Genetics Society: Recent Episodes
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Genetics Society welcomes Professor Brian Charlesworth and Professor Deborah Charlesworth as our new honorary members. The list of current honorary members, along with their selected biographies, is available here.
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The Royal Society of Biology hosted its annual Voices of the Future event on March 17th. The event offers early career researchers the opportunity to question MPs and Peers on topics related to scientific research in the UK.
The Genetics Society was among several organisations associated with the RSB invited to send a representative to attend the event. Postgraduate student members of the society were invited to nominate themselves to attend the event by expressing the question they would like to see asked to MPs. The question the Genetics Society committee felt best represented the genetics community, and the member who proposed the questions, would then be named as the Society’s representative and signed up for Voices of the Future 2025.
A number of applications were received by the society, revealing a series of key recurring themes, including the use of artificial intelligence and how the government can build regulatory and ethical frameworks to safeguard against the misuse of powerful tools. Other questions were interested in the future of UK food security, the communication of complex concepts to the public, and postgraduate employability.
The member nominated to represent the society was Michael Pointer from the University of East Anglia. Michael’s question focused on public understanding in fields such as Genomics and AI.
“Genomics, especially when combined with AI, is becoming increasingly important in tackling major societal challenges such as human health and biodiversity loss. How can we ensure these complex concepts are effectively communicated to the public, and what steps can be taken to foster informed public engagement and trust in these solutions?”
Michael’s question was answered by Dr Allison Gardner MP and Emily Darlington MP. Both stated that science communication should be part of any degree and integrated into curriculums. Emily Darlington MP stated that communicating research should be established as “Part of the Job” for aspiring scientists, refuted any notion of “we don’t need more experts” in science policy, and added that experts have a key role in the public’s understanding of science policy. Dr Allison Gardner MP made references to Sence about Science and Professor Hannah Fry as making major steps in promoting science communication. Dr Gardner was also quick to add that proteomics and proteins were “Just as Cool and Sexy” as genomics.
Their full responses can be found here on the Royal Society of Biology’s YouTube channel (Time stamp: 1:16:15). Further information can also be found in the RSB’s own news item here.
Postgraduate members are encouraged to keep an eye out for opportunities to attend in future years.
Alec
Postgraduate Student Representative
The post 15 April 2025 – The RSB Voices of the Future 2025 appeared first on Genetics Society.
Nominations are now invited for the 2026 Genetics Society awards and medals. A brief outline of our awards is included below, and further details including benefits to awardees are available here.
If you would like to nominate somebody for any of the below awards, please confirm that your candidate is willing to be nominated, and send the following documentation electronically to secretary@genetics.org.uk by midnight on Monday July 14th, with the name of the award included in the subject line:
– Two-page nominee CV.
– A list of their ten most important publications.
– A one-page letter of recommendation outlining why you feel their contributions to the field have been outstanding.
The Genetics Society Medal recognises outstanding research contributions to genetics. Nominees should still be active in research at the time the medal is awarded.
The Mary Lyon Medal rewards outstanding research in genetics to scientists who are in the middle of their research career.
The Balfour Lecture marks the contributions to genetics of an outstanding young investigator, normally with less than 10 years postdoctoral research experience at the time of nomination, with except ions made if the nominee has taken a career break for child or other caring responsibilities.
The JBS Haldane Lecture recognises an individual with outstanding ability to communicate topical subjects in genetics research to an interested lay audience. This speaker will have a flair for conveying the relevance and excitement of recent advances in genetics in an informative and engaging way.
We will also receive nominations later in the year for our graduate student prizes; the Bruce Cattanach Price and Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize.
We look forward to receiving your nominations.
Best wishes
Ian Henderson, Honorary Secretary
The post 21 March 2025 – Nominations for 2026 Genetics Society Medals and Prizes appeared first on Genetics Society.
The dramatic changes in the United States regarding funding for scientific research, national agencies responsible for monitoring and managing population health, and programs aimed at engaging traditionally underrepresented communities in science will have lasting impacts both locally and globally. Many of our colleagues in research have already been adversely affected by these changes. More importantly, the consequences for individuals’ lives and well-being worldwide will be wide-ranging, severe, and enduring.
Science has underpinned the vast majority of advancements that have freed humanity from early mortality, chronic illness, and poverty over the centuries. It also provides a vision of the future—not only highlighting the risks of failing to adapt but also showcasing the potential benefits of investment, hard work, and collaboration. Our future depends on science. And science, in turn, thrives on a diverse community of voices—those who think differently, ask difficult questions, and inspire us to push further.
As a community dedicated to promoting research, training, teaching, and public engagement in all areas of genetics, the Genetics Society stands with those in the U.S. and beyond who advocate for science. While our ability to influence decisions may be limited, we remain committed to finding ways to support colleagues and communities adversely impacted by recent changes. Most importantly, we will continue to champion the necessity of placing science—along with its complexity, uncertainty, and fallibility—at the heart of society and government.
We stand alongside the Genetics Society of America and all those societies and organisations standing up for science.
The post 10 March 2025 – Genetics Society Statement on Standing Up for Science appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome new ordinary committee members joining us on 1st January 2025 for the term of 4 years:
- Barbara Jennings for Cell and Developmental Genetics
- Nicola Nadeau for Evolutionary, Ecological and Population Genetics
- Peter Sarkies for Genomics; and
- Yan Wong for Corporate Genetics and Biotechnology
We also welcome Thorsten Allers as the new Shadow Honorary Treasurer.
The Genetics Society wish to express their thanks for the time and service that our outgoing committee members Prof Ros John, Colin Semple and Markus Guest dedicated to the Genetics Society.
The post 1 January 2025 – New Genetics Society committee members appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Barbara Jennings as a member of the committee as a representative of Cell and Developmental Genetics beginning her four-year term in January 2025.
Biography
Barbara is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological and Medical Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. Barbara grew up in Australia, where she completed her undergraduate studies. She first joined the Genetics Society after moving to the UK to study as PhD student at the University of Cambridge, where she was using Drosophila as a model to investigate the role of HES transcription factors in the Notch signalling pathway. She continued to pursue her research interests in developmental genetics as a Post-Doc in the ICRF/CRUK Developmental Genetics Group, then as an independent Research Fellow at the UCL Cancer Institute (supported by an MRC Career Development Award) before moving to Oxford Brookes in 2014. She continues to explore the molecular mechanisms of transcription factor function during development. In parallel, she serves as the course coordinator for the Biomedical Science degree at Oxford Brookes. This programme attracts a diverse student body, including many from BAME backgrounds and those who are the first in their families to attend university. Her broad experience from varied academic settings will support the Genetics Society to encourage and enable people from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers and research in genetics.
The post 1 January 2025 – Dr Barbara Jennings New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Peter Sarkies as a member of the committee as a representative of Genomics, beginning his four-year term in January 2025.
Biography:
I started out in science as an undergraduate studying Biochemistry at Oxford. I then moved to Cambridge to do a PhD in the lab of Julian Sale at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where I became interested in epigenetics. I continued working on epigenetics as a postdoc in Eric Miska’s lab, also in Cambridge. It was there that I started working on C. elegans and became interested in the evolution of small non-coding RNAs across nematodes. I started my own group in 2014 at the London Institute of Medical Sciences, where I established a team to investigate the evolution of epigenetic mechanisms, including small non-coding RNAs and DNA methylation, across eukaryotes with a particular focus on nematodes. In 2021 I moved to take up an Associate Professorship at Oxford where my lab continues to work on the connections between epigenetics and evolution, in particular looking at how epigenetic mechanisms could drive evolution of parasitism in nematodes. Outside of the lab I enjoy literature, learning maths(!), growing vegetables and listening to heavy metal music! I’m very excited about joining the Genetics Society committee, representing Genomics in particular, and helping with the great work the society is doing.
The post 1 January 2025 – Dr Peter Sarkies New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Nicola Nadeau as a member of the committee as a representative of Evolutionary, Ecological and Population Genetics, beginning her four-year term in January 2025.
Biography:
I graduated with a BSc in zoology from Newcastle University in 2002. I went on to do a PhD in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, on the genetics of sexually selected plumage colour in the galliform birds, supervised by Nick Mundy, graduating in 2006. I stayed in Cambridge as a postdoc, first with Nick Mundy, continuing my PhD work, and then with Chris Jiggins on colour-pattern gene evolution in Heliconius butterflies, ending up working on speciation genomics. In 2014 I was award a NERC Independent Research Fellowship, which I took to the University of Sheffield, and started my own lab working on the genetic basis of quantitive and complex traits, including iridescent structural colour and thermal adaptation to altitude. I am now a senior lecturer and Head of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biosciences.
The post 1 January 2025 – Dr Nicola Nadeau New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Yan Wong as a member of the committee as a representative of Corporate Genetics and Biotechnology, beginning his four-year term in January 2025.
“I’m an evolutionary geneticist with an interest in a wide range of biological problems. After a DPhil in Plant Sciences at Oxford, I collaborated with Richard Dawkins to write The Ancestor’s Tale, a history of life in reverse time. This was followed by a position as a lecturer in Evolution and Population Genetics at the University of Leeds. I then changed tack with a foray into science media, most notably as a TV presenter on the BBC One show Bang Goes The Theory, but also on radio, for example for the More or Less Radio 4 series. In parallel with this, and together with James Rosindell at Imperial College, I developed the OneZoom project, an online visualisation of the entire tree of life down to the species level. Since 2017 I have worked at Oxford University’s Big Data Institute (BDI), initially with Gil Mcvean then with Jerome Kelleher and colleagues.
At the BDI I am part of an international collaboration to maintain and develop open source software used to simulate, store and analyse huge genomic datasets. We focus on an “evolutionary encoding” of the data, in a format known as a tree sequence. This efficently encodes the genetic history, or genealogy, of DNA sequences, and is part of an ongoing revolution in genetic analysis of population-level data. Our main focus is on datasets where millions of genomes are currently available (e.g. humans and SARS-CoV2), but the promise of long-read data based on millions of samples from other species means that our techniques are expected to become widely applicable in biology.”
The post 1 January 2025 – Dr Yan Wong New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Prof Thorsten Allers as a shadow Honorary Treasurer, beginning his term in January 2025. Prof Allers will shadow Dr Alexander Lorenz for a year before starting his four-year term in January 2026.
Biography
2018 – current Professor of Archaeal Genetics, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham
2014 – 2018 Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham
2010 – 2014 Lecturer, School of Biology, University of Nottingham
2002 – 2010 Royal Society University Research Fellow, Institute of Genetics, University of Nottingham
1995 – 2001 Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda Maryland, USA
1989 – 1994 PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh
1986 – 1989 BA (Hons) in Genetics, University of Cambridge
The post 1 January 2025 – Prof Thorsten Allers New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
We’re proud to announce the award winners for 2025- congratulations!
JBS Haldane Lecture 2025 – Prof Gregory Radick
Genetics Society Medal 2025 – Prof Josephine Pemberton
Mary Lyon Medal 2025 – Prof Kathy Niakan
Balfour Lecture 2025 – Dr Nicky Whiffin
Bruce Cattanach Prize 2025 – Dr Janay Fox
Sir Kenneth Mather 2025 – Dr Noémie Lefrancq
The post 22 November 2024 – Awards 2025 appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Prof Gil McVean as the new President, beginning his four-year term in January 2025.Biography
Gil McVean is Principal Scientist at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, working to drive innovation and delivery in the use of genomic data to address some of the greatest challenges facing society.
Previously, Gil was Founder and President of Genomics, a spin-out from Oxford University, that uses vast genomic resources to provide the services and products to support drug development and improve health care through enhanced prevention and early detection.
With a background in genomics, statistics and evolutionary biology, Gil has played a leading role in driving the science and application of population-scale genomics. He had central roles in the International HapMap and 1000 Genomes Projects, and has worked with academic, industrial, and clinical organisations across the world. He was the founding director of the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute and has worked on challenges from dissecting the molecular basis of pathogenesis in multiple sclerosis, to the genomic surveillance of malaria and the causes of recombination. He is an author of over 200 papers, and has supervised over 35 postgraduate students.
Gil’s contributions to science have been recognised through election as a fellow to both the Royal Society (2016) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (2016). He won the Francis Crick Prize in 2010 and was awarded the Weldon Memorial Prize in 2012.
“It is a hugely exciting time to be taking over the presidency of the Genetics Society. The fields of genetics and genomics are making an ever greater impact on society, with applications ranging from disease prevention, to the development of new medicines, the response to emerging pandemics and the preservation of biodiversity in the face of a changing climate. These advances are only possible because of the incredible depths of foundational research within the UK and the international collaborations we are engaged with. The Genetics Society plays a key role in helping this community come together to disseminate scientific advances, train the next generation and engage with the public, policy-makers and wider stakeholders both nationally and internationally.”
Gill McVean
The post 22 November 2024 – Prof Gil McVean, New President appeared first on Genetics Society.
Prof Alison R Bentley will present the 2024 Genetics Society Haldane Lecture at the Biffen lecture theatre, Department of Genetics, Downing Street, CB2 3EH, Cambridge, UK from 4:30pm on *Thursday 3rd September 2024. For more information and updates see the event page*.
The post 29 July 2024 – JBS Haldane Lecture 2024 appeared first on Genetics Society.
Open Biology just launched an ‘Open Biology Open Questions competition’, inviting cell and molecular biology researchers to submit an ‘Open Questions’ article highlighting a pressing, understudied or interesting ‘open question’ in the field to Open Biology. The published articles will be judged by Board members and authors of the best one will win £1000 – a great prize for your members!
The post 29 July 2024 – Open Biology Open Questions competition appeared first on Genetics Society.
We are thrilled to announce that the Genetics Society has been chosen to lead the Biological Sciences Scientific Section at this year’s British Science Festival! This is a fantastic opportunity, and we are honoured to contribute to such an amazing event – the British Science Festival is the longest-running festival of science and a key event in the UK science engagement calendar. This year’s festival takes place at the University of East London.
We have nominated Professor Aoife McLysaght (Trinity College, Dublin) to be this year’s Section President. Aoife has a long-standing commitment to the promotion of genetics to a broad audience, having been awarded the Genetics Society JBS Haldane Medal in 2016, and co-hosting the Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures in 2018, amongst many other initiatives.
We are running two free events for the British Science Festival this year and would love to see you there!
- Everything you ever wanted to know about genetics
- Genetics Bingo
The post 22 July 2024 – British Science Festival appeared first on Genetics Society.
We are extending the deadline for nominations for the 2025 Genetics Society awards and medals until August 31st.
A brief outline of our awards is below, and further details including benefits to awardees are available here.
If you would like to nominate someone for any of the below awards, please confirm that your candidate is willing to be nominated and send the following documentation electronically to secretary@genetics.org.uk by midnight on August 31st, with the name of the award included in the subject line:
• two-page nominee CV
• list of their ten most important publications
• one-page letter of recommendation outlining why you feel their contributions to the field have been outstanding
The Genetics Society Medal recognises outstanding research contributions to genetics. Nominees should still be active in research at the time the medal is awarded.
The Mary Lyon Medal recognises outstanding research in genetics to scientists who are in the middle of their research career.
The Balfour Lecture marks the contributions to genetics of an outstanding young investigator, normally with less than 10 years’ postdoctoral research experience at the time of nomination, with exceptions made if the nominee has taken a career break for child or other caring responsibilities.
The JBS Haldane Lecture recognises an individual with outstanding ability to communicate topical subjects in genetics research, widely interpreted, to an interested lay audience. This speaker will have a flair for conveying the relevance and excitement of recent advances in genetics in an informative and engaging way.
The Society would like to ensure that our prize nominations are reflective of our membership community. We therefore encourage nominations of scientists from under-represented groups.
We look forward to receiving your nominations.
The post 10 July 2024 – Extended Deadline: Nominations for Genetics Society Medals and Prizes appeared first on Genetics Society.
Photo credit: Dr Cristina Fonseca
The Genetics Society is happy to announce the poster prizes at the BSDB/Genetics Society Developmental Genetics Spring Meeting 2024. Congratulations to the winners!
GenSoc Postdoc 1st prize: Dr Facundo Romani for the poster “A minimal cell-cycle regulation framework provides insights on the evolution of the plants”
GenSoc Student 1st prize: Gabrielle Raymond for the poster “A multi-disciplinary investigation into the function of NFXL1”
GenSoc Student runner up: Yixuan Low for the poster “Systematic identification and characterisation of solute carriers essential for pluripotency and cell fate transitions”
The post 17 April 2024 – Poster Prizes appeared first on Genetics Society.
Photo credit: Dr Cristina Fonseca
Dr Jo Peters presented the Bruce Cattanach Prize 2023/2024 to Dr Matthew Higgs on behalf of the Mouse News Letter Ltd. and the Genetics Society at the BSDB/Genetics Society Developmental Genetics Spring Meeting 2024. Congratulations!
The post 17 April 2024 – Bruce Cattanach Prize Dr Matthew Higgs appeared first on Genetics Society.
Photo credit: Dr Cristina Fonseca
Dr Alexander Lorenz, our Honorary Treasurer, presented the Mary Lyon Medal 2024 to Prof Adele Marston at the BSDB/Genetics Society Developmental Genetics Spring Meeting 2024. Congratulations!
The post 16 April 2024 – Mary Lyon Medal Prof Adele Marston appeared first on Genetics Society.
Photo credit: Royal Society of Biology
Voices of the Future is an annual event that gives people in the early stages of careers in STEM an opportunity to quiz sitting politicians on areas of science policy that are important to them.
Attendees to the event are nominated by their respective learned societies with each having a designated question asker and a slot within 3 sessions in which they called to ask their question(s). Each session consists of a new panel of parliamentarians.
Questions in the first session were asked to Chi Onwurah MP, long-standing Shadow Minister for Science, Research and Innovation and chartered Engineer. There was a focus on parliament’s role in facilitating international partnerships within STEM, the importance of diversity in innovation, and the STEM Skills gap.
The second session was hosted by members of the House of Commons Science, Innovation & Technology Select Committee – Katherine Fletcher MP (Fellow University of Nottingham biology graduate), Stephen Metcalfe MP, and Carol Monaghan MP. The importance of good science communication and improving science education were both raised in this session and discussed in terms of both how the government can encourage people to think critically about what information is available to them, and how scientists bear a great amount of responsibility in making complex topics accessible. The regulation of AI was also discussed in depth.
Photo credit: Royal Society of BiologyThe Viscount Stansgate Dr Stephen Benn – former RSB director of parliamentary affairs – and Lord Drayson – former Minister of Science and electric world land speed record holder – hosted the final session. Representing the Genetics Society, I asked about how Parliament should be involved in regulating the use of medically sensitive information held by private companies, in the context of personal genome sequencing. The potential value of these databases was stressed in terms of the positive impact they could have in understanding human health, but the need to keep a close eye on who is getting access to this data was also raised. Other questions in this session explored how education can be reformed to prepare students for the rapidly changing STEM landscape and the ensuing general changes in society.
It was a privilege to represent the Genetics Society at this event and a fascinating insight into the world of science policy. This felt like an opportunity for early career scientists to really make their voices heard and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to attend future iterations.
More information is available through the Royal Society of Biology’s report here.
Alec Lewis, Genetics Society Postgraduate Student Representative.
Alec is a 3rd year PhD Student at the University of Nottingham, on the Nottingham BBSRC doctoral training partnership. His PhD looks at the evolution of “mirror-imaging” a unique developmental phenomenon in snails in which the body plan can be inverted across the Left-Right axis. The project makes use of population genomics, phylogenetics, and comparative transcriptomics as tools for identifying the underlying genetics that regulate this particularly dramatic polymorphism. The project also extends into the ecology and developmental biology of the snails.
Alec also completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2020 before taking time out and working for Kent County Council Adult Social Care ahead of starting his PhD in October 2021.
The post 12 March 2024 – Voices of the Future 2024 – organised by the Royal Society of Biology appeared first on Genetics Society.
We are seeking nominations for the following 2024 Genetics Society Medals and Prizes:
Genetics Society Medal
Mary Lyon Medal
Balfour Lecture
JBS Haldane Lecture
Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prizes [undergraduate & post-graduate]
Bruce Cattanach Prize
Nominators should provide a two-page nominee CV, and a one-page letter of recommendation outlining the nominee’s contributions and suitability for the prize. Further details of specific nomination requirements for each prize can be found here. Please also confirm that your candidate is willing to be nominated.
Nominators must be members of the Genetics Society, but there is no requirement for the nominee to be a member, nor any restriction on nationality or residence. Members across the full spectrum of career stages are encouraged to nominate candidates. Neither current members of the Committee nor those who have retired from office in the past four years may be nominated for the award.
The Genetics Society is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity. We particularly welcome nominations of candidates from underrepresented sections of our community.
Nomination documents must be submitted electronically to secretary@genetics.org.uk by Friday June 30th 2024.
The exceptions are the Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial and Bruce Cattanach Prizes, which have a deadline of 1st October 2024, to align with completion of research projects, and should also be submitted electronically to secretary@genetics.org.uk.
The Genetics Society Committee will vote on the nominations, with the awardees announced at our Annual General Meeting on November 21st 2024.
The post 1 March 2024 – Call for nominations 2024 appeared first on Genetics Society.
Who are the world’s most famous geneticists? Have they ever won a Nobel prize? What are their special powers? Find out with this card game!
Geneticist Trumps features 30 of history’s greatest geneticists and explains how they changed our understanding of genes and heredity. Play against your family, friends and academic rivals by comparing values for stats like fame or impact. Discover the top trumps in each category as you try to win all the cards!
This game was funded by Public Engagement grants from the Genetics Society and European Union’s Horizon 2020 research innovation programme. A first edition was published in 2019 to celebrate the Genetic Society’s 100th anniversary and packs were sent to every UK secondary school. This updated version was printed in 2024 and cards are given away at events such as science festivals, but you can also download a PDF to print at home.
You can learn more about the scientists featured in Geneticist Trumps via the links below.
Special Powers
- Anne McLaren: ethics. The ethical issues surrounding embryo research led her to serve as an expert on committees for regulating human fertility treatment.
- Barbara McClintock: independence. She preferred to work alone and, apart from a single study, published all her papers as a solo author.
- Charlotte Auerbach: teaching. Before moving to Edinburgh, ‘Lotte’ Auerbach was a teacher in Berlin. She loved children and wrote a book of fairy tales.
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard: philanthropy. After noting how life is harder for mothers, she started a foundation to support female researchers with children.
- Edith Saunders: vigour. Edith Rebecca ‘Becky’ Saunders was active and sporty — an ace tennis player, skilled ice skater and experienced mountain climber.
- Elizabeth Blackburn: mentoring. While a scientist will often give their protégé constructive criticism, Blackburn says a good mentor should also offer praise.
- Esther Lederberg: music. Esther Zimmer Lederberg was passionate about Early Music (like Medieval and Baroque), played recorder and founded an orchestra.
- Francis Crick: communication. With an uncanny ability to understand topics outside his field, he could clarify questions and place them in a wider context.
- François Jacob: philosophy. Jacob wrote several books on the history of science, discussing how society is influenced by new scientific developments.
- Frederick Sanger: boating. Sanger enjoyed “messing about in boats.” He built sailing boats and in later life enjoyed cruising along rivers in a motor boat.
- George Beadle: climbing. Despite only taking up rock climbing around age 50, he became a member of the first team to climb Mount Doonerak in Alaska.
- Gregor Mendel: perseverance. The monk’s work on peas took 8 years, which he said required “courage and also persistence and meticulous record keeping.”
- Janet Rowley: cycling. Even in her late 80s, Rowley would ride a bike to her laboratory every day, a familiar sight at the University of Chicago.
- Jennifer Doudna: gardening. She enjoys getting her hands dirty and her garden in Berkeley contains strawberry guava, common to Hawaii, where she grew up.
- Marshall Nirenberg: precision. Believing that any researcher should be able to reproduce results from the methods, his experiments were always precise.
- Mary Lyon: rigour. Lyon was rigorous in thought and speech, which meant long pauses during phone calls as she carefully formulated what she wanted to say.
- Mary-Claire King: activism. A campaigner for human rights and social justice, she helped the United Nations use DNA tests to identify victims of war crimes.
- Nettie Stevens: creativity. She excelled at school and turned into a creative scientist with what Thomas Morgan called an “independent and original mind.”
- Oswald Avery: eloquence. Avery had a way with words. His public-speaking skills delivered engaging lectures and earned him a nickname, ‘the Professor’.
- Paul Nurse: astronomy. An amateur astronomer, Nurse has used a telescope since childhood, when he watched the satellite Sputnik 2 fly across the sky.
- Phillip Sharp: farming. During his childhood on the family farm in Kentucky, Sharp saved money for college fees by raising cattle and growing tobacco.
- Ronald Fisher: eccentricity. A stereotypical absent‐minded professor, Fisher was a pipe-smoking, shabbily-dressed academic who would forget to go home.
- Ruth Sager: enthusiasm. While Sager thought a scientific career was closer to a vocation than a job, she was also enthusiastic about her many outside hobbies.
- Seymour Benzer: reinvention. Benzer had a PhD in physics but reinvented himself several times, ultimately establishing the field of behavioural genetics.
- Sydney Brenner: mischief. With a wicked sense of humour and the pen name ‘Uncle Syd’, Brenner was described as “one of biology’s mischievous children.”
- Thomas Morgan: generosity. When Thomas Hunt Morgan won a Nobel, he shared the prize money with colleagues Calvin Bridges and Alfred Sturtevant.
- Tomoko Ohta: persuasiveness. Ohta ignored traditional Japanese etiquette and argued with her boss daily, persuading him to officially hire her as a researcher.
- Tsuneko Okazaki: resilience. After losing her husband — and lab partner — to cancer, she continued her research while raising their two young children.
- William Bateson: feminism. Bateson pushed for gender equality at Cambridge University, while his group at Newnham College consisted mainly of women.
- William Hamilton: curiosity. Although a theoretical biologist, WD Hamilton was curious about nature and seemed able to identify every species he saw.
The post Geneticist Trumps appeared first on Genetics Society.
Join our committee! We are recruiting one post on the Executive Committee:
- Honorary Treasurer.
We are also recruiting three posts on the Ordinary Committee in the following areas:
- Evolutionary, Ecological and Population Genetics.
- Genomics.
- Corporate Genetics and Biotechnology.
More details about the role are on the Committee Vacancies page.
The post 25 Feb 2024 – Committee Vacancies appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Dan Fordham as a member of the committee as a representative of Corporate Genetics and Biotechnology, beginning his four-year term in January 2024.
Biography
Dr. Dan Fordham is a seasoned professional in the field of biosensor design and strategic product management. He earned his Ph.D. in Biosensor Design in 2010, marking the beginning of a remarkable journey in the scientific and commercial realms.
Dan commenced his career at Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd, where he became an integral part of the Applications Team. Over the course of eight years, he played a pivotal role in the development of early kits and applications that contributed significantly to the company’s success. Recognizing his adeptness in both technical and commercial domains, Dan transitioned into a market development role, focusing on consortia and large cohort projects. This phase of his career showcased his ability to bridge the gap between intricate technicalities and market demands. Building upon his extensive experience, Dan presently serves as the Director of Strategic Product Management. In this capacity, he leverages his deep technical knowledge to drive commercial projects forward.
Dan Fordham’s journey is a testament to his commitment to innovation and the seamless integration of technical prowess into the strategic landscape of product management. As a leader in his field, he continues to shape the future of biosensor technology and strategic product development.
The post 16 January 2024 – Dr Dan Fordham New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Mark Chapman as a member of the committee as a representative of Applied and Quantitative Genetics, beginning his four-year term in January 2024.
Biography
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and have been here for 10 years. Prior to this, I did my PhD in St Andrews, and postdocs in Georgia, USA and Oxford. In my lab, we have two main themes: speciation, adaptation and hybridisation in the wild, and domestication and crop evolution. Our work typically involves genomic and transcriptomic investigations and a sizeable amount of bioinformatics; although I make sure we never forget about what these plants look like, where they live and how they are affected by humans and the environment.
The post 16 January 2024 – Dr Mark Chapman New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr James Turner as a member of the committee as a representative of Cell and Developmental Genetics, beginning his four-year term in January 2024.
Biography
James Turner runs a research group at the Francis Crick Institute working on sex chromosome genetics. He trained as an MB PhD at UCL, intercalating a PhD at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research. His lab identified mechanisms responsible for infertility in the major sex chromosome aneuploidies and devised therapeutic approaches to reverse germ cell loss in these conditions. He has also identified genes critical for X-chromosome inactivation, the silencing of one X chromosome that is essential for development of female embryos. Most recently, his group created the first CRISPR-based system for generating all-male or all-female mouse litters, which will be of great relevance to research and agriculture. He is an EMBO member, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The post 16 January 2024 – Dr James Turner New Committee Member appeared first on Genetics Society.
The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Yaser Atlasi as a member of the committee as a representative of Gene Structure, Function and Regulation, beginning his four-year term in January 2024.
Biography
Yaser is a lecturer at the School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. His research focuses on the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation and 3D chromatin organization, exploring their roles in controlling gene expression. Genes are often regulated by multiple enhancers situated at considerable genomic distances, forming an extensive network of chromatin interactions. Yaser’s work has contributed novel insights into how enhancers influence gene regulation and cell plasticity. During his PhD at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, Yaser studied the role of WNT-signaling in pluripotent cells and colorectal cancer. In his postdoctoral training at Radboud University in the Netherlands, he gained expertise in genome-wide technologies, investigating mechanisms of epigenetic regulation and 3D chromatin organization in stem cells. In June 2020, Yaser established his laboratory, employing stem cell and cancer models alongside genomics, proteomics, and computational biology approaches to explore mechanisms of epigenetic regulation in stem cells and cancer. He aims to contribute his expertise in Gene Structure Function and Regulation to support the Genetic Society and its mission.
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The Genetics Society Committee welcomes their new Committee members:
– James Turner for Cell and Developmental Genetics (to end 2027).
– Yaser Atlasi for Gene Structure, Function and Regulation (to end 2027).
– Mark Chapman for Applied and Quantitative Genetics (to end 2027).
– Dan Fordham for the Corporate Genetics and Biotechnology (to end 2027).
Additionally, Maxim Kapralov starts the Shadow Scientific Meetings Secretary position (to end 2027), shadowing Prof. Stefan Hoppler.
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Dr Nick Fradgley as the winner of the 2023/24 Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize.It is a great honour to receive the Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize for my PhD research project. Many thanks to the Genetics Society and my supervisors; especially Alison Bentley who nominated me for this award.
My PhD project was based at NIAB and the University of Cambridge and the thesis title was ‘Genetic control and prediction of milling and baking quality for UK wheat breeding’. The project explored applying quantitative genetics tools and models in the commercial DSV UK wheat breeding programme to improve the prediction and selection of wheat milling and baking quality traits.
Since graduating, I completed a short project with the CIMMYT wheat breeding programme in Mexico and have moved to Australia to start a postdoctoral fellowship at CSIRO where I am modelling genotype by environment interactions in long-term wheat multi-environment trial datasets to understand and predict adaption to variable Australian growing environments.
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Dr Matthew Higgs as the winner of the 2023/24 Bruce Cattanach Prize.It is such an honour to receive the Bruce Cattanach Prize for my PhD thesis. I would like to first thank the Genetics Society for selecting me for this award. I would also like to thank my amazing supervisors, Prof Anthony Isles and Prof Rosalind John for their support over the years and a special thank you to Anthony for my nomination. Furthermore, this award recognises research using non-human in vivo animal models and I am deeply grateful to the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research with the Mary Lyon Centre, International Facility for Mouse Genetics, at MRC Harwell for generating the mouse models used in my thesis.
With an academic background in biology and psychology and an insatiable interest in evolutionary genetics, I undertook a Wellcome-funded PhD programme in Integrative Neuroscience at Cardiff University. My PhD thesis was titled: ‘A Systems Level Approach to Identify and Validate Imprinted Genes Involved in Parental Care and the Associated Neural Circuitry’. The overarching aim of my work was to determine whether the long-standing relationship between imprinted genes and parenting behaviour would be reflected in the expression of imprinted genes in the parenting-associated neural circuitry of the brain. Alongside single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial analysis, I performed extensive parenting behaviour assessments on in-vivo mouse models. It’s amazing to be awarded this prize for my research on imprinted genes almost 40 years following Bruce’s seminal papers on the topic!
I am now working as a Science Writer with Front Line Genomics in which I produce articles and reports on topics in genetics to help scientists make sense of the field. This role allows me to combine my love of science communication with my interests in all things genetics.
“It’s a real honour to receive this award, I genuinely didn’t believe it when I was notified. I would like to give a deep thank you to everyone that has helped me get this far, especially to Prof. Anthony Isles for my nomination. It’s amazing to be awarded this prize for my research on imprinted genes almost 40 years following Bruce’s seminal papers on the topic!”
Matthew Higgs
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Dr Pontus Skoglund, Francis Crick Institute, as the winner of the 2024 Balfour Lecture.Pontus Skoglund is the group leader of the Francis Crick Institute’s Ancient Genomics laboratory. He obtained his PhD in evolutionary genetics from Uppsala University in 2013 with Mattias Jakobsson and thereafter did his postdoctoral research with David Reich at Harvard Medical School. His research has focused on developing new approaches to propel the field of ancient DNA into the genomic era. His PhD research revealed population migrations as catalysers for the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculture in Europe, and he expanded this to worldwide regions in his postdoc research. His independent lab has used ancient DNA to pioneer research revealing the origin and evolution of dogs and their wild ancestors, the evolution of our species Homo sapiens, and the evolution of bacteria and human immunity in prehistory. He is a Wellcome Trust Investigator, ERC starting grantee, EMBO Young Investigator, Vallee Foundation Scholar and Blavatnik Award finalist.
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Prof Adele Marston, University of Edinburgh, as the winner of the 2024 Mary Lyon Medal.Adele Marston is a Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh and a Wellcome Investigator. She is the Director of the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology and the Discovery Research Platform for Hidden Cell Biology.
Adele investigates the fundamental mechanisms by which cells reproduce themselves and transmit their genome to the next generation. She has a particular interest in meiosis, the cell division that generates eggs and sperm. Using budding yeast as a model system, she has defined key concepts of chromosome segregation and investigated how errors in these pathways could account for the high error rates observed in human oocytes.
Adele trained in Biochemistry, gaining a BA from the University of Oxford before completing her DPhil in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, also at the University of Oxford. She carried out postdoctoral work at Harvard University (USA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), where she developed her research interest in meiosis. Since 2005, Adele has led a research group in the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, successively funded by a Wellcome Career Development Fellowship, a Senior Research Fellowship and an Investigator Award.
Adele was the Genetics Society Promega Young Life Scientist of the Year (1999) and an EMBO Young Investigator (2010). She was elected to EMBO membership in 2019 and to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022.
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Prof Rob Martienssen, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, as the winner of the 2024 Genetics Society Medal.Rob Martienssen received his undergraduate and graduate training in Genetics at Cambridge University, and joined the faculty at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1989 following postdoctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms that shape and regulate the genome, and their impact on development and inheritance. He works on transposable elements, first discovered by McClintock and prevalent in all organisms, and has shown that small RNA guide histone modification and chromosome segregation in fission yeast, as well as chromosome dosage and transposon control in the plant germline. He has co-discovered genes and transposons that underlie developmental and epigenetic traits in the oil palm, and greatly impact yield and sustainability.
Rob received the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Award in 2003 for his work revealing a link between epigenetic modifications of the chromosome and RNA interference. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He held the Chair Blaise Pascal at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris in 2011-2014. He was awarded the McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics in 2018, the Martin Gibbs Medal from the American Society of Plant Biology in 2019, and the Royal Society Darwin Medal in 2020. He is a co-founder of Orion Genomics LLC, a biotechnology company based in St Louis MO and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Prof Alison Bentley as the winner of the 2024 JBS Haldane award.Alison Bentley is an applied crop scientist working in genetics and plant breeding spanning fundamental understanding of plant processes through to the development of field- and farm-level decision support tools. She primarily worked on wheat as a major staple food crop in a range of research environments in Australia, the UK and Mexico. Most recently Alison was Director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico and prior to that Director of Genetics and Breeding at NIAB in Cambridge, UK. She is currently a Bayer Visiting School in the Plant Breeding Center at The University of Minnesota, USA. In the wider community, she created and leads the Women in Crop Science network (www.womenincropscience.org), developed to boost connections, increase visibility, and foster greater gender equity. Alison strongly believes in the importance of speaking up to highlight the urgency of addressing global food security challenges, and in creating more inclusive and equitable working environments.
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Image: Jeremy Bishop.
JBS Haldane Lecture 2024 – Prof Alison Bently
Genetics Society Medal 2024 – Prof Robert Martienssen
Mary Lyon Medal 2024 – Prof Adele Marston
Balfour Lecture 2024 – Dr Pontus Skoglund
Bruce Cattanach Prize 2023 – Dr Matthew Higgs
Sir Kenneth Mather 2023/24 – Dr Nick Fradgley
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“One of the most accessible ways to engage in outreach… It’s flexible, enjoyable, and rewarding [and] makes you think about your work from a completely new perspective.” Luke Townsend, scientist
Help school students better understand how members of the Genetics Society have moved genetics beyond Mendel to being the cutting edge of research.
Take part in I’m a Scientist and connect online with school students to show them what it’s really like working in genetics research. You’ll engage with classes in fast-paced, instant messaging-style Chats, and answer their follow-up questions.
Sign up here: imascientist.org.uk/signup/c/gensoc by October 6.
No audio or video kit is required. Everything happens online. Join in at the times that suit you, with a suggested commitment of at least 1 hour per week across the 4-week activity.
Students need to connect with people who work across a wide range of genetics-related roles. You could be a technician, a researcher, an analyst, or manage lab facilities. Get involved.
The Genetics Zone is funded by the Genetics Society, the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Have questions about taking part? Email support@imascientist.org.uk or call us on 01225 667922
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photo: Norman Russell The Genetics Society is saddened to learn of the death of Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, OBE, FRS, FMedSci, FRSE, on 10th September 2023. Sir Ian was a world-renowned British embryologist and the chair of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He led the research that produced Dolly, …
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The August 2023 89th issue of the Genetics Society Magazine is now available for download. “This year marks the 70th anniversary of the description of the double helix. To celebrate we hosted a summer symposium on DNA: Past, Present, Future and ran a school arts competition inspired by DNA and the history of genetics. In …
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The Genetics Society is pleased to host a public talk “Uncivilised: race science and other lies that made the West” with Subhadra Das on Thursday, 7th September in Bath. Find here more information and how to register.
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Dr Adam Rutherford will present the 2023 Genetics Society Haldane Lecture at the Royal Institution from 7:00pm – 8:30pm on Wednesday 11th October 2022: Genetics: Standing on the shoulders of prejudice Talk description: In this talk, Adam Rutherford explores how, as we continue to use and celebrate the advances of our intellectual predecessors, we frequently fail to acknowledge the toxic …
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The Genetics Society is inviting nominations for the 2024 Bruce Cattanach prize and the Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial prize. The Bruce Cattanach prize is awarded annually for an outstanding PhD thesis related to the use of non-human in vivo animal models. The Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize is awarded to a BSc, MSc or PhD …
Continue reading "31 July 2023 – Nominations for the 2024 Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial or the Bruce Cattanach Prizes"
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To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the publication of the DNA helix structure we invited submissions of art from UK school students on the theme “DNA: Past, Present and Future”. The Genetics Society is pleased to announce Isla Scott as the winner. Isla’s artwork will feature on the cover of Heredity, a £100 voucher and £500 …
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The DNA& podcast is a discussion of all things relating to DNA& our health. Listen to episode one now! With their signature light-hearted and clear style of communication, hosts Hannah & Angelos hope to engage non-experts in a discussion of genomic healthcare. Season one will feature episodes on the UK’s newborn genome screening programme, pharmacogenomics, …
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The Genetics Society is pleased to welcome our new honorary secretary, Professor Ian Henderson.
Ian is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His group investigates genetic and epigenetic inheritance in plants, with a focus on meiosis. Recently, his group have used long-read DNA sequencing to analyse repetitive regions of the genome, including the centromeres. Their current work includes exploring the roles of recombination within the centromeres, and understanding their rapid evolution.
Work in Ian’s group seeks to translate knowledge of recombination mechanisms in crop breeding, to accelerate strain improvement and help adapt to the changing climate. Prior to arriving in Cambridge, Ian performed post-doctoral research with Prof. Steve Jacobsen (UCLA, USA) on RNA-directed in DNA methylation in plants, and completed his Ph.D with Prof. Dame Caroline Dean (John Innes Centre, UK) where he investigated control of flowering-time by RNA binding proteins.
Find out more about Ian’s research here.
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The Genetics Society has awarded the Mendel Medal for 2023 to Prof Dame Caroline Dean.
Prof Dean will be presented with her award on 7th November 2023, at the Genetics Society’s scientific meeting in Newcastle: Genetics of future food production and the green revolution 2.0.
You can find out more about her achievements here.
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In January, a study that was funded by the Genetics Society to understand how genetics is percieved by the public.
The work, which was published in PLOS Biology, has been accessed more than 11,000 times in less than 3 months and since then has been featured across several media outlets.
Several authors of the study, including the Society’s Dr Cristina Fonseca, appeared on the Genomics England podcast to discuss their findings.
Cristina has also published an article in the National Health Executive magazine, along with our President, Prof Anne Furguson-Smith.
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The University of Cambridge have published a profile of Shankar Balasubramanian and his collaborator, David Klenerman, who discovered a revolutionary sequencing technology.
Shankar is the Plenary speaker at the Genetics Society event “DNA: Past, Present and Future”, to be held 29th June 2023. The event will mark the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix and will feature presentations by The Society’s 2023 award winners.
We would be thrilled if you could join us at the event, which will be held at the Sanger building in the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge. Stay tuned for more details of the event.
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The deadline for the Communicating Your Science workshop has been extended to 28th February 2023.
This is a great opportunity to get experience and meet the experts, while also making your science and CV stand out.
Find out more about this exciting opporuntity here.
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Sickle Cell Unboxed is a new podcast series funded by The Genetics Society UK. The series is produced and hosted by medical doctor and multimedia producer Dr Yemisi Bokinni, and is a public engagement initiative centred on creatively exploring life sciences themes.
You can find links to each of the episodes here, or all of the content at sicklecellunboxed.com, where you can also register for an online event scheduled for Rare Disease Day 2023.
Sickle Cell Anaemia, a hereditary blood disorder, is the fastest-growing genetic condition in the UK and is caused when two copies of a gene mutation are inherited, one from either parent. Historically, at-risk populations for Sickle Cell Anaemia are individuals with ancestry from Africa, the Caribbean, India and parts of the Arab world.
The series creatively ‘unboxes’ themes such as the historical origins and early explanations rooted in African folklore, to the more present themes of Sickle Cell and relationships, lived experiences in the UK and Nigeria, in addition to notes on pioneering new treatments and medical advances for future cures. Guests on the podcast hail from the UK, Nigeria and Ghana, and include senior haematologists, a researcher at the University of Oxford, advocacy practitioners and notedly, insights from individuals living with the condition. The series is set to conclude with an online event scheduled for Rare Disease Day 2023, February 28th, that will provide an opportunity for audiences to engage with the guest speakers. The podcast is widely available across all major podcast hosting platforms.
Speaking from London, UK, a quote from Dr Yemisi Bokinni: “I was inspired to create this project after the unfortunate death of Evan Nathan Smith, a twenty-one-year-old who died of Sickle Cell in the UK, in part due to a lack of an understanding of the condition. Considering Sickle Cell is the fastest-growing genetic condition in the UK, I believe everyone should know about it. While the motivation for the podcast stemmed from a tragedy, I wanted to centre the essence of hope. The series concludes with the episode titled ‘Unboxing the future’ which bears testament to the beauty of science and research in improving all of our lives.
About Dr Yemisi Bokinni: Yemisi is a medical doctor and graduated from King’s College London with a Medical Degree and a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Genetics. She currently works as a Multimedia Producer and writer at Remedy Studios, a young media production company dedicated to producing bold and compelling life science programming that reaches and reflects diverse audiences.
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The Genetics Society has made awards up to £2,000 available to cover travel and accommodation costs associated with a field-based genetic research project.
The research should produce results that would typically be suitable for publication in the Society’s journal Heredity.
The deadline for the current rounnd is now midnight on 14th February 2023.
Find more details here.
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A survey of over 2000 British adults finds that trust in genetics is high and went up significantly during the pandemic. It also finds that there is a hunger for more coverage of genetics.
In a study funded by the Genetics Society, a survey of over 2000 randomly selected British adults was commissioned through public polling company Kantar Public.
You can download the report on the public perception of genetics here and can find the technical report here.
Main conclusions of the survey:
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More than a third of the UK public report an increase in trust in science through the pandemic
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In particular, attitudes to genetics have become more positive
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Nearly a half of the UK public would like to hear more about science in the media (and fewer than 10% think there is too much science)
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University academics, NHS spokespersons and governmental advisors are all well trusted sources.
The survey also led to a research paper in Plos Biology titled “People with more extreme attitudes towards science have self-confidence in their understanding of science, even if this is not justified”.
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We have grants available to support you to gain experience in any area of genetics by doing a research project during the summer holiday prior to the final year of your degree.
Apply before 31st March 2023.
You can find more information here and can look here at some of the previous summer student projects we’ve funded.
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We’re excited to introduce our new Magazine Editor, Dr Güneş Taylor.
Güneş is a postdoctoral training fellow at The Crick, researching ovary formation and function- find out more about her research here.
Güneş is a highly effective science communicator, having spoken widely on genome editing, sex and gender and the future of human reproduction to a diverse range of audiences. What’s more, she’s looking to develop The Genetics Society into a vibrant community where we can share our stories, ideas and passion for science.
We’re looking for more content, including:
- Popular science book reviews
- Pictures of research
- Science comics/illustrations
- Science games and public engagement activities
We welcome any other ideas and themes for future editions of the magazine. Reach out to Güneş on her channels if you’d like to participate and contribute: Twitter @GunesTaylor or @GenSocUK or magazine@genetics.org.uk.
The current deadline for content is noon on Monday 23rd January.
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The amount for the Junior Scientist Conference Grant Scheme A grant has increased to £200.
Grants up to £200 are available for travel and essential overnight accommodation to attend any of the Genetics Society’s own meetings and those of our Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Registration for these meetings will be free when meeting the eligibility criteria. There is no limit to the frequency that Scheme (A) grants can be applied for to attend Genetics Society or SIG meetings.
Scheme (A) is open to undergraduate, Master’s and PhD student members and to postdoctoral scientist members of The Society within six years of their PhD viva. More information about the scheme A grant, as well as other related grants, is available here.
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Follow the links for the history and specific criteria of each award:
The Genetics Society Medal– outstanding research contributions to genetics
The Mary Lyon Medal – outstanding mid-career contribution to genetics
The Balfour Lecture – outstanding young investigator
The JBS Haldane Lecture – outstanding communicator of genetics
You can find profiles of our esteemed 2023 award winners here.
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The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Ed Hollox as a member of the committee as a represetative of evolutionary, ecological and population genetics, beginning his four-year term in January 2023.
Biography
Ed is a Reader in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology at the University of Leicester. His research focuses on genome structural variation, its evolutionary causes and its phenotypic consequences, primarily in humans. Ed also teaches extensively across the BSc Biological Sciences at Leicester, and is co-author of the textbook Human Evolutionary Genetics. He has been a member of the Genetics Society for over 20 years, and local ambassador at Leicester for 10 years. He is passionate about internationalisation in science and academia, and is keen to use his role as committee member to promote links that cross national boundaries.
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The Genetics Society is proud to welcome Dr Ed Hollox as a member of the committee as a represetative of evolutionary, ecological and population genetics, beginning his four-year term in January 2023.
Biography
Ed is a Reader in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology at the University of Leicester. His research focuses on genome structural variation, its evolutionary causes and its phenotypic consequences, primarily in humans. Ed also teaches extensively across the BSc Biological Sciences at Leicester, and is co-author of the textbook Human Evolutionary Genetics. He has been a member of the Genetics Society for over 20 years, and local ambassador at Leicester for 10 years. He is passionate about internationalisation in science and academia, and is keen to use his role as committee member to promote links that cross national boundaries.
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We’re proud to announce the award winners for 2023- congratulations! JBS Haldane Lecture 2023 – Dr Adam Rutherford, University College London, London Genetics Society Medal 2023 – Professor Douglas Higgs, University of Oxford, Oxford Mary Lyon Medal 2023 – Professor Cecilia Lindgren, University of Oxford, Oxford Balfour Lecture 2023 – Dr Lucy van Dorp, University …
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Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has rolled out application support for disabled innovators across all our funding opportunities. See the announcement here. This new application support for disabled innovators will be in place for an initial 6-month pilot and is in partnership with Diversity and Ability (D&A) an award-winning social enterprise …
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The RSB annually hosts two policy internship positions for current PhD students who are funded by AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, and NERC. Successful applicants each spend three months working at the RSB within our education or science policy teams. Start and end dates can be negotiated as appropriate. The applications window for internships running …
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Join us in person for the 2022 AGM at 17:30 on Friday 18th November at The Royal Society London., immediately following the Genetics of Reproduction meeting. Details for joining online and relevant documentation will be circulated to members in the coming weeks. AGENDA: Minutes from 2021 AGM Matters Arising President’s Report Honorary Treasurer’s Report Honorary …
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Join us for the Genetics Society Autumn meeting – Genetics of Reproduction – 18th November 2022, Royal Society, London. Early bird registration deadline extended – Midnight Monday 17th October!
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Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) is a celebration of the fantastic contribution postdocs and researchers make toward research and academic life in general. It’s a special time to showcase, recognise, and celebrate their efforts, and thank them for all they do! Originally an initiative from the National Postdoc Association in the USA (National Postdoc Appreciation Week), it is now …
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Image credit: Joana Carvalho In summer 2022, the Genetics Society celebrated the 200th birthday of Gregor Mendel. Find out about events and activities that the Society organised to mark this date!
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The August 2022 issue of the Genetics Society Magazine is now available for download. “Welcome to the latest issue of the Genetics Society …Magazine! We have changed: new look, new materials, same passion for genetics and commitment to the Society members! We are enthusiastic to bring you this new look and eager to know what …
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Prof Michael Fay will present the 2020 Genetics Society Haldane Lecture at the Royal Institution from 7:00pm – 8:30pm on Thursday 17th November 2022: Back from the brink: genetics in plant conservation Talk description: In this talk, Michael Fay explores the conservation of the native lady’s slipper orchid, the genetics of plants that have been studied across a wide range of …
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We are really pleased to announce the winner of our ‘Hap-pea Birthday Mendel’ artwork competition: Lily McKiernan (14yo) from Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School . A quote from Lily: I can’t believe I have won this prize. I found it really interesting to read about Mendel and his work and I am looking forward to learning …
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Last call for the 2023 JBS Haldane Lecture, Genetics Society Medal, Mary Lyon Medal, and the Balfour Lecture. Send your nominations to secretary@genetics.org.uk by midnight on Thursday 30th June 2022. Nominations for the Bruce Cattanach and Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prizes are due 31st October 2022.
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Image credit: Joana Carvalho Join us at RHS Wisley, Surrey, on 20th July 2022 for a garden party of science to celebrate Mendel’s 200th Birthday. Free registration for members, including lunch, 2022 award lectures, drinks reception and birthday cake! For more information and details of how to register, see our events page.
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Jonathan Pettitt will present the 2020 Genetics Society Haldane Lecture at the Royal Institution from 7:00pm – 8:30pm on Tuesday 14th June 2022: “Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?” Non-Darwinian routes to the evolution of life’s complexity. Image: Jonathan Pettitt, adapted from Ernst Haekel, Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 14: Peridinea The …
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The Genetics Society invites applications for the role of Membership and Partnership Officer. This newly created committee role is available from 1st September 2022 – 31 December 2025: The demanding role of the Membership and Partnership Officer is to ensure continuing growth of the Society membership, appointment of Ambassadors, oversee the membership services sub-contract, and …
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To help the Genetics Society in celebrating Gregor Mendel’s 200th birthday anniversary on the 20th of July 2022, we invite you to submit artwork based on Mendel’s discovery of the rules of inheritance! The best artwork will be featured on the cover of a special issue of the official journal of the Genetics Society, Heredity, …
Continue reading "Hap-pea Birthday Mendel!"
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As part of our Spring Meeting in Edinburgh we will have a public lecture Genomic “Dark Matter” and its role in health and disease on Wednesday, 13th April at 7pm. The event will be hybrid, so there will be a live audience and an online audience via Zoom webinar. The event is free to attend but you need …
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It’s National Career’s week! If you want to find out more about a career in genetics check our our career’s webpage featuring many examples of career paths outside academia.
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The February 2022 issue of the Genetics Society Newsletter is now available for download. “In this issue we are exploring diversity and inclusivity in genetic research. Feature articles cover studies on genetic diversity in underrepresented populations, research that aim to make data and information more accessible to families and communities, and research careers in countries …
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Do join us 11-13th April in Edinburgh for our spring 2022 Scientific Meeting, Functional Regulatory Genomics and Disease. Free registration and grant of up to £150 is available to early career researchers (including students) on submission of a relevant abstract. Full details available here.
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A new, global training programme that aims to provide deeper understanding about SARS-CoV-2 genomics and biodata, and how this knowledge can be used to prepare for future pandemics has been launched by COG-Train. This is a partnership between Wellcome Connecting Science (WCS) and the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, alongside their international collaborators, including Wellcome’s …
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The Mendel Medal 2022 was jointly awarded to Professor Azim Surani and Professor Davor Solter for discovery of genomic imprinting. Genomic Imprinting has been pivotal for advances in epigenetics and mammalian development, showing that parental chromosomes retain a memory of their origin with heritable DNA methylation tags, which regulate the expression of parental alleles with …
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Matthew Cobb will present the 2021 Genetics Society Haldane Lecture at the Royal Institution from 7:00pm – 8:30pm on Tuesday 22nd February 2022: Dreams and nightmares of the genetic age Image: Cotton is one of many GMO crops. Credit: southerngal via Pixabay For the last 50 years, new genetic techniques have transformed science. They’ve been turned …
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The Genetics Society welcomes two new members to the committee – Dr Jason Mellad and Dr Laura Dixon, and the return of Professor Jonathan Pettitt. Jason Mellad takes up the Corporate Genetics and Biotechnology post vacated by Alison Bentley. Dr. Jason Mellad is a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into more effective therapies …
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I am delighted to have received the Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize. I want to extend my gratitude to the Genetics Society and the University of Birmingham. I would also like to thank my brilliant PhD supervisors Dr Riccardo Marioni, Dr Kathryn Evans, Prof Craig Ritchie, Prof Ian Deary and thesis chair Prof Caroline Hayward …
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The 2022 Genetics Society medal is awarded to Robin Lovell-Badge. Robin will receive his Medal at a Society scientific meeting during the coming year. Robin Lovell-Badge is a senior group leader and head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute. He obtained his PhD in embryology at …
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Professor Mike Fay, Kew Gardens, as the winner of the 2022 JBS Haldane award. Professor Fay graduated from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, in Genetics and Plant Breeding, and then carried out research on genetic resources in clover for his PhD at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station …
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Irene Miguel-Aliaga is Professor of Genetics and Physiology at Imperial College London, and MRC Investigator at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences. Irene has an interest in the crosstalk between organs – in particular, how and why the intestine communicates with other organs, such as the brain. Her lab was one of the first …
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Sam Behjati is a Group Leader / Wellcome Intermediate Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Originally from Germany, he read medicine at the University of Oxford. Subsequently he underwent academic clinical training in London and obtained his PhD from Cambridge. He started his current position at …
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Image: Frank Hailer Mendel Medal 2022 – Professor Azim Surani and Professor Davor Solter JBS Haldane Lecture 2022 – Dr Mike Fay, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Genetics Society Medal 2022 – Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, Francis Crick Institute, London Mary Lyon Medal 2022 – Professor Irene Miguel-Aliaga, MRC LMS Balfour Lecture 2022 – Dr Sam Behjati, …
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photo: Anne-Katrin Purkiss The Genetics Society is saddened to learn of the death of Professor William G. Hill FRS, on 17th December 2021. Professor Hill was an eminent quantitative and population geneticist and recipient of the Society “Centenary Year” Mendel Medal (2019). Professor Hill (Bill) was also a friend and much respected colleague of many …
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Special issue of Heredity in honour of Mendel’s 200th birthday. Mendel (born 20 July, 1822) is best known for his three laws of inheritance: 1) Law of independent assortment 2) Law of dominance 3) Law of segregation However, the field of genetics has been enriched by considering exceptions to these laws. Examples include: epigenetics and …
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The Genetics Society is thrilled to congratulate our new President, Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith FMedSci FRS, on being awarded the prestigious Buchanan Medal 2021 by the Royal Society for “her pioneering work in epigenetics, her interdisciplinary work on genomic imprinting, the interplay between the genome and epigenome, and how genetic and environmental influences affect development and …
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The Genetics society welcomes two new committee members: Anita Hashmi (Shadow Postgraduate Representative) and Dr Natalia Bulgakova (Website Editor). Anita is a second-year postgraduate researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University studying the genetics of African herbivores and the impact of conservation action on communities in Kenya. Her research focuses on the practical application of genetics to …
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Postdoc Appreciation Week (PAW) is a celebration of the fantastic contribution postdocs and researchers make towards research and academic life in general. It’s a special time to showcase, recognise, and celebrate their efforts, and thank them for all they do! Originally an initiative from the National Postdoc Association in the USA (National Postdoc Appreciation Week), it is now …
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The July 2021 issue of the Genetics Society Newsletter is now available for download. “In this issue, “change” is the keyword. Through a series of interviews, we explored the changes from their undergraduate role and the career evolution of the past years Summer Studentship grant winners. Where are they now? What impact that research experience had …
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Join us online on Friday 25th of June for the 2020 Genetics Society Award Lectures. Attendance is free, if you haven’t registered already, please do so at the event webpage. To mark the 102nd anniversary of The Genetics Society we are holding an online afternoon of talks by our 2020 medal winners. There is an opportunity …
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The Genetics Society 2021 awards are as follows: Mendel Medal 2021 – Professor Dame Linda Partridge JBS Haldane Lecture 2021 – Professor Matthew Cobb, University of Manchester Genetics Society Medal 2021 – Professor David Sherratt, University of Oxford Mary Lyon Medal 2021 – Professor Julian Knight, University of Oxford Balfour Lecture 2021 – Dr Alison …
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Our huge congratulations to recent president of The Genetics Society, Wendy Bickmore, who was awarded a CBE in the 2021 New Year’s Honours list, for her services to biomedical science and women in science. Professor Bickmore is Director of the MRC Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh.
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The 2019/20 Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize is awarded to Dr Rosa Cheesman. Rosa’s outstanding thesis ‘Leveraging family data for complex trait genomics’ was nominated by her PhD supervisor, Dr Jonathan Coleman, at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London. The thesis demonstrated how family-based quantitative genetics is not only the foundation …
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The Genetics Society is delighted to be involved with Cosmic Shambles, a series of live discussions, interviews and podcasts presented by Robin Ince, in association with The Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath Genetics Shambles will focus on the work of some of the leading lights from the worlds of science and genetics …
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Professor Dame Linda Partridge, a past president of the Genetics Society, is awarded the Mendel Medal by current president Professor Laurence Hurst. Linda Partridge is the Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing and a Professorial Fellow at UCL. Linda trained as an evolutionary biologist, and her early work focussed on …
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Professor Matthew Cobb as the winner of the 2021 JBS Haldane Lecture. Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester where his research focuses on the sense of smell, insect behaviour and the history of science. He has also written several books, including The Egg …
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The Genetics Society awards it’s own-named 2021 medal to Professor David Sherratt.
Professor David Sherratt is Iveagh Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford.
In 1969 he completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh, at the then newly formed department of Molecular Biology. From Edinburgh David went on to become a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of California for two years, working on the newly characterised plasmid ColE1, in Don Helinski’s lab. David returned to the UK in 1971 to become a lecturer at the University of Sussex. In 1980 he would go on to become Chair of Genetics at Glasgow University. Then moving to Oxford in 1994 to take up post as Iveagh Chair of Microbiology, it was at this time David also served as president of the Genetics Society.
David considers himself a molecular detective who uses interdisciplinary approaches to understand how the bacterial chromosome is organized, replicated, repaired, unlinked and segregated within a living cell. Studying how these processes are interwoven with cell physiology in steady state growth and under ‘perturbed’ conditions.
You can read more about Professor Sherratt’s academic biography and achievements in his article, The journey of a molecular detective, published in Heredity in 2019 as part of the Genetics Society’s centenary celebrations.
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Julian Knight is awarded the 2021 Mary Lyon Medal by The Genetics Society.
Julian Knight is Professor of Genomic Medicine at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow and Tutor in Medicine at Merton College, Oxford. His research investigates the genomics of immunity and how this can determine our individual response to infections such as sepsis and development of autoimmunity.
Julian trained as a clinician scientist, studying medicine at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh before completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in 1998 with Dominic Kwiatkowski. He developed his research interest in the functional genomics of immunity working in Oxford and at Harvard University in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology with Tom Maniatis.
Since 2005 Julian has worked at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics as a Principal Investigator and where he is now Deputy Director, and as an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in internal medicine where he contributes to the acute medical take and also chairs the Oxford Genomic Medicine Multi-Disciplinary Team.
Julian is Director of the Doctoral Training Programme in Genomic Medicine and Statistics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians who awarded him the Graham Bull Prize in Clinical Science (2011) and Linacre Medal (2008).
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The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Dr Alison Wright as the 2021 Balfour Lecture winner.
Alison Wright is a NERC Independent Research Fellow in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. She received her DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2015 before taking up a postdoctoral position at University College London with Professor Judith Mank. Alison started her current position as a Research Fellow in January 2017.
Work in Alison’s group is focused on studying the genomic and evolutionary processes underlying sex differences, and the relationship between genotype and complex phenotypes. Her PhD research centered on the evolution of sex chromosomes across birds and their role in sexually dimorphic phenotypes. Alison shifted focus in her postdoctoral work to investigate the genomic origins of sex chromosomes using comparative studies across guppy populations. Recent work in her group studies how sex-specific selection pressures shape the evolution of gene regulation across portions of the genome that are shared equally between males and females.
The quality and impact of Alison’s research has been recognised by several international awards, including the Jasper-Loftus Hill Young Investigator Award in 2017 from the American Society of Naturalists, Certificate of Commendation in 2016 from the Zoological Society of London in recognition of the quality of her doctoral thesis, the SSE Presidents’ Award for an Outstanding Dissertation Paper in Evolution in 2015 and a Walter Fitch Prize Finalist in 2012 from the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution.
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The summer studentship workshop planned for 2020 in Oxford was unable to go ahead.
Instead, a virtual event was organised and 20 students gave three minute presentations of their projects.
We are delighted to announce the following winners:
First place goes to Violette Pepper for her talk about a mutant screening of Eragrostis tef, an Ethiopian cereal crop.
Georgia Whitton, who focused on the role of alternative splicing and how long-read sequencing is enhancing our understanding of the transcriptome, won second prize.
Third prize went to Daniele Cotton who studied Gene-level analysis of breast cancer heritability in European populations.
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Today, 14th October 2020, would have been the 155th birthday of Edith Rebecca (Becky) Saunders, founder of The Genetics Society.
Becky was a remarkable woman with many talents, who led a full and interesting life.
Much of Becky’s life has been documented by Christine Alexander, Library of Genetics, Cambridge University:
Private life
Balfour Lab
Women in science
My Colleague
Mother of genetics
Societies
British Assoc.
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