By Madison Brown
Texas A&M University will celebrate DNA Day on April 24 with a talk by an award-winning journalist who will discuss the effects of genetics on families and medical ethics that highlights the importance of public education about the role of genetics in health care.
Journalist and author Bonnie Rochman will discuss her book The Gene Machine: How Genetic Technologies Are Changing the Way We Have Kids – and the Kids We Have beginning at 6:30pm in Rudder Theatre. Before the talk, Texas A&M students will exhibit genetic-themed posters in Rudder Exhibit Hall from 4:30-5:30pm. Both events are free and open to the public.
Rochman will engage the audience about research from her book on how genetic advances affect families and the ethical challenges of modern medicine.
“Genetic technology is reshaping the experience of pregnancy and parenting in an era when we have the ability to know more about ourselves and our unborn children,” says Rochman.
The DNA Day event is sponsored by Texas A&M Institute for Genome Sciences and Society, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Department of Communication to help non-scientific audiences understand the importance of genetics in everyday life. This is the third year Texas A&M has hosted DNA Day events.
Interactive booths and research posters will open the DNA event in Rudder Exhibit Hall from 4:30-5:30pm and is hosted by Dr. Emily Rauscher’s COMM 470: Communication in Health Care Contexts class. A variety of topics and activities related to genetics and DNA will be on display including extracting DNA from a strawberry and debunking GMO myths.
“The booths are put on by the class with research conducted by them and graduate students from the Texas A&M Genetics Department,” says Rauscher. “Undergrad and graduate students worked together on the posters to communicate the importance of the student’s research to a non-scientist audience.”
Rochman’s talk will be held from 6:30-7:30pm with reception and book signing to follow; copies of Rochman’s book will be available for purchase at the event.
National DNA Day, April 25, is an annual celebration of the completion of the Human Genome Project and the discovery of the double helix. DNA Day is celebrated to increase lay public knowledge of advances in genomic research and how the advances might affect their lives, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute,
For more information on National DNA Day, visit www.genome.gov/10506367/national-dna-day/. To purchase Rochman’s book, visit www.bonnierochman.com.
