News

Friday 9 November 2007

DNA revolution discussed as part of Distinguished Lecture Series

The British geneticist who developed groundbreaking techniques for DNA fingerprinting and profiling will be talking about his work at Nottingham Trent University. Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys continues the University’s Distinguished Lecture Series with his presentation, ‘Genetic Fingerprinting and Beyond’.

DNA fingerprinting, accidentally invented in 1984, has revolutionised many areas of biology, most notably in forensic and legal medicine. Professor Jeffrey’s lecture will describe how DNA typing can be used to solve casework and will review the latest developments, including the creation of major national DNA databases that are already proving extraordinarily effective in the fight against crime.

It will also discuss how this work has led to the discovery of some of the most unstable regions of human DNA, and how these can be used to study human evolution in real time and to explore the effects of environmental exposure to agents such as radiation on heritable mutations in human DNA.

Based at the University of Leicester, Professor Jeffreys and his team also study the effects of chronic irradiation such as that which has followed the meltdown of the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl.

This free lecture takes place on Wednesday 14 November at 5.30pm. Ticket applications should be made to the Events Team. For further information please contact the Events Team on +44 (0)115 848 8786.

ENDS