News and forthcoming events. Viking Genes supporters raise almost £20,000 for the Viking Genes Fund in November 2024November has seen incredible fundraising by Viking Genes volunteers and supporters from Shetland. The Leith lasses raised a magnificent £4,112.50 for Viking Genes at the Lerwick Legion Halloween fundraiser. They also raised the same amount for a breast cancer charity. Then the Viking Genes Fundraising Auction - Shetland raised an incredible £15,000 on Facebook, and this is still growing. Professor Jim Flett Wilson told the Shetland Times: "It shows an extraordinary level of engagement with [the community's] own health and future health in Shetland. I don't think there are many other places in the UK which would achieve this. I think it's something to be very proud of." Viking Genes Fundraising - Shetland These vital funds will help support the work of PhD student Ben Fletcher. Jim at Westminster in November 2024Professor Jim Flett Wilson met with Neil McClements of Haemochromatosis UK and MPs Alistair Carmichael and Torcuil Crichton, respectively, at Parliament, Westminster, to talk about his work and make the case for population screening. The talk to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was met with a positive response. Jim at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) conference in Denver, Colorado in November 2024Professor Jim Flett Wilson was a guest speaker at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) conference in Denver, Colorado. He explained to the audience how Viking Genes identified 'actionable' genetic variants in volunteers and implemented return of results. It was met with lots of interest. The talk was entitled 'Identification of actionable genetic variants in 4,198 volunteers from the Viking Genes research cohort and implementation of return of results'. Famous charity SHOARD donates magnificent £10,000 to the Viking Genes FundA huge thank you to SHOARD, the famous charity shop on Whalsay, Shetland who donated £10,000 to the Viking Genes Fund!This generous donation will help to part pay for the first year of Ben Fletcher's PhD, which started in October 2024. Find out how you can support us too. Support Viking Genes Jim returns to Shetland to give sell out talk in September 2024Jim battled the elements to give a talk on Viking Genes on Tuesday 10 September at the Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick. Prof Jim Flett Wilson's talk was entitled 'Viking Genes: Genomic Medicine for the Northern Isles'.DNA is becoming increasingly important in healthcare. Prof Jim Flett Wilson of the University of Edinburgh came back to Shetland to explain the opportunities for prevention and early detection of disease for people of the Northern Isles, arising from results of the Viking Genes studies. Jim and Shona returned to the Orkney International Science Festival in 2024Jim and Shona gave talks on Viking Genes at the Orkney International Science Festival on Friday 6 September at the Phoenix Cinema, Pickaquoy, Kirkwall. Prof Jim Flett Wilson's talk was entitled 'Viking Genes: Genomic Medicine' and Dr Shona Kerr's 'Viking Genes: Getting Your Results Back'. DNA is becoming increasingly important in healthcare and Jim explained the opportunities for prevention and early detection of disease for Orcadians and Shetlanders, arising from results of the Viking Genes studies.Viking Genes is one of the first population research studies to give volunteers the option to have “actionable” genetic results returned to them. For this to happen, a range of ethical and practical issues had to be overcome, as Shona explained.The Orkney International Science Festival was founded by Howie Firth in 1991. That means it's been ongoing for more than 30 years, and is the second oldest in the world. Read more about our involvement here. Viking Genes at the Orkney International Science Festival This article was published on 2024-08-01
