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Scientifique
Medway Café
Sponsored and organised by
Professor Darren Griffin
School of Biosciences
University of Kent
Doors open at 6:45pm for a 7:30pm start
Innovation Centre Medway Phase 2
“Designer Babies”
The definition of a “designer baby” is a baby that has been designed by its future parents to have all the desirable genetic traits that the parents would wish for - presumably to give the resulting child the best possible start and advantages in life.
This talk will be to explore some of the facts that surround this much-vaunted media phrase and dispel some of the myths that surround it. The practices of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), cloning and germline therapy will be introduced along with an appraisal of how the practicalities of these procedures justify the hype that accompanies them.
Darren griffin is a Professor of Genetics at the university of Kent. In the early 1990s, he collaborated with Professors Alan Handyside and Robert Winston and became the first person to use a technique called “FISH” to diagnose sex in IVF embryos. This is technique used to present day and Professor Griffin’s work has taken him into the genetics of human sperm, birds, fatness in pigs, sex determination and computer-based-learning. More recently, again in collaboration with Alan Handyside, he has been a major contributor to the test the Genetic MoT for embryos.
Biography
Prof. Darren Griffin joined the school in 2004 from Brunel University. His main interests are in the study of chromosomes, principally in humans (from spermatogenesis to preimplantation development) and birds. Other interests include allelic variation and its relationship to fatness and studies relating to eLearning. In 2007 he became a BBSRC Career Development Fellow with a remit to exploit microarray technology for studies of copy number variation in birds and humans.
Research Career
2008 Doctor of Science, University of Manchester
2007 Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists
2007 BBSRC Career Development Fellow
2004 Vice President of the International Chromosome and Genome Society
2002 Postgraduate Certificate, Teaching and Learning in HE, Brunel University.
2002 Fellow of the Institute of Biology.
2001 Editorial Board 'Prenatal Diagnosis'.
1992 Doctor of Philosophy, Human Genetics, University College London.
1988 Bachelor of Science (with honours), Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Manchester