Origins of the Universe, of Life, of Species, of Humanity

I was not interested in biology not at all when I was young because there seemed to be so much to learn and no rules. It wasn’t until I was introduced to genetics that I understood there I am rules. And I am Truly Interesting.

So I studied genetics at the University of Adelaide and then went to Berkeley, California to do a PhD in molecular and cell biology in the early 1970s. And this has turned into a way to map genes. When I returned to Australia, a friend suggested that I use this somatic cell gene technology to map genes in kangaroos. I think I was quite rude and said, why would anyone want to do that? But just to be friendly, I did.

It turned out to be so interesting because it told us how our human genome, and especially the sex chromosomes, evolved. This turned into a real obsession.

I became a gene-mapping person very, very early on. Everyone else was looking at the mouse genome, but I was looking at kangaroos, platypus and even fish. So I think I was an early adopter, and that turned out to be absolutely fascinating.

In the 1990s we were trying to clone the sex gene in kangaroos after we were involved in the discovery of the male determining gene in humans. Back then we had really little bits of DNA that we painstakingly sequenced on these big sheets of X-ray film, counting them it took so long to make just a couple hundred bases. These days, you can make a couple of billion bases and a computer gives you the results right on your desktop. It really is another world.

Much of my interest has been in the sex chromosomes. Back then we used very primitive methods, we looked under a microscope and tried to figure out where the genes were and where they all went. The Y chromosome is so weird that it has almost no genes on it and it’s disappearing fast. So it was very, very difficult to get a whole sequence. But now, with new technology, people jump from one end of the Y chromosome to the other. So we’re able to test many of the theories that we’ve come up with over the past 20 years.

You still have to do the DNA, but it’s not very difficult. In the old days, we were supposed to get massive amounts of DNA that you could actually see at the bottom of the test tube. But it is no longer necessary. Now you just take some blood or some cells from anywhere in the body and you put it on one of these machines that can actually read the sequence of bases along a long molecule, it’s just amazing.

I no longer have a lab myself, but have had partnerships that I’ve built over the years with alumni and postdocs who are doing exciting work on sex determination. I work with a group in Adelaide on platypus sex chromosomes and another in Canberra examining sex determination in dragon lizards. This is absolutely fascinating because dragons usually do this with genes and chromosomes, but when it’s hot, they’re all born as girls. So we have an environment interacting with genes there, and this is where we really need a lot more information about how does the environment affect how genes are expressed?

Learning about other mammals and vertebrates helps us understand how the human genome works. The next big thing is what they call epigenetics, the modification of genes. In addition to genes, epigenetics means all those factors that activate and deactivate genes. This is what we really need to know, not just out of interest, but because that’s how many diseases are caused, not by mutations in the gene itself, but by mutations in some of these signals that turn genes on and off. We have a lot to learn about this.

We all basically have the same genes. Of course, elephants and mice are a little different, and that’s largely because genes turn on or off at different times in different places. So what is turning these genes on and off? This is where epigenetic factors come into play.

There are some enzymes that modify proteins that are bound to DNA. And those enzymes have a huge effect on whether the gene is expressed or when it’s expressed or in what tissue it’s expressed. In the coming years, everything will be about epigenetics.

One arrives at some very profound truths when comparing the genomes of sharks, humans and even fruit flies. They are not that different. We have essentially the same genes and they’re doing the same thing. And they were shaped by the same evolutionary forces. Understanding them gives you a very deep look into life, and how life evolved on our planet, and what it means to be human and accept our place in the universe, which I don’t think we’re very good at.

My other The next big thing? I’ve had an idea that’s been bubbling for 20 years and is about to come to life on stage. I’ve been singing choir for 65 years, but I kept thinking, why are we still singing about Adam and Eve? Someone should write Haydns The creation from the point of view of science! And I thought, well, maybe I could do that. . .

Our first performance of Origins of the Universe, of Life, of Species, of Humanity is at the Melbourne Recital Center on 18th July. It involves a full orchestra, a huge choir and fabulous soloists.

I have awesome help! One of the other choristers is a poet and helped write the libretto. Our conductor realized that this could be something very important to our 100-voice Heidelberg Choral Society. And a young Australian composer jumped at the chance to write the music for such a blockbuster.

It starts with the Big Bang and then tells the story of the origin of life molecules, then the origin of species. We meet Charles Darwin and his hysterical hecklers. Eventually it gets a little dark when it comes to the third chimp, which is us, of course. And what a mess we’ve made of the world. But I finished with what I hope is a strong message of hope. The ending is called “The Man is the Astronomer”. I love the thought that we may be puny and insignificant in the vastness of the universe, but we have the power to understand it, and we, and maybe we can do something to save ourselves and the world.

As told to Graem Sims for Cosmo Weekly.

Read more at Cosmo Weekly