The 18th Kilbrandon Lecture (University of Strathclyde, 18 February 2021) : Labours of love: the crisis of care

This lecture was arranged during the COVID-19 pandemic and during a period of government-imposed restrictions to normal life. Only essential shops were open. Schools, colleges and universities were mostly closed, and learning moved online. The lecture itself was live-streamed, as a webinar, to an audience of around 500 watching from their own homes. The lecture was based on Ms Bunting's research for her 2020 book, 'Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care'. She spoke about how care has been marginalised and the skills required to perform it widely undervalued, even by carers themselves. The pandemic brought the work of carers to centre-stage. While health and social care services had been underfunded for decades, a war-chest was found to fight the virus and its consequences. Ms Bunting pointed out that the vast amount of caring work, paid and unpaid, falls to women. 'Care is the feminist issue; it profoundly shapes women's lives at home and at work.' The lecture was followed by commentaries by University of Strathclyde academics Dr Graham Connelly and Dr Laura Steckley, and a vote of thanks by Minister for Children and Early Years in the Scottish Government, Ms Maree Todd MSP

Inactivation of a Single Copy of Crebbp Selectively Alters Pre-mRNA Processing in Mouse Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Global expression analysis of fetal liver hematopoietic stem cells (FL HSCs) revealed the presence of unspliced pre-mRNA for a number of genes in normal FL HSCs. In a subset of these genes, Crebbp+/− FL HSCs had less unprocessed pre-mRNA without a corresponding reduction in total mRNA levels. Among the genes thus identified were the key regulators of HSC function Itga4, Msi2 and Tcf4. A similar but much weaker effect was apparent in Ep300+/− FL HSCs, indicating that, in this context as in others, the two paralogs are not interchangeable. As a group, the down-regulated intronic probe sets could discriminate adult HSCs from more mature cell types, suggesting that the underlying mechanism is regulated with differentiation stage and is active in both fetal and adult hematopoiesis. Consistent with increased myelopoiesis in Crebbp hemizygous mice, targeted reduction of CREBBP abundance by shRNA in the multipotent EML cell line triggered spontaneous myeloid differentiation in the absence of the normally required inductive signals. In addition, differences in protein levels between phenotypically distinct EML subpopulations were better predicted by taking into account not only the total mRNA signal but also the amount of unspliced message present. CREBBP thus appears to selectively influence the timing and degree of pre-mRNA processing of genes essential for HSC regulation and thereby has the potential to alter subsequent cell fate decisions in HSCs

The Live Art Almanac

"The Live Art Almanac is a collection of "found" writing about and around Live Art. This title brings together texts which are representative of the most engaging, provocative, thoughtful writing around Live Art and the cultural landscape in which it is set, and which were first published between April 2006 and April 2008." -- Publisher's website