A new exhibition will open on 9 June at the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum that looks at the phenomenon of anticipation in certain forms of inherited genetic illness. Anticipation is the occurrence of an inherited disease at an earlier and earlier age in successive generations. For many years it was discounted as a result of the way that families were recruited for genetic studies, but is now known to be due to the bizarre genetic instability of a repeated DNA sequence.

The result of a five-year collaboration between artist Jacqueline Donachie and Professor Darren G. Monckton of the Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences at Glasgow University, 'Tomorrow belongs to me' will include photography, sculptural work and the premiere of a new film. The film presents for the first time, and in their own words, the ideas of scientists and clinicians whose work has proved pivotal in establishing the idea of anticipation as a true biological effect.

The exhibition was made possible due to a SciArt production award from the Wellcome Trust, which promotes innovative arts projects investigating biomedical science and its social contexts.

Professor Monckton said of the collaboration and film: 'What really struck us was the potential for a collaborative project that could increase discussion between the various groups involved, as well as raising public awareness and understanding of this form of inherited genetic disease. My experience in the field of research into DM and Jacqueline Donachie's situation as someone whose family is affected by the condition made us uniquely placed to undertake this. Thus, we set out to make something that, as well as being exhibited within a contemporary art context, could be seen and understood by many, specifically within the sphere of genetics, with the hope that in some way it would provide a platform for shared knowledge and understanding about the scientific process, and the ethics and politics of genetic illness. We believe the short film we have produced meets these aims, and in addition documents an important problem in human genetics research.'

Professor Monckton's research looks at the basis of genetic instability in disorders such as myotonic dystrophy (dystrophia myotonica, DM), with the aim of providing treatments and cures. He has been working with Jacqueline Donachie since 2001, after the artist discovered several members of her immediate family were affected by the condition. The current work builds upon a previous SciArt research award that culminated in the publication of 'DM', a photographic and text-based study on the subject of myotonic dystrophy, in 2002.

The exhibition will open at the Hunterian Museum on 9 June and will run until 2 September 2006. Admission is free.

Kate Richardson (K.richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk)

For more information please contact the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 3535 or email K.Richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 5 June 2006