News

Genes and hands: mapping character and health

28 November 2025

Dr Charlotte Houldcroft joined Dr Adam Rutherford on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week on Monday 24 th November 2025. She discussed her work on ancient viruses which can be found in human remains which are thousands of years old. She also studies the problems these viruses cause today for organ transplant recipients. Listen to...

Curious Cases: Immortal Jellies

25 November 2025

Dr Alex Cagan joined Hannah Fry and Dara O' Briain on the BBC Radio 4 Podcast, Curious Cases, which looked at some remarkably long-lived species and what they can teach us about ageing. This is a key area of focus for Dr Cagan's lab. Listen to the full episode here.

Genetics Society Medal 2026 – Prof Richard Durbin

17 November 2025

We are delighted to share that Professor Richard Durbin has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Genetics Society Medal. " I am greatly honoured to receive the Genetics Society Medal. I feel incredibly fortunate to be living in the era of ever-advancing insights and opportunities coming from genome sequencing, with...

CRUK Research Article: Animal instincts, exploring nature’s oncologist

12 November 2025

Discover how nature’s giants — whales, elephants, even naked mole-rats — may hold the secrets to resisting cancer. In “Animal instincts: Exploring nature’s oncologist”, evolutionary biologist and group leader Dr Alex Cagan explores how these unique species challenge our assumptions about cancer risk, body size and...

ERC Synergy Grant Success

7 November 2025

We are delighted to share the fantastic success members of the Department have had in the recent round of ERC Synergy awards. Professor Richard Durbin and Dr Felipe Karam-Teixeira, along with Dr Magnus Norborg in Vienna, will work to understand how metazoan genomes co exist and evolve with transposable elements. Professor...

Big Biology Day 2025

10 October 2025

The Department of Genetics is back at Big Biology Day 2025 – Saturday 11 October Come and explore some of biology’s biggest mysteries with us: Why do some species live much longer than others? • Peer through a microscope at real tissue samples from animals and plants with wildly different lifespans. • Play our lifespan...

CRIT hosts successful Bioinformatics Summer School for Saudi Students

1 August 2025

This summer, the Centre for Research Informatics Training (formerly the Bioinformatics Training Facility) hosted 19 students from Saudi Arabia for a six-week residential bioinformatics summer school. The programme covered a broad range of topics, including bulk and single-cell RNA-seq, proteomics, bacterial genomics, and...

25 years of the Human Genome Project

21 July 2025

Professor Richard Durbin features on the latest The Naked Scientists podcast where they look at 25 years of the Human Genome Project. What is it? and what has it achieved? The Human Genome Project was unveiled in 2000 - a magnificent milestone that promised to transform our understanding of biology and medicine. You can...

Can genetics grow a better garden?

14 July 2025

Dr Aylwyn Scally features on the latest The Naked Scientists podcast. The interview explores the origins of genetics and its potential role in helping modern gardens adapt to climate challenges like drought and pests. You can listen to the full episode here.

Large-scale DNA study maps 37,000 years of human disease history

11 July 2025

A new study maps infectious diseases across millennia and offers new insight into how human-animal interactions permanently transformed our health landscape. A research team led by Eske Willerslev, professor at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge, has recovered ancient DNA from 214 known human...