Lectures to explore the genetic revolution

The ways genetics can transform healthcare and medicine will be discussed at a lecture series featuring one of the world’s leading researchers.

Professor Peter Donnelly, of the University of Oxford, will present the Sir Neil Waters Distinguished Lecture at each Massey campus this month. The genetic revolution: opportunities and challenges will look at how the human genome project has changed the face of healthcare.

Professor Donnelly says the human genome sequence is like a map.

“It is like giving us a map of that uncharted territory of our genomes,” he says. “Through understanding genetics, we can learn about particular entities which we used to think of as being the same disease being rather different because of different genetic causes or factors, and targeting treatments and therapies at the individual, rather than a one size fits all approach.”

Professor Donnelly is director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in Australia before moving to Oxford in 1980 as a Rhodes Scholar to undertake doctoral work in Mathematics. Since then he has worked at, and held, professorships in a number of universities in the United Kingdom and the United States, including the University of London and the University of Chicago, returning to Oxford in 1996.

His early research focused on mathematical and statistical problems in genetics, but over time he has become more and more involved in the science itself. He has played central roles in a number of major collaborations, including the International HapMap project, the successor to the Human Genome Project which studied the patterns of genetic variation in global populations, and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortia, which he chairs.

Professor Donnelly has received a number of academic awards for his work, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

He is recognised internationally as a superb speaker. Earlier this year he delivered the inaugural Oxford London Lecture on the genetic revolution. The lectures are free but bookings are essential.

The 2011 Sir Neil Waters Distinguished Lectures:
Wednesday 20 July, 7pm: Sir Neil Waters Lecture Theatre, Albany Campus
Monday 25 July, 5.30pm: Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North
Tuesday 26 July, 7pm: Theatrette, Wellington Campus