News archive 2008

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys: genetic testing lecture

13 May 2008, PR 88/08

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys will lecture at King’s tomorrow (14 May)on the advances of genetic testing.  His invention of DNA fingerprinting in 1984 revolutionized criminal investigations, and subsequently DNA profiling for areas such as human and animal evolution and inherited disorders

Professor Jeffreys lecture: Genetic Fingerprinting and Beyond, will trace the development of early genetic testing to current state-of-the-art techniques. The lecture will take place tomorrow in the Gainsford Lecture Hall, Weston Education Centre, Denmark Hill Campus between 12.30 and 13.30.

Professor Jeffreys, is a highly distinguished geneticist, who received a knighthood for his work in 1994 and is now Royal Society Wolfson Research Professor at the University of Leicester. He was also one of the first people to receive an honorary degree from the University of London awarded by King’s in 2007.

He is now studying the effects of chronic irradiation, and other areas of interest include analysis of human genome instability and of recombination processes by single gamete and transgenic approaches, and the effects of ionising radiation on germline mutation.

In 2006 he was elected Great Briton of 2006 in the third Morgan Stanley Great Briton Awards.

DNA Discoveries

In his lecture Professor Jeffreys will cover how DNA fingerprinting, accidentally invented in 1984, has revolutionised many areas of biology, most notably in forensic and legal medicine.

He will also 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.

Finally he will discuss how this work also 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.




Notes to editors

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2007) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has 19,300 students from more than 130 countries, and 5,000 employees. King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings and has an annual income of approximately £400 million. An investment of £500 million has been made in the redevelopment of its estate.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, social sciences, the health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres – more than any other university.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are working together to create the UK's largest Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC). The AHSC will bring together the widest range of clinical and research expertise in the UK – strengths that will be used to drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity.

For further information visit http://www.londonsahsc.org




Further information
Kate Moore, Public Relations Officer (Health Schools)
Public Relations Department
Email: kate.moore@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 4334



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Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk