Dr Gavin Craig is responsible for the genotyping facilities at the SGDP Centre Molecular Genetics Laboratories at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. Here Gavin runs a team of scientists performing the analysis of genes involved in human behaviour, as well as being involved in managing and maintaining the smooth running of the laboratories. He is also particularly interested in assisting the introduction of next-generation sequencing facilities into the Institute in the immediate future.

After obtaining his PhD at the University of Warwick, Gavin has worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Genetics Department at the University of Cambridge before coming to London, where he has worked in numerous molecular biology labs including the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (UCL) and the CRUK London Research Institute.

Professor Ian Craig is Head of the Molecular Genetics Section of the SGDP Centre, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, with responsibilities for the co-ordination of molecular genetic approaches within a range of collaborative projects. Previous to this he worked in the Genetics Unit at the Department of Biochemistry at Oxford University and was appointed to the post of Professor in Genetics there in 1996. At that time, his group was involved in one of the early successes in isolating disease genes (one responsible for X-linked blindness and mental retardation) and subsequently in the cloning and characterisation of additional genes implicated in a range of human disorders. His interests in human gene mapping involved his participation in the development of the international Genome Database, GDB, and more recently through election to the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Council (2000-2006) and appointment as Trustee to the Organization (2010).

He moved to the SGDP Centre in 1997 and is currently involved in a variety of projects, many of which depend on fast and efficient DNA typing for simple sequence repeat variants and of single base variation in order to search for genes implicated in a range of behaviours and disorders. Most recently, he has collaborated in scanning the entire genome for genes important in the development and drug treatments of depression. This has involved development of high throughput methods based on microarrays of individual or pooled DNA samples. He also has a particular interest in the relevance to behavioural genetics of the X- chromosome and the contributions of the X- and Y-chromosomes to sex differences in behaviour including aggression.

Michael Zev Gordon studied composition in the UK with Robin Holloway, Oliver Knussen and John Woolrich, in Italy with Franco Donatoni and in the Netherlands with Louis Andriessen. He has taught composition at the Universities of Durham and Southampton, and the Royal Northern College of Music, and is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Birmingham.

Gordon has written works for many leading artists, including Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the Composers' Ensemble, Orkest de Volharding, Endymion, the Carducci Quartet, New Music Players, Concordia and Sarah Leonard. He also has a deep interest in writing for amateur performers, contributing to the ABRSM's Spectrum series four times. Gordon's works have been performed and broadcast widely in the UK and abroad, including at such festivals as Aldeburgh, Lichfield, Brighton, Huddersfield and Spitalfields. Prizes include the 2004 Prix Italia for radiophonic composition, in collaboration with Eva Hoffman, on the subject of memory; and the 2008 British Composer Award for choral composition for This Night, commissioned by King’s College Cambridge.

See www.soton.ac.uk/music/staff/Personal/MZGordon.html

Cathryn Lewis is Professor of Genetics Epidemiology and Statistics at King’s College London.  She trained in mathematics and statistics at the Universities of Oxford and Sheffield, and soon realised during her academic studies that her main interests lay in applying numerate skills to solve other people’s problems.  She started working on the analysis of genetic studies during her PhD, and has been involved with many different studies since then, in collaboration with clinicians who provide the detailed clinical information and patient samples, and molecular geneticists who provide the laboratory expertise.  These three-way collaborations have proven successful in dissecting the genetic contribution to many different disorders.  Her current interests are in the genetics of depression, schizophrenia, Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.  She also works with Andrew Morley on the pharmacogenetics of propofol, an intravenous anaesthetic.

Dr Andrew Morley has been a consultant anaesthetist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust for ten years. During his anaesthetic training he spent six months on HEMS, the helicopter emergency medical service based at the London Hospital, and nearly four years as a lecturer in anaesthesia at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since 2005, his principal research interest has been genomics. He is currently preparing an MD thesis on genetic susceptibility to the clinical effects of propofol, an intravenous anaesthetic. This work is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia.

Andrew has a lifelong enthusiasm for music. For most of his teenage years, he sang summer services in Salisbury Cathedral with the Merton Parish Church Choir. As a student he toured Southern Italy as Arlequino in ‘La Cenerentola’, funded by the British Council. He co-founded LIVE (London Instant Variety Entertainers) in 1984, devising and performing shows for the elderly and mentally handicapped, and remained a member for ten years. In the eighties and nineties he performed his own songs in many comedy venues in London and Hong Kong, creating a sell-out one-man musical show for the Hong Kong Fringe Festival in 1995 and appearing on national radio there several times.

Founded in 1981 the New London Chamber Choir is one of Europe’s foremost vocal ensembles. NLCC has given many world and British premières and continues to commission and promote new work. The Choir has worked closely with many leading composers, and has premiered works commissioned for it from Peter Adriaansz, Evdokija Danajloska, Michael Finnissy, Luca Francesconi, Michael Zev Gordon, Jonathan Harvey, David Sawer, James Wood, and Iannis Xenakis. Pierre Boulez became the choir’s patron in 1986.

Recent projects include a Scelsi portrait concert at the Archipel Festival in Geneva, Stravinsky's Les Noces with the Michael Clark Company, Jonathan Harvey’s Passion and Resurrection at the Casa da Música Festival in Porto, an all-Stravinsky programme with the CBSO, a tour to Macedonia, Handel at ENO with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and regular appearances at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Aside from Allele, NLCC’s schedule for 2010 included a tour with the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet to the November Music Festival in Holland and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival featuring new commissions by Michael Finnissy and Peter Adriaansz and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. For its 30th anniversary this year (2011) NLCC is commissioning a new work from its Musical Director James Weeks for performance at the Spitalfields Festival.

See www.nlcc.org.uk

Ruth Padel is an award-winning British poet and writer, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Zoological Society of London, Member of Bombay Natural History Society and currently Resident Poet at the Environment Institite, University College London. Her poetry includes Darwin - A Life in Poems, shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Poetry Prize, an internationally acclaimed verse biography of her great-great-grandfather Charles Darwin. Her first novel, Where the Serpent Lives, features field zoology, especially herpetology, in forests of India and Devon. Her non-fiction includes Tigers in Red Weather. In February 2012 she published The Mara Crossing, a book of mixed poems and prose on migration from cells to souls, animal and human. Some poems in the collection were inspired directly by Ruth's work on Music from the Genome.

See www.ruthpadel.com

James Weeks (*1978) read Music at Cambridge, and completed a PhD in composition at the University of Southampton studying with Michael Finnissy. His music has been performed and broadcast worldwide; recent works have been completed for London Sinfonietta, Endymion, Uroboros, New London Chamber Choir, Phoenix Trio, EXAUDI, Apartment House and Anton Lukoszevieze. As a conductor he is known for his championing of both early and contemporary music. He founded EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble with soprano Juliet Fraser in 2002, and maintains a busy international touring schedule with them. He has been Musical Director of the New London Chamber Choir since 2007 and is also Musical Director of Orlando Chamber Choir, London. In great demand as a guest conductor, he has worked with London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, New Music Players, L’Instant Donné, IXION, BBC Singers and Endymion. He teaches in both Composition and Vocal departments at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

See www.jamesweeks.org

Oxford Contemporary Music is an independent promoter, producer and commissioner of over 30 events a year in venues across Oxfordshire. Events span a wide range of genres from jazz to classical, electronica to world music and include cross art form collaborations. OCM also produces site specific events in unusual spaces such, which have included the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, Chimney Meadows Nature Reserve and Diamond Light Source. OCM has an education and outreach programme that makes music accessible across many communities in Oxford.

‘OCM Downloads’ was launched in spring 2010 to release the live recordings of OCM’s events. The catalogue offers exclusive performances that are not available anywhere else. Artists include Coco Mbassi, Robert Jarvis, Kimmo Pohjonen, Spiers and Boden, Harold Budd, The Singing Bones, Natureboy, Setsubun Bean Unit, Farmyard Animals Trio, Seabuckthorn, Helen Pearson, Laurence Colbert, Miso Ensemble, and Whitty/Newland/Lash. OCM is generously supported by Arts Council England, Oxford Brookes University, the PRS Foundation and Oxford City Council.

See www.ocmevents.org

King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

King’s Health Partners is one of only five AHSCs in the UK and brings together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise, spanning both physical and mental health. Our combined strengths will drive improvements in care for patients, allowing them to benefit from breakthroughs in medical science and receive leading edge treatment at the earliest possible opportunity.

For more information, visit www.kingshealthpartners.org

Oxford Inspires is the cultural development agency for Oxfordshire. We create new opportunities for arts and heritage organisations, nurture new festivals and spectacular events and work to engage as many people as possible in exciting and enjoyable cultural experiences, raising Oxfordshire's profile as a cultural destination within the UK and internationally. We collaborate with cultural organisations across Oxfordshire to support their ambitions and to help them to reach a wider audience.

www.oxfordinspires.org