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Should you donate your DNA to help cure diseases? - Greg Foot

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  • TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

When scientists don't know the cause of a medical condition, developing a drug treatment takes significant trial and error, and lots of money— which is why we only have drugs for a small proportion of diseases. Researchers are hoping to change this using crowdsourced DNA. So how does this work, and what do your genes have to do with it? Greg Foot digs into the science of therapeutic targets.


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TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Greg Foot
  • Director Pierangelo Pirak
  • Narrator Greg Foot
  • Animator Pomona Pictures
  • Science Consultant Aroon Hingorani, Reecha Sofat
  • Producer NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, sciencemedia.studio
  • Special Thanks Rosamund Yu, Davor Ivankovic
Additional Resources for you to Explore
This video outlines the history and current state of the art in drug development, highlighting the emerging importance of the sharing of personal medical history and genetic data in discovering new therapeutics. This has broad applicability to both GCSE and A-Level syllabi, please refer to end of document for reference to applicable AQA syllabus sections.
A short supplementary worksheet has been created for GCSE and A-Level students in addition, featuring mini-quizzes and a group-discussion centered around the ethics concerning genetic and health history data.

Customize this lesson

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Greg Foot
  • Director Pierangelo Pirak
  • Narrator Greg Foot
  • Animator Pomona Pictures
  • Science Consultant Aroon Hingorani, Reecha Sofat
  • Producer NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, sciencemedia.studio
  • Special Thanks Rosamund Yu, Davor Ivankovic

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