James Turner, Cell biologist at the Crick Institute, giving talk entitled "The truth about infertility", on the Humans Stage, at New Scientist Live 2019
Infertility is common, affecting 15 per cent of couples. Many cases of infertility are caused by problems with the sex chromosomes - special chromosomes that differ between men (XY) and women (XX). James Turner has devoted his career to understanding the intricate workings of these all important genetic authorities, even watching opossum pornography in the pursuit of new scientific insights. Join him to discover why sex chromosomes are so important for the creation of healthy eggs and sperm, what happens when things go wrong, and how recent developments in stem cell research could eventually offer new therapeutic options to infertile couples. James Turner leads the sex chromosome biology laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute. He began his undergraduate studies in medicine at University College London and did his PhD studying how sex chromosome abnormalities cause infertility. He later completed his medical training and briefly practiced as a clinician before returning to the lab. James set up his own research group in 2007 (in what is now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and was awarded tenure in 2012. His work focuses on how sex chromosomes abnormalities cause disease in men and women. Male and female mammals are genetically and biologically different. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. These sex chromosomes contain important genes involved in the development of the reproductive organs, body and brain, leading to differences in growth, behaviour and health between the sexes. We are studying the sex chromosomes in a range of animals, including mammals and marsupials, to understand more about how sex chromosomes work and the roles of these genes in health and disease. Because females have twice as many X chromosomes as males they have a double dose of all the genes on the X. To compensate, females ‘switch off’ one of their X chromosomes in every cell.
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