SAVILE SCIENCE: MICHAEL PATTON ON GENETICS AND SPORT – NATURE AND NURTURE. CHAIRED BY SAVILIAN ANAND SAGGAR.

Increasingly sport is becoming more competitive with large sums of money and national pride at stake. How much of sporting performance is innate and how much is due to training? Why are Kenyans so successful at marathon running and the Chinese dominate the ping-pong table? Should men and women compete separately and if so, do females with a higher testosterone level have a genetic advantage? In the future will genetic modification be used to improve performance rather than drug doping?

Michael Patton is the Emeritus Professor of Medical Genetics at St Georges University of London and an honorary Fellow at Green Templeton College in Oxford. Following retirement from the NHS he was the UK Group Medical Director of Sonic Healthcare.  His research interests in malformation syndromes and gene mapping in isolated populations provided many opportunities for overseas travel prior to the current pandemic.