The Scottish Healthcare Genetics
Public Engagement Network
Events in March 2010
Monday March 1st 2010, 18:00
Public Lecture
The Importance of Being Red
David Anderson Berry Medal Lecture
Imagine, at some far distant time, on some strange planet, you bumped into a stranger who, like you, was heavily freckled and had red hair. What would you talk about first? Why is it that how your skin reacts to ultra-violet radiation reveals so much about your genetic ancestry? And what has hair got to do with it anyway? Does it still really matter how your skin reacts to sunshine? Over the last twenty years, building on work in mouse genetics and experimental dermatology, we have a broad outline of the physiology of human pigmentation and how it relates to ultraviolet radiation. Is it still important to be red, or should we avoid it at all costs?
Organised by: The Royal Society of Edinburgh