Veronica van Heyningen
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Charles Darwin described the eye as an 'organ of extreme perfection and complication'. How this engineering marvel of nature forms out of a few cells in the developing embryo has been the big question for Veronica van Heyningen, emeritus professor at the MRC's Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
Veronica is a world lead in the genetics of the development of the eye. She tells Jim Al Khalili about her part in the discovery of a gene called Pax-6 which turned to be a master builder gene for the eye, in all animals which have eyes - from humans to fruit flies.
As she explains, further research on this gene may eventually help people with the genetic vision impairment, Aniridia. It was Veronica's research on patients with this condition which led to the gene's final discovery. She tells Jim about why it's important for scientists to engage in public discussion on the ethical implications of their work.
Veronica also talks about her arrival in Britain as an 11 year old. Her family escaped from communist Hungary in 1958. Both of her Jewish parents had been sent to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War.
Transcript
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| 0:34.0 | My guest today is a world leader in arguably the most complex and most miraculous area of biology, |
| 0:40.0 | trying to understand how a tiny embryo grows and develops into a moving |
| 0:45.3 | breathing newborn baby built of thousands of different kinds of cells all put |
| 0:50.3 | together to form organs like hearts, brains and eyes. |
| 0:54.0 | And it's the development of the eye that is the particular speciality of my guest |
| 0:58.2 | Professor Veronica Van Hainingen. |
| 1:00.0 | Veronica is a geneticist who's just retired from the Medical Research Council's Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, |
| 1:08.0 | a fellow of the Royal Society, her research gained international recognition with the discovery of a gene called |
| 1:14.4 | PAC-6 that basically says make an eye here. It led to more than two decades of findings |
| 1:21.2 | of importance for both families with inherited eye conditions |
| 1:25.1 | and for providing insights into how our genes and chromosomes work. |
| 1:29.5 | Varric is also concerned with the impact of genetics on society. She was a member of the Human Genetics |
| 1:34.8 | Commission which advised the government on the ethical issues of her field. |
| 1:39.1 | Veronica, welcome to the Life Scientific. |
| 1:41.1 | Hello. Now, the eye is one of those wonders of nature that is such a |
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