Our Genetic World

Our behaviour and physiology are governed by a 24 hour internal clock that ticks away from the time we are in the womb until we kick the bucket. This endogenous circadian (circa – about, diem – a day) rhythm is found in all branches of life, plants, fungi, animals, even bacteria and modulates all biological processes. Needless to say, when clocks go wrong, our bodies suffer. Since the invention of the light bulb, our natural body clocks have strained to keep up with modern life in our increasingly ’24 hour society’. I shall discuss the problem and what to do about it.

Environmental pollution is a major threat to ecosystem and human health. Whilst frameworks exist to try to understand the current health outcomes of pollution exposure, the transgenerational effects of pollution remain largely unknown. My lab used various invertebrate species to 1) understand how pollution can affect our genes and 2) understand how these genetic changes are passed on to future generations, causing transgenerational disease. There will also be live ‘creepy crawlies’ at the talk to take a look at!

Ageing has fascinated and perplexed humans since the dawn of time. Alexander the Great sought the fountain of youth in the 4th Century BC, and we have long since searched to unravel the secrets of ageing, and how we can slow the process with anti-ageing compounds and technologies. Whilst we now know that ageing is complex and influenced by a myriad of genetic and environmental factors, many mysteries remain. For example, why do some people appear to age faster than others? This talk will explore the how, what and why of ageing, and how we can use parasitic wasps to study ageing in humans.