Twincredibles 9pm, Monday 10th October on BBC2 or on BBC iplayer.
October 2011
Twincredibles is a film that is being shown as part of BBC Two's Mixed Race Britain Season and follows five sets of twins, from toddlers through to adults, to create a surprising and compelling story about the journey of mixed race Britain. The stories of all these twins throw a new and fascinating light on how brothers and sisters who are similar in so many other ways lead different lives because of their skin colour.
Dr Jim Wilson was called upon to explain how it was possible for one twin to be black and the other white. To illustrate this he carried out some genetic testing on Shirley, the mother of the youngest set of twins, Hope and Leo. Their father is white and their mother black but the genetic ancestry testing showed that Shirley was in fact half European and half African by blood, which means she carries both skin lightening and skin darkening genetic variants. It is a lottery which of these she gave to each of her children - Hope has by chance inherited skin lightening variants and Leo got skin-darkening variants. If Shirley had one hundred children they would show a beautiful spectrum of colour from light to dark, it just so happens that Hope and Leo are from opposite ends of this spectrum.
Related Links
Dr Jim Wilson: Centre for Population Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh
Black and White twins: The Guardian
What makes a mixed race twin white or black? BBC news
IGMM Mouse Day merger celebration.
October 2011
To celebrate the merger of MRC Human Genetics Unit into the University of Edinburgh to unify the IGMM, Alan Hart and colleagues (Cathy Abbott, Val Brunton, Peter Hohenstein and Ian Jackson) organised an IGMM Mouse Day. The event on Monday 3rd October 2011 was very well attended with more than 100 in attendance and attracted sponsorship from Charles River, DBM Scotland, Harlan, Millipore, TaconicArtemis, Tecniplast and Transnetyx.
The format of the day was a series of exciting talks from researchers highlighting the work performed here at IGMM using mouse as the model organism to understand gene function to better understand human disease. Peter Hohenstein kicked off the day with a talk on the various transgenic technologies that are available at IGMM, followed by Laura Lettice demonstrating how transgenic mice can be used to understand how long-range enhancers can influence gene function. Sarah Carpanini gave an excellent talk showing results from her Rab18 knockout mouse that recapitulates the human condition and now is providing new insights into how this gene functions in humans. The first session was brought to a close with a talk by Ian Adams showing results from the Tex19 knockout animal and how this gene in germ cells functions. Ian’s quip that somatic cells were merely the vehicle that allows the germ cells to pass from generation to generation was met with wry laughter.
After a brief coffee break and interaction with representatives from the sponsors the second session got under way. Julia Dorin presented work on her ß-defensin studies. These animals present with an unexpected phenotype and highlight the benefit of studying gene function in vivo. Helen Newbery then presented a mouse model she has been studying for a few years, known as Wasted and again showing that this model is excellent to study neuronal degeneration. Two talks followed, one by Simon Langdon and the other by Paul Brennan, both showing how one can utilise either xenografts or genetic manipulation to generate models of cancer to test drug therapies.
The session was then rounded off with Chris Armit presenting work from the Mouse Atlas showing the extensive dataset that has been gathered and how one may interrogate the data using a web-based approach. Lunch gave delegates the chance to discuss the morning sessions and to interact with one another.
Session 3 started with a talk from Val Brunton about the work that she is performing to image in vivo cancer cells. Richard Mort developed this theme of imaging discussing his current research by showing ex vivo imaging of melanocytes and how to develop mathematical models to better understand these cells. Rob van’t Hof presented his work using microCT to image tissue samples as well as to perform in vivo imaging to tease out and describe phenotypes in more detail. Finally we were very fortunate to have a talk from Mary Diaz a mouse pathologist based at Little France. Mary presented the services available across town and Mary’s is already in demand as a result to discuss how her pathologist skills may help phenotype mouse models.
The three fantastic sessions showed the breadth of work that is being performed by researchers at IGMM and all underpinned by the first class support from animal technicians in either the Evans or BRF buildings. After the final break of the day we were all treated to an excellent keynote talk by Bill Skarnes. Bill on crutches after an accident had travelled up earlier that day from Sanger Institute to be with us and he delivered a brilliant and very interesting seminar. His work over the past 20+ years using mouse as the model organism and his vision in developing technologies and resources available to the community was a joy to hear. Professor Nick Hastie gave the final address of the day and summed up beautifully a most enjoyable, productive and fruitful day.
Related Links
