Category Archives: Musculoskeletal news

Save the date – Genetics Matters 29th of February 2020

Our popular Genetics Matters event is back!

Save the date and come see us on Saturday the 29th of February for a fun afternoon filled with science and cake, as part of the International Rare Disease Day. Please email katarzyna.pirog@ncl.ac.uk if you’d like to take part and present and please spread the news amongst your friends and colleagues, the more the merrier!

From the International Rare Disease Day website:

“When the challenge of raising awareness for people affected by a rare disease still looms. On Rare Disease Day we must re-double our efforts. Re-think, re-envision, reimagine. Reframe what it means to be ‘rare’. In fact – rare isn’t scarce, rare isn’t infrequent, rare isn’t remote. Rare is not as rare as you think. The statistics speak for themselves. There are more than 300 million patients, each supported by family, friends and a team of carers, that make up the rare disease community worldwide. Over 6,000 different diseases. Collectively, they make up the third largest country in the world. Rare is many. Rare is strong. Rare is proud. The likely truth is that you know one of the 1 in 20 people affected by a rare disease. We need society to understand that millions of people living with a rare disease around the world face inequitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care. It’s time to take action for people living with a rare disease to have equal opportunities to realise their potential. [..] We need everyone to get involved and join the movement to reframe rare!”  

Join the National Conversation on Rare Diseases

In July, the Minister for rare disease at the Department for Health and Social Care, Baroness Blackwood, announced a ‘national conversation’ on rare disease. This conversation aims to gather a range of views from the rare disease community.  The views collected from patients, families and carers, healthcare professionals (including GPs, specialist rare disease clinicians, clinical academics) and industry will be used by government to inform a rare disease framework to improve the lives of people living with rare diseases. This will follow on from the current UK Rare Diseases Strategy which expires at the end of 2020.


To start the conversation, a survey has been launched to understand the major barriers that healthcare professionals working with rare diseases face. Make sure your voice is heard by completing this short survey by Friday 29th November 2019.

CNoS, Biochem Soc and NICAP workshop exploring collaboration across the arts and sciences 29th October 2019

The Cultural Negotiation of Science (CNoS), Northumbria University are hosting a one-day workshop and an evening event in collaboration with the Biochemical Society and Newcastle University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice (NICAP) exploring ways of working across the arts and sciences. The workshops builds on the strengths of the CNoS’ existing inter-disciplinary workshop capabilities and the experience of CNoS researchers, such as Dr Louise Mackenzie and Dr Daksha Patel, for example the interdisciplinary artist-led genetic modification workshop: Transformation – Thinking through Making with Life, participatory sound and bio-media workshop: Tentacular Resonances, the perception of medical data capture: Biorhythmic Drawing, visual literacy workshop: The Art of Observation and the recent Bio-Aesth-Ethics mini-masterclass led by Mackenzie as part of ASCUS and Edinburgh University’s Bio Design Lab. The event is intended as a primer for ongoing collaborative relationships, leading to new interdisciplinary ways of working that will inform project-based outcomes. For example, CNoS and IGM (NU) have recently established a new format of art/science collaboration through Black Box, a science-themed sculptural cinema and performance project. During development of this project we identified the need to connect artists and scientists towards the production of collaborative public-facing outputs (film, performance, sculpture, sound works, etc). We hope to build on this experience and generate more works that may be premiered at a future iteration of Black Box.

To register, please visit: CNoS website or survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TNWHBF8