In this episode we tell the stories of two women - one a scientist fascinated by dancing mice, the other a seamstress with a deadly family legacy - who made significant contributions to our understanding of cancer as a disease driven by genetic changes, paving the way for lifesaving screening programmes for families.

Over the past year or so I’ve been writing a new book, Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution and the Science of Life, exploring what we’ve learned so far about where cancer comes from, where it’s going, and how we might finally beat it. It’s coming out in the UK on the 6th of August and in the US on the 29th September - and is available now to pre-order from rebelcellbook.com - and we’ll have some excerpts coming up in a future episode of the podcast.

UK Amazon link (affiliate) https://amzn.to/2BdT5zu

While I was researching the book, I came across the stories of two remarkable women - Maud Slye and Pauline Gross - who both made significant contributions to our fundamental understanding of cancer, but who have tended to be overlooked in many tellings of the history of cancer research. Here are their stories.

Thanks to Jenny Rohn for the voice of Maud Slye. If you want to read more about Pauline and Family G, and the impact that their genetic legacy has had on the family down the generations, check out Daughter of Family G, a memoir by Ami McKay, which we’ve drawn on heavily for this episode. Ami weaves together the strands of family history and science together with her own personal story to create a really compelling and emotional story.

Full show notes, transcript, music credits and references online at GeneticsUnzipped.com

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Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by Kat Arney with additional scripting and research by Emily Nordvang and audio production by Hannah Varrall. This podcast is produced by First Create the Media for the Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics.