A Visit from Dolly… TAGS: cloning | dolly the sheep | Exhibition | roslin institute It has been a while since my last post, but rest assured, the ‘Towards Dolly’ project has not been idle! As you’ll have seen from the last couple of posts, …Continue reading →

Edinburgh’s first geneticist: Arthur Darbishire (1879-1915) TAGS: animal genetics | genetics | Towards Dolly | Untold stories In 1911, the University of Edinburgh appointed its first Lecturer in Genetics. The Lectureship was the first academic genetics post in Britain – the Balfour Chair in Genetics at the …Continue reading →

Mary Lyon (1925-2014) – Edinburgh connections TAGS: Edinburgh | genetics | genome | mary lyon | mottled | mouse | muscular dystrophy | mutants | x-chromosome We were saddened to hear recently of the passing of Mary Lyon, a distinguished mouse geneticist. Born in 1925 in Norwich, Mary was best known for her X-chromosome inactivation hypothesis, …Continue reading →

Frozen: The story of Frostie the calf TAGS: biotechnology | calf | chris polge | dolly the sheep | Edinburgh | embryo | freezing | frostie | liquid nitrogen | reproductive physiology | roslin | wilmut Ian Wilmut is best known for his involvement with the team which cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996. However, his scientific career, which spans more than five decades, includes a variety …Continue reading →

Science From The Tomb… TAGS: ancient egypt | beatty | Edinburgh | genetics | halloween | institute of animal genetics | mummies | reproductive physiology It’s nearly Hallowe’en, when spooky subjects are foremost in our minds. An ideal time, then, to look at some rather unusual correspondence from the Richard Alan Beatty archive about Egyptian mummies! At first …Continue reading →

Dolly Pops Up… TAGS: dolly the sheep | Towards Dolly Did you know that Edinburgh has been a world leader in genetics for over a century? And that there’s definitely more to cloning than just Dolly the sheep? Come to …Continue reading →

Dame Anne McLaren (1927-2007) TAGS: alan beatty | anne mclaren | fertility | in vitro | institute of animal genetics | mammalian development | reproductive biology | royal society | waddington It’s always great to receive comments and feedback from our blog readers, especially those which suggest subjects or people which we haven’t yet featured. We have a growing list of posts …Continue reading →

Freshers’ Week – 1870 style TAGS: Edinburgh | ewart | fresher | Freshers Week | sophia jex-blake | University of Edinburgh This week is one of the busiest times of the year for the University of Edinburgh, and a momentous week for our brand new students – it’s Fresher’s Week! The …Continue reading →

‘Lotte’: Charlotte Auerbach (1899-1994) TAGS: auerbach | drosophila | genetics | mosaics | muller | mustard gas | mutagenesis | mutation | neurospora Recently I have been cataloguing the various papers we have concerning Charlotte Auerbach (known as ‘Lotte’ to her friends), who passed away 20 years ago this year. Mention has already been …Continue reading →

IVF: 36 years on TAGS: beatty | controversy | edwards | in vitro | ivf | louise brown | media | test tube Since its beginnings, the science of genetics has been concerned with questions of how life is made, how characteristics are passed down through generations, and how variations occur within species. …Continue reading →