S6.14: Tracking COVID and tackling obesity: Meet this year’s Genetics Society award winners
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we’re chatting with two of this year’s Genetics Society award winners - Cecilia Lindgren, who’s an expert on the genetics of obesity and metabolic disorders, and Lucy van Dorp, who has spent the past three years tracing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 around the world.
2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the description of the double-helical structure of DNA (not the discovery of DNA itself, as some people mistakenly say), so what better way to celebrate than with a scientific conference? Don’t tell me geneticists don’t know how to have a good time.
A couple of weeks ago I headed over to Cambridge for The Genetics Society’s summer symposium to mark the event, titled, DNA: Past, present and future. It was a fascinating day of lectures from four of the recipients of this year’s crop of Society award winners.
On the bill were Professor Doug Higgs, winner of the Genetics Society Medal for his outstanding contribution to genetics, and Dr Lucy van Dorp, who gave the Balfour lecture in recognition of her work as a young investigator. We also heard from Professor Cecilia Lindgren, winner of the Mary Lyon Medal, which rewards outstanding research in genetics from scientists who are in the middle of their research career, and Dr Louisa Zolkiewski, who won the Bruce Cattanach Prize for her outstanding PhD thesis related to the use of non-human in vivo animal models.
There were also talks from the winner of the 2021 JBS Haldane Lecture, Professor Matthew Cobb, who gave us the inside track on what happened between James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin during the race to unravel the structure of DNA, and the inventor of next-generation DNA sequencing, Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian. It was a packed agenda, but I did manage to catch up with two awardees, Cecilia and Lucy, to find out more about their work.
Image courtesy of Lucy van Dorp
Lucy van Dorp: Tracking SARS-CoV-2 around the world, from animals to humans and back again
At the beginning of 2020, Dr Lucy van Dorp got an opportunity to switch from studying ancient diseases to a brand new one, as COVID-19 swept around the world. She set to work using her skills to track the SARS-CoV-2 virus as it spread and mutated in animals as well as humans, providing vital insights to help us understand and tackle the pandemic.
Kat started by asking her how she felt when she realised that she had a unique opportunity to track the evolution of a new virus unfolding in real time.
Click here to read the full transcript…
Cecilia Lindgren: Understanding the genetics of obesity to support healthy weight loss
If you’ve been paying attention to the health news, you’ve probably spotted the headlines about the latest weight loss wonder-drugs that have got celebrities, as well as regular folk, dropping pounds with alarming speed. Weight loss is big business for drug manufacturers and the diet industry, but obesity is also a serious health issue, causing life-limiting problems, stigma and shame. And it’s a problem that’s expanding, with around two thirds of the UK population now classed as overweight or obese.
Cecilia Lindgren is Professor of Genomic Endocrinology & Metabolism at the University of Oxford, and director of the Big Data Institute, or BDI, in the city. She’s dedicated her career to understanding why and how people pile on the pounds, and what we might be able to do about it. Kat started by asking her what we actually mean when we talk about this all-too-common health condition.
Click here to read the full transcript…
Image courtesy of Cecilia Lindgren
Coming up from the Genetics Society!
A couple of dates for your diary if you’re a genetics researcher - the latest deadline for applications for the Society’s junior scientist conference grants is coming up on the 1st of August, offering financial support for early career researchers to attend either online or virtual conferences.
The 1st of August is also the deadline for this quarter’s round of Heredity Fieldwork grants, with up to £2,000 available to cover travel and accommodation costs associated with a field-based genetic research project. Head over to the grants section of the Genetics Society website to find out more and apply.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
Genetics Unzipped is written and presented byKat Arney. It is produced by First Create the Media 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 and our producer is Sally Le Page. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
