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Study of
islanders DNA to seek clues for a cure to MS:
26 May 2008
Dr Jim Wilson, an MRC Human Genetics Unit visiting scientist is leading a study in Orkney and Shetland, to find out why these island groups have the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world and hopefully identify new genes influencing the risk of developing the disease.
TV Documentary: "Scotland's Hidden Epidemic:
The truth about MS" A short interview with Jim Wilson featured in a TV documentary about Multiple Sclerosis. The programme "Scotland's Hidden Epidemic: The truth about MS", was broadcast on 23.07.08, BBC One Scotland.
Jenkinson Memorial Lectures in Embryology:
9 July 2008
Jenkinson Memorial Lectures in Embryology 9 July 2008 Professor Wendy Bickmore has been elected to give one of the Jenkinson Memorial Lectures in Embryology for 2008-2009 at the University of Oxford. This lecture is named after John Wilfred Jenkinson, a pioneering embryologist who worked on early development of mouse and frog embryos.
He published the first English textbook on Experimental Embryology in 1909, but he was tragically killed at Gallipoli in May 1915. Wendy was elected in recognition of her work on revealing the changes in chromatin and chromosome structure that occur in development and that act to control the activity of a specific set of genes - the Hox genes - that control important cell decisions in development.