Researchers from the University of Kent studying the genetic basis of disease, reproductive issues and evolution were able to attend two international conferences this year thanks to funds raised from Prof Darren Griffin’s crowdfunding effort.

Dr Becky O’Connor, Prof Griffin and PhD students Becca Jennings and Lucas Kiazim attended the European Cytogenetics Association Meeting in Florence in July 2017 thanks to generous donations made to Darren’s 50th Birthday fund.

The team presented their recently published work on fertility screening in agricultural species along with their newly developed methods of genome mapping and assembly in avian and mammal species.

In addition, the birthday donations supported their attendance at the prestigious Genome 10K/Genome Science conference held at the Earlham Institute in Norfolk where both Becky O’Connor and Becca Jennings gave talks on their genome mapping research as captured by the fantastic artwork shown below of Dr Alex Cagan (@AJTCagan).