As you have noticed, I have been away again. Many things have happened over the past year and I decided to take some time away. And as we thought things were back to normal and life is settling down, this year started with an epidemic, which became a pandemic and now we have been under lockdown for about two months.
As we spend a lot more time at home, cutting down on a commute and also spend more time reading and learning I thought I will share some really great genetic resources I found recently. Explaining genetics is not always easy and in some cases it could be even more difficult because of the cultural barriers. So it was quite a discovery when I have seen this video shared by a friend from the lab days and now a genetic counselor – Lindsay Fowles.
The creators of this video managed to create a story about genetics that can be told and shared among the indigenous communities. It tells about the DNA, its importance for tracing our history and health, how by studying it we can help to improve the health of people and communities. And the beauty of this is that DNA truly tells a story of life, ancestry, or health.
A traditional approach to explaining genetics would not be as effective. When choosing a way to share knowledge it is important to aim it at your audience. This is not always easy, especially of your audience comes from many different groups of people. I used to teach first year genetics to a group of students in a professional course, which included those who never studied biology to those who had masters degree. Not an easy task but possible by relating the knowledge to real life and pointing out how it relates to each and every student’s life.
The second video which grabbed my attention is explaining NIPT to women as part of recruitment campaign. The original is in Italian but subtitles are available so you can get a full understanding of the content. However, while the content is important the delivery of the content is just as critical. Being informative, sharing basic information could be more challenging than you may think.
This time my blog is quite different as it features educational videos from Queensland genomics and Regione Emilia-Romagna delivered by Prof Gianluigi Pilu. After considering a few topics I thought that this will be a more interesting way to present something of high value to geneIQ followers. There are many genetic presentations out there and public courses but as I said content is one thing while the presentation is another.
Especially now during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic a lot of content is being converted to videos, podcasts but not all is successful. While neither of these videos will get an Oscar, they are worth watching. If you do watch them, share your thoughts below, I am curious what you think.
And if you are asking when will I create a video, well… that may take some time. Seriously, I will try and make a short one. If you have topic suggestions, feel free to post them below. I will try to pick something of general interest but it is good to have some ideas from the audience. What are your interests, biggest genetic questions, what is the one thing you would want to learn about?
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