The Great Genetics vs Epidemiology bake-off to celebrate National Arthritis Week

21 Oct 2013

Researchers at The University of Manchester took part in a bake-off to raise awareness of National Arthritis Week, which ran from 7 to 13 October

Professor Jane Worthington, who is head of the Centre for Musculoskeletal Research at the University, said: "We were enthusiastic to do something especially since we have recently been awarded two Centres of Excellence funded by Arthritis Research UK, one in Genetics and Genomics and one in Epidemiology. Our research aims to help people with arthritis, which affects 10 million people in the UK alone."

The bake-off team award went to the Genetics team, which was led by Dr Darren Plant. Dr Plant, a research fellow, enlisted the help of two of his PhD students, Samantha Smith and Amy Webster. All three are involved in work to identify what can predict whether a person with rheumatoid arthritis will respond to a particular drug or not. Amy produced a cake that showed DNA and histones, two molecules that the team are investigating. John Reynolds, a clinical research fellow investigating cardiovascular complications of systemic lupus erythematosus; Gisela Orozco, a research fellow, and Kate McAllister, a PhD student investigating genes that cause rheumatoid arthritis, made up the rest of the team.

The overall winner for the best cake, however, went to the Epidemiology team, comprising PhD students Daniella Ghio, Kayleigh Mason, Rebecca Joseph and Holly Hope. Daniella produced a cake in the shape of an owl sitting on a book of Epidemiology. The winners were decided by Professor Cyrus Cooper who said: "This has been a wonderful event to raise awareness of a common condition that can affect people of any age and the fantastic research that is going on to investigate what causes it."

The cakes were subsequently sold raising £152.85 for Arthritis Research UK.