Genetic Roulette and Your Family:
Mackenzie’s Mission and the roadmap for a national genetic carrier screening program

Mackenzie’s Mission, a $20 million national research project screening over 9000 couples from every Australian state and territory, showed how important pre-pregnancy reproductive genetic carrier screening is, and how a national carrier screening program could be established to help couples make informed decisions about their future.

Around 1 in 50 Australian couples planning a family who participated in Mackenzie’s Mission had an increased chance of passing on a serious or fatal recessive genetic disease to their children.

Join Emeritus Professor Nigel Laing AO, co-lead investigator of Mackenzie’s Mission, as he shares the findings from this remarkable world-first research, recently published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Nigel has dedicated his career to finding genetic causes of rare diseases and championing the importance of preventive genetic screening for all couples, regardless of their cultural or socio-economic background.

Nigel will be joined on the panel by Perth GP and UWA Clinical Senior Lecturer of General Practice, Associate Professor Lucy Gilkes, and Genetic Counsellor and WA Project Manager of Mackenzie’s Mission, Samantha Edwards.

Please join Nigel, Lucy and Sam as they talk with discussion host, Miriam Borthwick, to learn more about the need for a national reproductive genetic carrier screening program and how it could help West Australian families.

REGISTER HERE TO SECURE YOUR SEAT

When: Thursday, 27 February 2025, 6.30PM – 7.30PM (AWST) 

Where: McCusker Auditorium, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, 6 Verdun Street, Nedlands (find parking here).

Cost: Free 

Audience members will have an opportunity to participate in the conversation and ask questions after the discussion for a Q&A session.