S6.11: Meet the DNA Detectives hunting the causes of cancer
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we’re chasing down the perpetrator of a scientific Whodunnit, joining the DNA detectives on the hunt for the causes of cancer.
Cancer rates vary wildly across the world, and we don’t know why. To solve this mystery, scientists are tracking down causes of cancer by the fingerprints they leave in the genome. In this story, originally published in Mosaic under a Creative Commons licence, I went out to Kenya with some of the team from the Mutographs Project - an international collaboration of DNA detectives hunting down the causes of cancer.
Meet the DNA Detectives
We’re chasing down the perpetrator of a scientific Whodunnit, joining the DNA detectives on the hunt for the causes of cancer.
Coming up from the Genetics Society!
Don’t forget to register for this year’s Genetics Society Summer Symposium taking place on June 29th in Cambridge and online. Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the description of the double helix, the symposium will include speakers such as Professors Cecilia Lindgren, Matthew Cobb, and Sir Shankar Balasubramanian.
Advance registration is necessary for both virtual and in-person attendance. And as always, you can find the event link in the show notes on our website.
That’s all for now. Next time we’ll be back taking a look at the intersection between art, artefacts and DNA. Was Beethoven’s genome to blame for his ill health and hearing loss? And can you really reconstruct someone’s face from their discarded chewing gum?
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to leave us a rating in the Spotify app or review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written and presented by Kat Arney, and hosted by me, Sally Le Page. It’s a First Create the Media production for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies dedicated to promoting research, training, teaching and public engagement in all areas of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, audio production was by Emma Werner (with gratefully-received help from our second audio editor). Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
