How a Clash between our Genes & Modern Life is Making us Sick

This address introduces the ideas in Professor Greg Gibson's new book It Takes a Genome. The last two years have seen a revolution in genome scientists' ability to find the genes that influence whether a person is likely to suffer from any one of the major common chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, depression, or dementia. The shocking result, though, is that rather than a few dozen genes in each case, there are hundreds if not thousands in play, each of which contributes a small effect. These are analogous to dark matter in the Universe: they must be there, but we cannot easily see them. As well as explaining this conundrum and discussing the implications, Gibson will present the idea that chronic disease arises out of a very modern imbalance: there is a disconnect between our rapidly evolved human genome and the dramatic transitions in human lifestyles over the past few generations.