Second International Workshop on Genetics, Medicine and History.

Organised by the Genetics and Medicine Historical Network.
May 11-12 2005, Brno, Czech Republic.

A total of 52 people from 20 countries took part in this workshop, held in the historic surroundings of Gregor Mendel's St Thomas Abbey in Brno.The meeting was made possible by the support of Wellcome Trust and it was also supported by the Wales Gene Park, with organisational help from the European Society for Human Genetics, whose annual congress had been held in Prague immediately before the workshop.

Photographs from the workshop will be placed on the Genetics and Medicine Historical Workshop website, (genmedhist.net).

The theme of the meeting was 'preserving the history of human genetics' and the first day was devoted to this topic. Julia Sheppard (head of Special Collections, Wellcome Trust) opened the workshop with a highly informative talk on 'saving the archives of genetics', in which she outlined the key issues to be addressed and the steps to be taken if comprehensive and effective archives are to be achieved for human genetics. She was followed by Tim Powell, senior archivist at the Bath University National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, who discussed the archives of human geneticists already involving this unit, notably the recently acquired and extensive records of Professor James Renwick. The papers were followed by discussion of other countries' experience and how international cooperation might help to ensure a more comprehensive archive.

A brief presentation by Alan Bittles (Perth, Australia) showed how human genetics research could utilise wider archives, in this case Swedish Lutheran church records for studies of intermarriages. Finally, Peter Harper (Cardiff) with Steve Pritchard, mentioned the recently established Human Genetics Historical Library, involving Cardiff University Library Special Collections, and based on donations and collections from genetics units that would otherwise been lost.

The second session moved to the field of oral history. In a discussion led by Soraya de Chadarevian (department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge and Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin) both the importance of oral history and its potential pitfalls were outlined, as well as the urgent need for undertaking this in the case of human genetics, where many of the founding workers are still living, though now very elderly.

Mila Pollock (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA) presented the extensive range of interviews based on workers visiting this laboratory, one of the key world centres for genetics research, where a systematic programme is underway for both an oral and written record of the field. From the UK, Marcus Pembrey gave his experience of chairing the witness seminar on genetic testing, organised by the Wellcome Trust History of 20th Century Medicine Group, while Peter Harper described a pilot series of interviews with early human cytogeneticists, hopefully to form part of a more extensive study.

At the end of this session Tayfun and Iclal Ozcelik (Ankara) presented a series of remarkable artistic creations where gene structures were translated into the forms of classical Turkish art.

Day Two opened with a session on early pioneers and early concepts in human genetics. Alan Rushton (New Jersey) showed how William Bateson, the founder of British genetics, interacted extensively with clinicians in developing his ideas, so that human genetics formed a key part of the new field from the beginning. Soren Norby (Copenhagen) gave an account of the life and links to human genetics of Wilhelm Johanssen, the founder of genetics in Denmark, while Bent-Olle Bengtsson (Lund) described a previously unrecognised Swedish book on heredity and medicine from 1879. In presentations from the Netherlands, Toine Pieters (Amsterdam) showed how ideas on heredity and cancer had fluctuated over the past 200 years, with phases where first heredity, and then environment were regarded as predominant; while Stephen Snelders showed how comparable changes had occurred in the field of alcoholism.

Session 4, on human genetics, eugenics and Lysenkoism, with contributions from Finland (Jaakko Ignatius) Austria (Tomas Meyer) and the Czech Republic, produced, as expected, a lively discussion and could have filled considerably more time. The session was especially interesting in the local context with presentations from the Czech Republic by Michal Simunek on eugenics and by Milan Macek Sr, Jiri Santavy and colleagues on the effects of the Lysenko period. It was clear that the legacy of these momentous episodes remains painfully real and that the history of Lysenkoism in relation to human and medical genetics has so far been largely undocumented. No Russian workers were able to attend the workshop but contacts with both historians and geneticists in Russia have been made which should allow this area to be explored further.

In the final session on historical aspects of medical genetics, Susan Lindee (Philadelphia) used the genetic research of Victor McKusick on the Pennsylvania Amish to explore how the beliefs and society of this unique population interacted with modern medical genetics, often in unexpected ways. Presentations by William Leeming (Toronto) and Patrick Macleod (Vancouver) illustrated the evolution and particular features of medical genetics services in Canada and the key role of some of its pioneers over the past 60 years.

The closing discussion looked ahead to possibilities for future workshops, their location and funding support, and also debated how wider historical activities in the field might best be encouraged and co-ordinated. There was general support and enthusiasm expressed for such developments to continue on both sides of the Atlantic, the most likely scenario being a further workshop in two years, with specific shorter sessions forming part of other meetings.

In conclusion this proved a most valuable and stimulating meeting, which brought together historians and interested geneticists from numerous countries, many of whom would not have had the chance to meet otherwise. There was notable enthusiasm for future collaboration and a recognition that both historians and geneticists have key roles to play in documenting the history of this important field. The interactive nature of the workshop was greatly helped by the unique setting of Mendel's beautifully restored abbey and by the informative tours of the Abbey, its library and the Mendel exhibition that were arranged by the expert staff of the Mendel Center. The Programme Committee would like to thank all those whose hard work made possible such a worthwhile and pleasurable workshop.

Peter Harper

On behalf of the Programme Committee

June 3rd 2005