06 December 2010 - ‘Delivering Global Promise Through the Life Sciences’ Conference Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 December 2010 OECD Headquarters, Paris France

Advances in the life sciences are increasingly shaping our lives and the futures that we anticipate. But are we ready for a future where we can engineer biology to create novel living organisms and direct biological products to do jobs for us in smarter ways? Will personalised genomic medicine lead to inequities between those who can afford the new science and those who cannot? Should we look to the life sciences for environmentally friendly energy sources and new materials?

09 November 2010 - Psychiatry Ethics Film Festival - Do your parents make you mentally ill?

Do modern genetics at last allow us to understand where psychiatric disorders spring from? Will there soon be new forms of remedy? Is it ethical to propose forms of pre-natal screening for mental health problems? And how do clinicians handle the issue of consent with patients suffering from profound psychiatric problems. These are some of the issues that will be discussed at the Psychiatry Ethics Film Festival, held at Edinburgh Filmhouse from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 November 2010.

26 August 2010 - Area of new biological research gets wary welcome

The emerging research area of synthetic biology may not suffer the general opposition which greeted other controversial technologies like GM crops, but its risks will need careful regulation if its promise is to be realised. These are the initial conclusions from a novel public dialogue project – using a card game – released today (26 August 2010) by the ESRC Genomics Forum, based at the University of Edinburgh.

19 August 2010 - Improving the human? New poetry competition for 2010

Does the quest to identify genes responsible for disease and death mask a more sinister lack of empathy for the imperfect? Will discoveries lead to a genetic divide between rich and poor? Do we even want to live for ever? The ESRC Genomics Forum, based at the University of Edinburgh, is hoping these questions can stimulate some poetic answers for its brand new poetry competition launched today (Thursday 19 August 2010) in partnership with the Scottish Poetry Library.

16 August 2010 - Genetics without borders?

A lively discussion exploring the controversial issue of using DNA testing to determine the nationality of asylum seekers will be hosted tomorrow (17 August 2010) by the ESRC Genomics Forum, based at the University of Edinburgh, and the British Council. The event is part of 2010’s Festival of Politics Programme.

01 March 2010 - Honour for ESRC Genomics Forum Director

Professor Steve Yearley, Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum at the University of Edinburgh has been named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), today (Monday 1 March 2010).

19 February 2010 - £2.5 million funding package for Edinburgh based social science communications centre

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has awarded a further £2.58 million to the ESRC Genomics Forum, based at the University of Edinburgh. The Forum pioneers new ways to promote social research on contemporary life science issues from GM food to personalised genetic medicine.