Join us for a look inside the lab and to find out how Megan and Alewo use genetic research techniques to find new ways to keep birds healthy. Dr Megan Davey will guide your view down the microscope for a close-up of a developing chick in an egg, live from the lab. Megan watches how their toes form to learn more about what controls the way limbs develop overall. She builds maps of the connections between the genes involved in limb development and uses what she learns to create new research tools. Dr Alewo Idoko-Akoh is working on ways to breed chickens that don’t catch bird flu, this can help stop new versions of flu spreading into people. Alewo is a vet with a PhD in a research technology called genome editing. He uses genome editing to find out which chicken genes flu viruses take advantage of to make birds ill. Bird flu can cause havoc in chicken farms and spread new flu viruses into the human population too, so learning more about the genes that help protect birds from flu has benefits for us all. This article was published on 2024-09-09
