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The Compatibility Gene is a scientific adventure story set in a new field of genetic discovery - that of the crucial genes that define our relationships, our health and our individuality. Here, Daniel M Davis, one of the leading scientists in the field, tells us the story of its groundbreaking developments that have the potential to change us all Although there are 25,000 genes in the human body, only a select few of these answer fundamental questions: our compatibility genes. It is these few genes, argues Daniel M. Davis, that determine whether our tissue and organs might be able to be used in transplantation, how successful we'll be at fighting a variety of diseases, what our chances of successful reproduction are, how compatible we are with one another, and even, to a surprising extent, how mankind has evolved to its present state. In exploring the history of these genes' discovery, and the unfolding of their secrets, Daniel M.
Davis seeks an answer to questions of how genetic compatibility affects our relationships, reproduction, medical research and ethics - and, looking to the future, considers the startling possibilities of what our knowledge of these genes might mean for you and me. Daniel M. Davis is director of research at the University of Manchester's Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research and a visiting professor at Imperial College, London. He has published over 100 academic papers, including papers in Nature and Science, and Scientific American, and lectures all over the world, including at the Royal Institution. He has previously won the Oxford University Press Science Writing Prize, and has given numerous interviews for national and international media, including the Times, Guardian, Metro, and National Public Radio (USA). A major feature on his research was published in The Times. Experiments filmed in his laboratory were shown in the BBC series 'The History of Medicine' (2008). He also keenly engages in broad scientific affairs, recently publishing a view on UK science funding policies in Nature.