Dr Pontus Skoglund, winner of this year’s Balfour Lecture for early career researchers, uses ancient DNA to unlock the secrets of human evolution, old diseases and population migration.
Louisa Zoliewski: From chubby mice to everyday toxins
Dr Louisa Zoliewski was awarded the inaugural Bruce Cattanach prize for her PhD thesis on the genetics of fat distribution. She tells us how her skills and knowledge have led her to a career in genetic toxicology within the biotech industry.
Owen Greenwood: Trapping skinks in paradise
PhD student Owen Greenwood tells us about his genetic conservation work on the critically endangered Bermuda skink, supported by the 2023 Heredity Fieldwork Grant.
Greg Radick: Disputed inheritance - Raphael Weldon, William Bateson and the battle for genetics
We delve into the history of the war of ideas between Weldon and Bateson, and its knock-on impact on the science of heredity all the way through the 20th century to today
Danuta Jeziorska: Exploring the secrets of the ‘dark genome’
Most genetic alterations linked to disease aren’t in genes but are in the ‘dark genome’. Nucleome is using new technology to shine a light in these unknown depths and find the hidden genetic connections to disease.
Naomi Allen: What can 500,000 genomes tell us about human health?
UK Biobank has made half a million whole genome sequences available for research - so what can we learn from them?
Larry Moran: What’s in your genome?
If less than two per cent of your genome is actual genes, then what’s the rest? Is it just junk?
Inside HIV: The genetic story of the AIDS epidemic
From the beginning of the AIDS crisis to the possible end of HIV, we’re looking at the genetic story of this unusual retrovirus 40 years after it was first discovered.
Rebecca Coffey: Evolutionary tales and Just So Stories
Author Rebecca Coffey chats about wasp facial recognition genes, how yeast epigenetics explain the Dutch Hunger Winter and a dinner party tale of spider cannibalism.
Antony Dodd: Manipulating malaria by changing the clocks
All sorts of organisms have circadian rhythms, and Professor Antony Dodd is using our knowledge of clock genes to target malaria and herbicide use
Carrie Partch: Stop the clocks - when circadian genes go wrong
Professor Carrie Partch is researching what happens when circadian rhythm genes go wrong and whether we can create drugs for jet lag.
Priya Crosby: Tick tock - how can genes tell the time?
We chat with Dr Priya Crosby who is interested in how circadian rhythms work at the cellular level, and how molecules can tell the time.
Going round in circles: The story of extrachromosomal DNA
While most of an organism’s DNA is packaged into chromosomes, that’s not the whole story.
Nature’s genetic engineers
Some organisms don’t stick with the genome they’ve got they alter it along the way through programmed chromosome elimination and genome editing.
Giles Oldroyd: Go fertilise yourself
Giles Oldroyd is finding out how plants can provide their own fertiliser with a little help from specialist microbes like fungi and bacteria.
Caroline Dean: Winter is coming
Caroline Dean has devoted her research career to understanding how plants sense and respond to the changing of the seasons.
Jim Costa: Alfred Russel Wallace, a radical by nature
Professor Jim Costa, author of ‘Radical by Nature’, tells us about the extraordinary life of Alfred Russel Wallace and how this Victorian naturalist shaped our views on evolution.
Christian Ottensmeier: Fighting cancer with vaccines
Rather than protecting us from disease, cancer vaccines aim to harness the power of the immune system to eradicate tumours.
Lisa Caproni: Inside the DNA factory
We discover how Touchlight’s method for making DNA could transform the production of nucleic acid vaccines.
John Tregoning: How nucleic acid vaccines can protect us from infectious disease
We look at the science behind DNA and RNA vaccines, and how they can keep us safe from infections like COVID19 and more.