New Wellcome Witnesses publication: 'Human Gene Mapping Workshops c.1973-c.1991'
A new
volume of Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine is freely available to
download at the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website:
Human
Gene Mapping Workshops c.1973-c.1991
'They were
very much workshops from the ground up, from the people who wanted to work
together with no formal organization, no major committees, no society. We just
got on and compared notes and eventually did collaborative experiments
…' Professor Sir Walter Bodmer
This Witness
Seminar discusses the scientific origins of gene mapping and emergence of the
Human Gene Mapping Workshops (HGMW). From HGM1 in Yale (1973) to HGM11 in
London (1991), key scientists, based principally in the UK, share memories of
participating in these workshops and reflect on the historical importance of
the HGMW in contemporary biomedicine.
Topics include
the influence of somatic cell genetics; role of non-human gene mapping; advent
of DNA-based techniques; the culture of collaboration in the gene mapping
community; nomenclature challenges; clinical applications; the informatics
revolution; the origins of the Human Genome Project and advent of sequencing
technologies. Throughout, tribute is paid to the contributions of international
colleagues to gene mapping.
The seminar was
chaired by Professor Peter Harper, and the volume is introduced by Professor
Peter Goodfellow.
'… criticism
is so characteristic of nomenclature, it’s always so controversial and people
get so het up about it. Their gene is like their baby and everyone always
agrees that one gene should only have one name but they are sure it should be
theirs.' Professor Sue Povey
Jones E M, Tansey
E M. (eds) (2015)
Wellcome
Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine, vol. 54. London: Queen Mary University of
London.
ISBN 978 1 91019
503 1
'… as soon as
two kilobases of human DNA sequence was accumulated it would be released
immediately on the internet, the ‘no intellectual property’ position would be
taken rather than a protective position to make sure that the data remained
freely available. That’s had as much of an impact outside of genomics as
probably the human genome has had within genomics.' Professor Michael
Morgan
This volume
can be ordered from www.amazon.co.uk; www.amazon.com; and all good booksellers for
£6/$10 plus postage, using the ISBN. For further details of this and other
volumes in the series visit: http://www.histmodbiomed.org/article/wellcome-witnesses-volumes.
All volumes
are freely available to download.
Regards,
Alan
Yabsley
Multimedia
Manager, Makers of Modern Biomedicine project
School of History
Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
020 7882 3472
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