Peter Dearden

The ''Genetics Week'' celebrations will be held from September 23 to September 29.

Genetics Otago publicity and events manager Sophia McKay said the centre involved about 40 researchers when it was established in 2008.

Now, more than 240 researchers - about 80% of them from the university's Dunedin campus - were participating.

Genetics Otago had become the biggest centre for ''advanced, multidisciplinary genetics research'' in Australia and New Zealand, she said.

The centre's director, biochemist Peter Dearden, is based in the Otago biochemistry department, but the centre is a largely ''virtual'' collaborative grouping.

Instead of providing a big ''bricks and mortar'' headquarters, it connects collaboratively with researchers in a host of disciplines and subject areas, ranging from law and ethics to the environment and agriculture.

Ms McKay said the centre aimed to boost public awareness of the ground-breaking research being conducted in New Zealand and to support those people who were ''dedicated to this extraordinary discipline''.

Oxford University researcher Julian Savulescu, who is director of the Institute for Science and Ethics, and Jessica Wapner, a New York scientific journalist and author, are among the key speakers at Genetics Week events.

Ms Wapner and Ian Morrison, head of the Otago University pathology department, will discuss developments in leukaemia treatment at an event being held at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum at 6pm on September 24.

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Genetics Otago puts its research on show

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