Darren Griffin: Celebrating a milestone with a good deed

Genetic disease affects 1 in 50 babies, can lead to stillbirth, miscarriage, pregnancy complications and IVF failure. Young researchers working in this field drive scientific progress in this area. One of the ways in which we can promote their careers is by supporting them to visit other labs, to attend conferences and to present their fascinating research.

Sadly, funds are all too short for allowing them to do this, and so Darren Griffin decided to fundraise to support these young people in enhancing their scientific careers in this fascinating and worthwhile area of science.

Darren recently celebrated his 50th birthday, and, instead of presents, asked friends, family and collaborators to donate to his cause.  He said:

“The idea came from the fact that I was having a big birthday party and didn’t want my house filled up with presents from every guest I was inviting.  Bringing opportunities to young scientists is one of the most rewarding parts of my job and I thought there could be no better way to divert any monetary good wishes to and even better good cause.  The just giving page was excellent and I was overwhelmed by the generosity of my friends.  The money is already about to be put to good use with three of my lab going to a conference in Florence later in the year.”

To date, the fund has exceeded its initial target of £4,000 and continues to grow.  You can visit the page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Darren-Griffin

Angry and Overwhelmed: The Men Who Experience Postnatal Depression

Ellie Lee recently commented on an article on postnatal depression (PND) entitled:
Angry and Overwhelmed: The Men Who Experience Postnatal Depression. Ellie said.

“Some studies claim that PND effects up to 90 percent of women, when what they are actually just describing is the condition of being a mother. There is a quite legitimate and very important perception that women—and men—are finding the demands of parenthood more and more difficult, but they are trying to bring that problem to light by calling it an illness, and that is the part I am very concerned about.”
The full article by Laila Tyack can be found here:

Abortion Law and Policy: Roundtable Discussion

Grimond (GS7), 12-2 pm, 27 March 2017.

This lunchtime discussion will include short presentations from a number of visitors, staff and research students at the University of Kent outlining their current research in the broad area of abortion law and policy.   There will be ample time for discussion and a sandwich lunch will be provided.

Presenters will include Kate Gleeson (Macquarie Law School and visitor, KCLGS); Joanna Mishtal (University of Central Florida and visitor, KCLGS); Christy Zink (George Washington University and visitor, KCLGS); Ann Furedi (CEO, bpas); Ellie Lee (SSPSSR); Clare Parker (KLS); Verity Pooke (SSPSSR); and Sally Sheldon (KLS).

Coverage for Jan Macvarish’s book in Neuroparenting

Jan Macvarish’s book on Neuroparenting has received European press coverage

Doctors, Conscience and Abortion Provision 

This is a one-day workshop hosted by the University of Kent, as a collaboration between the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Reproduction (CISoR), the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies (CPCS) and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
 
Date: Thursday 29th June 2017
Venue: Ground Floor, Cornwallis East Building, University of Kent, Canterbury
Organisers: Dr Ellie Lee (SSPSSR) and Professor Sally Sheldon (Kent Law School), University of Kent
This event is one of a number taking place during 2017, the year of the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act. In common with other events, its aim is to promote critical reflection about this legislation. The programme overall will take ‘conscience’ as its core theme. The day will begin with a presentation by Professor Sally Sheldon about history of medical opinion in the development of the British Abortion law, based on work for the project ‘The Abortion Act: A Biography’. The programme includes discussion about research considering abortion provision in England based on new research led by Dr Ellie Lee, but we will also widen the lens and benefit from a comparative focus. We are delighted to be able to include Dr Lori Freedman and Professor Wendy Chavkin from the US as presenters. 
  
You can find full details of programme and speakers here

 
Book in for the event here (this event is free to attend, and places will be allocated on a first come basis)

 
PGR students are invited to submit Posters. Details here

Darren Griffin comments on GIANT study

GIANT makes short work of height gene discovery

Don’t you just love it when an acronym comes together? In the pages of last week’s edition of Nature (see BioNews 887), a consortium that styles itself with the moniker ‘GIANT’ (short for Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits – I’ll try to keep further puns to a minimum) describes 83 novel but rare genetic variants that are related to human height. The study involved more than 700,000 people and the dark art of genome-wide association studies, or GWAS. Basically, GWAS use DNA arrays or ‘chips’ – collections of known DNA variations – to search the genomes of a large number of individuals for these variations, and so link them to traits. The more people are analysed, the more ‘power’ the study is said to have, in that it can accurately link less common variations to traits. Height is a complex trait involving many genes, and this study brings the total known to be involved to around 700.

Click here for full article

 

Understanding quality control during sperm production

Dr Peter Ellis from the School of Biosciences recently published a paper in the journal Human Molecular Genetics on the quality control mechanisms during sperm production.

During the production of eggs and sperm (gametes) in mammals, there is a need for strict quality control. This includes ensuring correct cell division, that exactly half the genome makes it into the final product, that the right amount of genetic recombination (the process through which we are all different) occurs, and that the DNA packaged into the egg and sperm cells is undamaged. One of the ‘checkpoint’ pathways the developing gametes use to do this is ‘meiotic silencing’, in which the cell tests whether each chromosome has correctly paired up with its partner, and inactivates the genes on any chromosome that is not paired. Dr Ellis’ work shows that a gene on the Y chromosome, Zfy2 controls the stringency of meiotic silencing. In male mice lacking Zfy2, meiotic silencing is ‘leaky’, the resulting germ cells show a range of developmental problems, and the mice are sterile.

Further details can be found here.