Embargo: Saturday 27 April 2002, 0001hrs

Glasgow artist, Jacqueline Donachie, will launch her latest artist's book at the University this Friday. The publication, entitled DM, is a photographic and text based study on the subject of myotonic dystrophy (dystrophia myotonica, DM), a disease which affects several members of the artist's immediate family. DM is the result of a year-long collaboration with molecular geneticists, Professor Keith Johnson and Dr Darren Monckton, who carry out research into the gene that causes myotonic dystrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy.

Speaking about the collaboration, Professor Keith Johnson said: "Both Darren and I really enjoyed working with Jacqueline. As well as being a great artist she has a real commitment to understanding myotonic dystrophy. We introduced her to families around the world who have been affected by the disease and to scientists who, like us, are working towards finding treatments and cures. Her pictures and text capture both of these aspects beautifully.

"There is so much more work to be done on myotonic dystrophy, and limited funding available to do it with. I hope that Jacqueline's book will raise public awareness of this genetic condition, which is the most common form of inherited muscular disease affecting adults in Britain. We know of over 1,000 people in Scotland who have inherited myotonic dystrophy, but we are sure that it is grossly under-diagnosed. As the symptoms of myotonic dystrophy worsen with age, and from generation to generation, we are very keen to find a way of stopping the disease in its tracks."

The below text is an extract from DM. Images available on request.

Montreal and Saguenay Lac St Jean, 28th July - 4th August 2001

Seven days, six flights. One professor, one doctor and two sisters. Off we went.

At first it was too hot and our meetings got cancelled. I had brought these people here, away from their very varied and busy lives, to stay in a crummy Comfort Inn and walk the streets of Montreal looking for something to talk about as well as this disease that we all had in common. We sought out air conditioning. The geneticists marched us all off to the Science Museum and later that day I dragged them to the Museum of Contemporary Art. We were sceptical but respectful of how each of our worlds were portrayed, but felt better for this unplanned bonding. The cold beer was good and it made Susan and I laugh that the scientists kept asking her if she needed to have a rest.

The University of Glasgow will host the International Myotonic Dystrophy Conference (IDMC4) in Spring 2003. A group of senior researchers from America, Japan and France, who are on the international committee of IDMC4, will attend the DM launch on Friday. Also present will be Mrs Shannon Lord from Atlanta, a descendant of the Hunter family, of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, who has children affected by myotonic dystrophy and has funded research into the disease. Margaret Bowler, founder of the UK Myotonic Dystrophy Support Group will also be present.

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Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

The launch will take place on Friday 26 April at 12 noon in the Carnegie Room, Main Building, University of Glasgow. Enter via door under tower and go up to first floor.

The artist will be accompanied at the launch by her sister, Susan, 36, who has been diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy. Susan?s two young children have also inherited the disease.

The research for Jacqueline Donachie?s latest artist book, DM was made possible by an award from the SciArt Consortium. The publication itself was funded by Copus, the UK Science Communication Partnership.

Further information on myotonic dystrophy can be obtained on request from the University press office or via the Scottish Muscle Network website at http://www.gla.ac.uk/centres/muscle/

Biographical information
Jacqueline Donachie was born in Glasgow in 1969. After studying in the Environmental Art Department of Glasgow School of Art, from which she graduated in 1991, she became a committee member of Transmission Gallery. Her first solo exhibition was the installation Part Edit at Tramway in 1994.

In 1995-96 she undertook a Fulbright Fellowship on the masters course at Hunter College in New York and she took part in ?Correspondences? at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, in 1997. Recent exhibitions have been at the Jerwood Gallery, London, in 1999, Spike Island, Bristol, 2001, where she was the Henry Moore Sculpture Fellow and ?Here and Now?, Scottish Art 1990-2001 at Dundee Contemporary Arts. The artist lives and works in Glasgow.

Professor Keith Johnson, Chair of Genetics, and Dr Darren Monckton, a Lister Institute Research Fellow, are based in the University?s IBLS Division of Molecular Genetics. The research groups of both Professor Johnson and Dr Monckton work on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underly myotonic dystrophy, with the long term aim of identifying treatments and cures. Both the common (type 1) and rarer (type 2) forms of myotonic dystrophy are associated with mutations that comprise an increase in length of a repeated DNA sequence that affects the function of several genes. Professor Johnson?s work is focussed on determining the normal function of the genes that are affected and how their absence contributes toward the observed symptoms. Dr Monckton?s research efforts are focussed on understanding the nature of the mutation and how it changes from one generation to the next and throughout the life time of the individual, and how this effects the severity of the symptoms. Work in both groups is being achieved by using patient materials, experiments using recombinant proteins and genetic model systems such as the fruit fly, Drosophila.

First published: 26 April 2002