What and why is Genomics Aotearoa?

This is the first posting of a blog provided by members of the newly formed New Zealand research organisation; Genomics Aotearoa (GA). GA is an MBIE platform to improve the use of genomics and bioinformatics in New Zealand, and part of what we do it talking about what might be able to be achieved with these sciences. Why should you care? Genomics...

Nov 2018

Lab in a Box is on the road

Peter K Dearden Hi folks, the current radio silence on this blog is due to Lab in a Box, our mobile science lab,taking all our time,. I thought I should update you on what is going on ! Lab in a Box is on the road and we are so very proud of our Big Blue Box.     The opening at Kaikorai Primary School went with a bang and there was lots of “ooooo”...

Jun 2017

Taonga Genomes

Last year I had the good fortune to visit Vienna for a conference. While there I visited the Naturhistorisches Museum, because I like these kinds of places. This one was a bit dark, and smelt ferociously of mothballs, but had some very cool stuff. However, I was a bit shocked to find in the bird section a case with about 14 dead kakapo in it. In fact...

Jun 2017

Given the Finger

The evolutionary history of the human species is complex, but hidden in that complexity are some remarkable things. A few years ago geneticists sequenced the genome of what we thought were our closes relatives, the extinct Neanderthals. That is remarkable. In 2002 we completed the Human genome sequence; just a few years later (2010) we are sequencing...

Jun 2017

The diabolic perception of Genetics

Peter K Dearden Last week one of Genetics Otago’s star researchers, Dr John McEwan of AgResearch, got the Focus Genetics Sheep Industry Science Award at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Sheep Industry Awards. This award is incredibly well deserved. Selective breeding in sheep, guided by the genetic and genomic tools developed by John means that we have...

Jun 2017

Lab in a Box

Peter K. Dearden Two weeks ago saw the announcement of Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) funding for a range of projects around the country designed to support interaction between science and society in New Zealand. This funding, along with that for participatory science, is remarkable, and the first attempt that I know of by...

Jun 2017

Why GM mosquitos might be our best bet to stop insect-borne disease.

Peter K. Dearden There is a big feature in today’s Guardian newspaper on a company called Oxitec, a company spun out of Oxford University that uses GM mosquitos to battle insect pests, including those that carry human diseases. I have known about this company for a while because I used to regularly meet with its founder Dr Luke Alphey when I was a...

Jun 2017

Genetically modified human embryos

Peter K. Dearden You may have missed it but last month the world of human genetics changed. A group of Chinese scientists published a paper describing the first genetically modified human embryos, opening a route to germ-line modification of our own species. This is an ethically troubling, but perhaps inevitable, technological break-through. We are...

Jun 2017

How to make a Mammoth

Peter K Dearden. You might have heard that Mammoths are pretty close to being de-extinctioned. Reports were all over the internet after a geneticist at Harvard University, Prof George Church, explained that they had inserted Mammoth DNA into elephant cells in culture. Soon, it was suggested, we would be riding mammoths to work, or using them as hairy...

Jun 2017

The value of seeing things.

Peter K. Dearden A month or so ago I got a pain. A nagging, annoying pain in what a doctor referred to as ‘the groinal area’. In a testicle to be precise. Now, as a possessor of a Y chromosome, I did what needed to be done, I ignored it. But it hurt. Now when your testicles hurt you want to know why, so I examined myself- remembering a friend who...

Jun 2017