and treated. manipulate ‘big’ data in the bioinfor- ‘Celebrating Genomics’ matics suite, and also to discuss the An A-level conference – sponsored ethical implications of genomics re- Students were given the opportuni- by the Galton Institute search. Over 25 geneticists contribut- ty to go ‘behind the scenes’ to visit

The Nowgen Centre, 9 December 2013

Over 80 A-level students from col- leges around Greater Manchester came together to celebrate genomics at a conference last December. They met inspiring genetics scientists, who worked with small groups in interac- tive sessions to explore the latest re- search.

2013 marked the anniversaries of two momentous developments in genetics research: it was 10 years Practical experiments in the laboratory since the publication of the ‘gold standard’ human genome sequence, various laboratories around the Uni- and 60 years since Watson and Crick ed to the conference to share their versity and Hospital sites. This gave identified the structure of DNA. To expertise and enthusiasm for the sub- them a real insight into the world of celebrate these events, the Galton ject; they talked about not only what genomics research. The laboratories Institute sponsored Nowgen – a cen- they were working on, but also about included those working on arthritis tre of excellence in public engage- their career paths and why they loved research, childhood growth disor- ment, education and professional their work. ders, bacterial genomics and the NHS training in biomedicine – put on a Genetic Diagnostic Laboratories. conference for young people studying The day began with a keynote lec- Splitting the students into small A-level Biology. ture from Professor Bill Newman, groups meant they had a chance for Professor of Translational Genomic in-depth discussion and Question Medicine at The University of Man- and Answer sessions with the geneti- The aim of the day was to give the chester and Consultant Clinical Ge- cists. students an insight into cutting edge neticist at St Mary’s Hospital. This genomics research, with visits to la- gave the students a fascinating over- boratories in The University of Man- view of the impact genomics is mak- The afternoon took the format of a chester and Central Manchester Uni- ing on the NHS. Professor Newman ‘genomics marketplace’ where stu- versity Hospitals NHS Foundation described some of his research and dents visited three different ‘meet the

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researcher’ sessions, including PhD bitter taste receptor gene from differ- its around the University and Hospi- students talking to small groups ent organisms, and to create a phylo- tal, together with the practical activi- about their research, university life genetic tree in order to develop un- ties, were highlights of the day for and possible career options. Other derstanding of genetics and evolution. most students. Teachers were ex- sessions included a discussion around tremely impressed with the content

the ethical implications of genomics and organisation of the day, with one research, particularly focussing on The concepts introduced during the describing it as “a fantastic and inspi- whether or not it was a good idea to day were specially chosen to comple- rational day”. have their genomes sequenced. Stu- ment the A-level syllabus and to dents tried out DNA extractions in stretch students thinking about ge- Nowgen’s laboratory, and used tech- nomics and its impact. Feedback from The event was organised by Emily niques not readily accessible to most both students and teachers was excel- White, Ruth Brignall and Kate Dack A-level students. Students also used lent, with over 97% of the students at Nowgen. The Galton Institute the software Geneious in the Nowgen reporting that they enjoyed the day supported this A-level conference bioinformatics suite to compare a and learned a lot. The laboratory vis- with a grant of £1,000.

The Birth Control Trust of The Galton Institute

The Trustees of The Birth Control Trust of The Galton Institute invite applica- tions for funding of projects designed to improve birth control and related mat- ters, such as sexual health. These projects can be either in the UK or overseas in developing countries.

Grants of up to £10,000 p.a. will be offered

Applications should be made to The General Secretary of the Institute, preferably by email to: [email protected].

The Galton Institute Conference 2014 To be held at The Royal Society on Tuesday, 4 November, 2014

GENETICS IN MEDICINE

Speakers: Professor Sir John Burn (Overview of Genetic Medicine) Professor Sadaf Farooqi (Genetics and obesity) Professor Bobby Gaspar (Gene therapy) Professor Andrew Hattersley, FRS (Using Genetics to improve care in Diabetes) Professor Nazneen Rahman (Genetics in cancer and treatment) Professor Sir David Weatherall, FRS (What have we learned from genetics for medical care) Professor Andrew Wilkie, FRS (Galton Lecturer: Lionel Penrose and the paternal age effect for mutations—sixty years on)

Admission is free but strictly by ticket available from The Galton Institute General Secretary [email protected]

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