Espresso Library, 210 East Road, Cambridge, CB1 1BG
Wed 13th Mar, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
At this event, we will discuss The Darwin Tree of Life Project, the UK’s contribution to the Earth BioGenome Project, which is setting out to sequence the genomes of all 1.5 million known species of animals, plants, protozoa and fungi on Earth. The project will revolutionise our understanding of biology and evolution, bolster efforts to restore biodiversity, and radically transform biomedicine and agriculture. It’s a mammoth project so come along to find out more about it from Tim Littlewood, Head of Life Sciences at the Natural History Museum, London, who will be working on The Darwin Tree of Life Project alongside researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and other collaborators.
Tim Littlewood is responsible for botanical, entomological and zoological collections and research at the NHM. His personal research has focussed on molecular tools to understand species diversity and diversification, particularly on helminth parasites that infect vertebrates. The NHM is home to 80 millions natural history specimens collected from across the globe over hundreds of years. They are pivotal for systematics and taxonomy, and to understand biodiversity, evolution and change through time. Genomic technologies offer the opportunity to unlock such collections further and to be able to use the past and present to inform the future.
This talk is part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
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This is a free and non-ticketed event.
Doors open at 18:45 so arrive early to avoid disappointment.
Starts at 19:00 and finish around 20:30.
