Ellie Lee debated the topic ‘Eugenics: myth and reality’ at The Battle of Ideas Festival at the Barbican in October.
 
We now have more understanding of our genes than ever before and the capacity to alter them in order to resolve congenital medical conditions. Other techniques that change our germlines – our heritable characteristics – are also on their way, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 technique recently used by Chinese scientists to ‘edit’ the genes of a human embryo. But such developments often inspire resistance and are described as ‘eugenic’. But do today’s breakthroughs really resemble past horrors or are these simply invoked by those who fear gene manipulation today? This debate filmed at the Battle of Ideas clarifies much, not least the history of eugenics which bears little resemblance to the breakthroughs worth embracing now. The speakers were: Dr Chris Gyngell, Dr Lesley Hall, Dr Ellie Lee, Güneş Taylor and the chair was Sandy Starr communications officer, Progress Educational Trust.’
 
The proceedings can be viewed at   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVkVDWLyoU4

Kirsty Horsey is a co-author of a recently published Surrogacy UK (SUK) Working Group report dealing with Surrogacy Law Reform, specifically to highlight the need for urgent reform of surrogacy law in the UK. The Working Group aimed to give a voice to those involved in surrogacy – either as intended parents, surrogates or professionals in the field – as well as to interrogate and dispel a number of pervasive ‘surrogacy myths’ that have informed debate in recent years.  The report, published in November 2015, concludes that the time is ripe to embark upon reform of surrogacy law and regulation in the UK, and makes a series of recommendations to that effect, all with the underlying aim or protecting the best interests of children born via surrogacy.  Also involved are Natalie Smith and Sarah Jones, trustees of Surrogacy UK; Sarah Norcross, Director of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) and Louisa Ghevaert, an expert in surrogacy, fertility and parenting law at Michelmores LLP. 

The full report can be found here.

The second in the CISoR Cafe Scientifique series built on the success on the first, proving that good things can only get better. Hosted by the Olde Beverlie pub, Kent Law School (KLS) Senior Lecturer Kirsty Horsey and KLS PhD law student Katia Neofytou shared the presentation and animated a discussion on the topic of ‘Surrogacy, Egg Sharing and Reproduction in the 21^st Century’. Kirsty and Katia’s talk involved audience members to determine parentage for some fourteen different surrogate, donor and intended parent ova and sperm combinations. Pamela White, KLS, moderated a lively discussion among about 20 delegates.  The pub management once again came up trumps with a nice buffet and we look forward to Antony Blackburn-Starza challenging us to consider the question: “Should employers pay for egg freezing?” in December.

Developing Kent–Russian connections in April 2015 CISoR’s Dr Michael Romanov and our collaborator Dr Denis Larkin, of the Royal Veterinary College, London visited the All-Russian Research Institute for Farm Animal Genetics and Breeding in Pushkin and St Petersburg State University. They were invited seminar speakers and delivered talks about livestock and avian genetics and genomics. Highlights of the seminar were genomic selection in cattle, genome-wide diversity in sheep, and evolutionary genomics in birds. Their Russian counterparts reported studies on high throughput genome-wide genotyping of a dairy breeding stock and examination of variation in candidate genes for poultry productive and reproductive traits. The parties set up plans for continuing partnership and collaborative research.

Denis (left) and Mike (right) in the Institute’s Hall of Fame:

The Spectre of a return trip

In October 2015, Mike and Denis were re-invited for an extension seminar course followed by an international scientific meeting at the All-Russian Research Institute for Farm Animal Genetics and Breeding in Pushkin. These events coincided with the Institute’s 75th anniversary celebration. The lectures and hands-on sessions were focused on theoretical and practical aspects of contemporary genetics and genomics in livestock and birds. Their topics involved farm animal and avian genomes, genetic variation and markers, economically important genes, novel sequencing and SNP technologies, genome assembling and annotation tools. Reports at the international conference dealt with improvement of livestock (cattle, swine) and poultry species and breeds, their performance and fecundity, using genetic, genomic and transgenesis techniques. The Russian colleagues showed an interest in collaboration with the UK researchers regarding genomic applications in chicken selection.

Reproduction “motifs” in the Animal Genetics Institute interior design

The CISoR Cafe Scientifique series kicked off in fine style in October this year.  Hosted by the Olde Beverlie pub, CISoR Director and Deputy Director took the lead in a presentation and discussion based around the topic of “Designer Babies” One step further on the slippery slope.”  Darren’s talk was peppered with visual props including his balloon inside a balloon” (supposed to represent a cell apparently) and Sally moderated a lively discussion among about 50 delegates.  The pub management came up trumps with a nice buffet and we look forward to Kirsty Horsey enlightening us with the next one on surrogacy and egg sharing.

“Born this way” in contemporary science: Multidisciplinary approaches to sexuality and gender

Tuesday 24th November, 13:00-18:30, Darwin Conference Suite

This is a University-wide event open to the public, brought to you by The Biological Anthropology Research Group, School of Anthropology & Conservation and CISoR: The Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Reproduction.

Sexuality is an important topic in society and life. It is also one that has traditionally been seen through a very heteronormative lens. Lots of research addresses the origin of two distinct sexes in tome-like fashion. Research on behaviour tends to focus on opposite-sex mating, marriage and motivations, but ignores the broader spectrum of sexualities that actually depict human populations.

Now we know that sexual orientation is not a choice and that it is highly variable, but that society also shapes the underlying orientation in myriad ways. A topic this complex needs perspective from multiple levels and disciplines. Recent work in numerous fields will be used as a platform to discuss up-to-date research on many levels, from the biological (where does sex come from?), to the social (how does society shape sexual behaviour, orientation and acceptance given the underlying biological motivations and orientations?). We want to discuss where research is now, where it is headed, and how it can be applied to issues of health and equality.

The event consists of six talks by experts in multiple disciplines, presenting research from multiple perspectives, and concludes with a panel discussion. There are opportunities for audience participation at the end of each talk, as well as during the final discussion. The goal is an open yet critical atmosphere to discuss these exciting topics.

There are a lot of pressing needs for wider dissemination of research on this topic. We hope you will come and take part in the discussion.

The speakers are:

• Peter Goodfellow, University of Kent
• Gerulf Rieger, University of Essex, psychology
• Diana Fleischman, University of Portsmouth, psychology
• Jamie Lawson, Durham University, biological anthropology
• Steve Lyon, Durham University, social anthropology
• Marian Duggan University of Kent, criminology

For any questions, please contact Oskar Burger.