How to identify 'disease genes'
As part of the PM programme's series of interviews with scientists, Aoife McLysaght, associate professor of genetics at Trinity College in Dublin, tells PM presenter Eddie Mair about her work of using evolutionary genetics to learn more about disease genes.
She explains, "We are trying to understand more about disease genes, and which are the disease genes, and what happens when they go wrong."
Prof McLysaght uses evolutionary genetics, to compare genes over history: "You can go back as far as you like... back to the origins of life."
"But what we do goes back about half a billion years."
She highlighted that her team are trying to "identify the vulnerabilities in terms of DNA" using the evolution of genes, to protect against disease in the future.
07 Dec 2012
- From the section Science & Environment