GENETICS AND MEDICINE



GENETICS AND MEDICINE

HISTORICAL NETWORK



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NEWSLETTER NO. 4 March 2004

Editor: Peter S Harper (Email: HarperPS@Cardiff.ac.uk)

Introduction

Archiving

Historical library

Interviews

ASHG

Future Workshops

Website

EDITORS NOTE

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2004. There is a considerable amount to report, despite difficulty with funding. The main advances have been on the following fronts:

Archiving of records

Human Genetics Historical Library

Interviews and recordings

Although this newsletter mainly contains details of UK work, I am sure there must be comparable activities elsewhere in Europe, and also in America; I should be most grateful if people can send me information of these that can be put in future newsletters or linked with other websites.

ARCHIVING OF RECORDS

Records of Societies

Peter Farndon writes that British Society for Human Genetics (BSHG) now keeps an electronic archive of all its records; earlier paper records of BSHG and its component societies are being retrieved and collected.

Genetics Society (formerly Genetical Society), has a long-standing arrangement with the John Innes Institute (Email: kenneth.dick@bbsrc.ac.uk for the archiving of its records. This is the oldest Society devoted to Genetics in the world, founded in 1919 by William Bateson, and its archive contains much interesting material (see our website), previous newsletters and current Genetics Society News, January 2004).

It will be very helpful to know how other professional societies in the Genetics field archive their records and whether or how they can be accessed.

ARCHIVING OF PERSONAL SCIENTIFIC RECORDS OF KEY WORKERS

The UK role of the Bath University National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists NCCACS, has been noted in previous newsletters. We now have the good news that £1,000 has been donated (by Genetics Society and BSHG) to allow archiving of records of British Human Genetics to start, hopefully in the next few months.

Further details will follow in future newsletters and on the website. Again, it would be helpful to know what corresponding initiatives are taking place in other countries.

THE HUMAN GENETICS HISTORICAL LIBRARY

This is a preliminary note about this new initiative, forming part of the Historical Network activities. Its aim is to form a complete collection of early books on human and medical genetics, as a resource available for interested workers in the future. This is a feasible objective for a relatively small field such as ours.

The plan is to form the library in two parts: the virtual library will catalogue and electronically link existing collections in different centres across Europe, and should be especially valuable for the small number of rare and valuable books, and for books in languages other than English.

The actual library has been initiated in Cardiff, as part of the Wales Gene Knowledge Park activities and with the support of the School of Medicine library services. The core (currently around 500 volumes) is formed by the personal collections of two scientists and by a generous donation of books from the Oxford Clinical Genetics Department. It is hoped that further donations or bequests from retired or deceased workers will progressively enlarge this in coming years.

Cataloguing the collection and linking with other centres is in progress at present and everyone wishing to join in this initiative will be very welcome, especially from countries outside UK.

INTERVIEWS WITH HUMAN GENETICISTS

The establishment of an archive of recorded interviews with key early workers in human and medical genetics would create an important record and resource complementing the written records. A number of interviews already exist with some of the most important former scientists, but there has been no systematic initiative across Europe. Even more than for written records, there is urgency for this to be done, since any possibility of preserving personal accounts is lost with the death of the individual concerned.

Historians vary in their views on the value of oral accounts as a valid record, and on whether such interviews should be conducted by fellow scientists, as opposed to historians expert in the field. Probably there is value in both, but the urgency is for some form of record to be made.

A UK initiative is now under way, with the backing of British Society for Human Genetics, which aims to make recordings of interviews with around 50 of the older and most important scientists and clinicians involved in the early development of the field. Details will appear in future newsletters and input from anyone with oral history skills will be welcome.

This initiative also aims to encourage comparable interviews with workers in other European countries in their own languages. An initiative is already under way in North America, involving American Society for Human Genetics and historians from UCLA and Johns Hopkins University.

FUTURE MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS

American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) meeting,Toronto, 26-30 October,2004

Members of the Historical Network will be pleased to learn that a successful submission has been made for a session on History and Human Genetics, as part of the main programme. The session is scheduled for 27th October and will be moderated by Dr Victor McKusick. The full programme will be included in the next newsletter and will also be in the ASHG meeting programme.

2nd International Workshop on History, Genetics and Medicine. Prague, May 2005

The original plan to hold this in Toronto in conjunction with the ASHG meeting has had to be modified, due to discontinuation of Wellcome Trust funding. Instead, it is now proposed to hold the workshop in conjunction with the May 2005 ESHG meeting in Prague. Hopefully, this will involve more modest funding requirements and the association of the Czech Republic with Mendel makes this an especially appropriate location. The possibility is being explored of holding the workshop in the Mendel Centre in Brno.

It is hoped to make this workshop a forum for a range of presentations on historical themes, so all suggestions will be welcome. An exact date will be given as soon as firm arrangements are made.

WEBSITE

The website has been the part of the Network’s activity most affected by the absence of continued Wellcome Trust funding, but the basic structure if now established and some new material has been added – eg: the Bateson photographs and Genetical Society material. More is ready to go on.

The skills of geneticists familiar with and enthusiastic for developing new web-based material are now urgently needed to make the web-site progressive and interactive. Volunteers from across Europe, please contact the Newsletter editor!

FUTURE FUNDING

Although failure to obtain further funding from the Wellcome Trust History of Medicine panel was a disappointment, the initial one year grant was of great value in getting things off the ground. At present, small grants for specific pieces of work may be the most realistic aim, so all suggestions about funding bodies that might contribute will be most valuable. It is possible that agencies involving public understanding of science may be prepared to consider funding.

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