Video feature: People of the British Isles

3 December 2010

What does being British mean to a scientist? How does someone from Kent differ from a native of the Hebrides? People of the British Isles is an ambitious project aiming to catalogue the genetic basis of the entire United Kingdom.

By doing so, Sir Walter Bodmer and his team will amass information enabling them to mine the UK’s genetic heritage, following lineages back through time.

But the genetic information gathered provides much more than just a detailed family tree of the UK. To researchers hunting for DNA changes, or variants, responsible for diseases, this information provides researchers with an essential genetic backdrop for comparison, allowing them to see which differences are simply due to history and geography.

Running time: 5 min 3 s