<p><span class="text"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dr Rebecca Hill</span> was formerly Genetics Editor at <span style="font-weight: bold;">BioNews</span> and at the charity that publishes it, the <a href="http://www.progress.org.uk/" target="blank"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Progress Educational Trust</span> (<span style="font-weight: bold;">PET</span>)</a>. She is a reporter at <a href="http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=16" target="blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Research Fortnight</span></a> and <a href="http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=17" target="blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Research Europe</span></a>, both of which are published by <a href="http://www.researchresearch.com/" target="blank">Research Research</a> and cover news, analysis, funding opportunities and jobs for researchers and policymakers. She is also a freelance journalist specialising in science, and has written for the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" target="blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Guardian</span></a> and <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/" target="blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Times</span></a> newspapers, the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html" target="blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Nature</span></a>, <a target="blank" href="http://www.newscientist.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">New Scientist</span></a> magazine's <a target="blank" href="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/">CultureLab</a> and the <a target="blank" href="http://www.scidev.net/en/">Science and Development Network</a>. She is cofounder of <a href="http://www.sciencebrainwaves.com/" target="blank">Science Brainwaves</a> (part of the <a href="http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/" target="blank">British Science Association</a>), and she has been a judge at the <a href="http://regional.thebigbangfair.co.uk/nsec/" target="blank">National Science and Engineering Competition</a> at the <a href="http://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/home.cfm" target="blank">Big Bang Young Scientists and Engineers Fair</a>. Previously, she studied <a href="http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mbb/research/b-and-g" target="blank">Biochemistry and Genetics</a> at the <a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/" target="blank">University of Sheffield</a>, where she went on to obtain a <a href="http://www.shef.ac.uk/mbb/prospectivepg/res-themes-phd" target="blank">PhD</a> in <a href="http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mbb" target="blank">Structural and Molecular Biology</a>, and where her research focused on producing a system to purify and analyse groups of proteins in baker's yeast. She also has an <a href="http://www.city.ac.uk/study/courses/arts/science-journalism.html" target="blank">MA in Science Journalism</a> from <a href="http://www.city.ac.uk/" target="blank">City University London</a>, and she has a particular interest in audio production, having produced audio packages for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Guardian</span>'s <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/science" target="blank">Science Weekly</a> podcast. She has interned at the <a href="http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/pages/" target="blank">Science Media Centre</a> and <a href="http://www.senseaboutscience.org/" target="blank">Sense About Science</a>, and she has been a pie taster on the <a href="http://www.hollandspies.co.uk/join-our-family/the-pie-panel/meet-the-pie-panel" target="blank">Pie Panel</a> at <a href="http://www.hollandspies.co.uk/" target="blank">Holland's Pies</a>. She tweets as <a href="https://twitter.com/BekiHill" target="blank">@BekiHill</a></span></p>
The inaugural London Science Festival, which ran from 19-26 October, promised numerous exciting and entertaining events, many of which have received excellent reviews. So I'm particularly disappointed that I chose to spend my Friday night at 'Searching for the secret of life: DNA, then, now and tomorrow'....
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued new guidelines saying that women pregnant with twins or triplets should be monitored more closely, receiving specialist care from a team of healthcare professionals...
The first interpretation of a family's health risks using whole genome data has been carried out by US researchers. The team, from the Stanford University School of Medicine, looked at the DNA sequences of both parents and two children in this, the second reported study of a four-person family of genomes...
Researchers have identified 29 new genetic variants with a link to multiple sclerosis (MS). This brings the total number of genetic changes associated with the disease, which affects around 2.5 million people worldwide, to nearly 50...
More than £600,000 has been donated to the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol for research into the use of stem cells as a treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS)....
'The age of personalised medicine: genes, privacy and discrimination?' was the last in BioCentre's 2010/2011 symposium series 'Revolution, Regulation and Responsibilities', and promised to 'appraise current developments and consider the current legal and regulatory position for their use before taking time to reflect and assess the future impact on society'...
Scientists have discovered a way to bypass the type of mutation that causes about a third of human genetic diseases. Experiments in yeast have shown how chemical modifications can allow a cell's machinery to ignore mistakes in DNA known as nonsense mutations...
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