Word Along the Wire

New research by genetic epidemiologist, Bjarke Feenstra of Statens Serum Institute, will help solve the puzzle of birth. In this episode Bjarke tells us about the new piece of the puzzle that he and his team have discovered. As a world first, they’ve been able to pinpoint a certain location in the genome of the unborn child that affects when the child is born. Here cytokine proteins seem to work as a sort of telegraph sending word along the wire, from child to mother. Signaling that the child is ready to come into the world.

The Danish National Biobank is a treasury of science for international health research. It contains 10 million biosamples across an array of diagnostic categories, as well as the Danish Biobank Register that links over 25 million biosamples in Danish biobanks to vast amounts of register information. This podcast will give an insight into some of the amazing research done through the Danish National Biobank and hopefully inspire researchers to utilize this potential in the future.