1. Giles Yeo
gshy2@cam.ac.uk
@GilesYeo
Communicating Your
Science: Lessons
from the Front Line

2. Who am I and what do I do?
I am a geneticist that studies obesity

3. Getting lunch – it’s a jungle out there
Primal directives of life:
1. Find and eat food
2. Avoid becoming food
3. Reproduce
4. Repeat

4. Seven deadly sins

5. Scully, Nature, 508(7496):S50-1, 2014

6. Energy balance
Energy
Intake
Energy
Expenditure
Food Intake
Basal Metabolism
Physical Activity
Adaptive Thermogenesis

7. Twin studies
Heritability of BODY WEIGHT = Heritability of HEIGHT

8. Locke et al, Nature 2015

9. Your genes are like a hand of poker
You can’t do anything about the cards you have
But you can choose how to play them

10. We become fat because we eat more than we burn,
but why we eat more is complex
Obese people find it hard to lose weight NOT because they are BAD,
but because of their biology
Trying to understand the genetics between obese and lean people
is NOT giving obese folk an excuse
My message

11. King Canute

12. Message
Audience
Medium

13. Message
Why?
How?
What?

14. Why?
How?
What?
Why are you doing what you are doing?
What is the question?
How have you chosen to answer the question?
What have you found out?
What does this mean?
Introduction
Aims and objectives
Approach
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
The foundation of scientific communication

15. AA Deprivation and FTO Protein Levels
eIF2a
FTO
H3
N46
-AA (Hrs)
0 2 4 8
HEK 293
-AA (Hrs)
0 2 4 8
MEFs (wt)
-AA (Hrs)
0 2 4 8 16 24 +AA
Mouse Human
Why
How
What
Genetic variation – FTO – Obesity; Fasting reduces
FTO expression. Why? Nutrients? Glucose? Amino acids?
Use 3 cell-lines; Amino acid starved;
FTO measured by Western blot.
Amino acid starvation reduces FTO protein levels
in 3 different cell-lines.
In order to determine…
We used/did/performed/
measured…
We found that…
This means…..

16. is a completely scalable concept
Why?
How?
What?
Individual
experiments
Projects Programmes Careers

17. Audience
Academic Specialist
Academic Non-specialist
Educated lay
Students
Young students
General public
Difficulty

18. Simplify ≠ Wrong
The cab-driver/David Cameron test

19. AA Deprivation and FTO Protein Levels
eIF2a
FTO
H3
N46
-AA (Hrs)
0 2 4 8
HEK 293
-AA (Hrs)
0 2 4 8
MEFs (wt)
-AA (Hrs)
0 2 4 8 16 24 +AA
Mouse Human
Why
How
What
Genetic variation – FTO – Obesity; Fasting reduces
FTO expression. Why? Nutrients? Glucose? Amino acids?
Use 3 cell-lines; Amino acid starved;
FTO measured by Western blot.
Amino acid starvation reduces FTO protein levels
in 3 different cell-lines.
Audience
Academic Specialist
Academic Non-specialist
Educated lay
Students
Young students
General public

20. Medium
Speaking
Writing
Social media
Radio
TV
Audience
Reach

25. et al
Social media….a useful tool or a curse?

26. Giles Yeo
gshy2@cam.ac.uk
@GilesYeo
Questions?
Why?
How?
What?