Lecture Tour On the Next Frontier In Human Genetics

Lecture Tour On the Next Frontier In Human Genetics

Scientists have mapped the human genome but the next challenge is understanding human epigenomes.

New Zealanders in different parts of the country will soon get to hear about this new frontier from one of Australia’s best statisticians, Professor Terry Speed.

Why do we have blood, nerve, skin and muscle cells when the DNA or genetic information for those cells is largely identical? The answer lies in our epigenomes.

“These are best described as the reading instructions,” says Professor Speed. “If we compare the genome sequence to text, the epigenome is the punctuation which shows how the DNA should be read to create these different types of cells.”

A world leader in bioinformatics, Professor Speed says work understanding epigenomes can now go ahead more rapidly because of the advances in DNA sequencing.

“If we think of the single reference human genome, there will be literally hundreds of reference epigenomes. This means we need high-throughput techniques to study epigenomes and now with second-generation DNA sequencing techniques, we have that.”

Even so, Professor Speed says that epigenome analysis will likely occupy biologists, bio-informaticians and biostatisticians like himself for some time to come.

Professor Terry Speed is visiting the country as the 2013 Royal Society of New Zealand Distinguished Speaker. He will speak in Auckland, Palmerston North, Hamilton, Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington from June 11 to 20.

In his talk, Professor Speed will introduce the topic of epigenomes, outline the data becoming available, summarise some of the progress made so far and point to some of the probability and statistical challenges.

To date in his career, Professor Speed’s work has enabled scientists to assess which genes are being turned on in a cell and to what extent. This has helped to identify areas of the human genome that contribute to cancer, genes that are vital for embryonic development and to pinpoint malaria proteins responsible for initiating infection in human red blood cells.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian equivalent of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and was awarded the NHMRC Achievement Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research in 2007 and an Australia Fellowship in 2009. Most recently he was presented with the 2012 Thomson Reuter’s Citation Award and the 2012 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation in the Life Sciences.

Dr Di McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of New Zealand, says it is a real honour to host such an exceptional statistician.

“Through our annual Distinguished Speaker lecture series, we hope to give New Zealanders an opportunity to hear first-hand from some influential international mathematicians, scientists and scholars.

“We hope this will allow those who attend our lectures the opportunity to understand better the world around them and to be excited by the new frontiers being uncovered by research.”

Professor Speed’s lectures are free and open to the public. Bookings are recommended and can be made at www.royalsociety.org.nz/frontier.

ENDS

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