Twin brothers Scott and Dan Shillum, who run Visual Media, attended our TwinsUK twin party to celebrate our 21st anniversary. We hope you enjoy viewing a short video they made of the day.

You can view the video here…..

The One Show on the BBC ran a feature on the Department of Twin Research on 17th June 2013.

This programme was broadcast at 7:00pm on BBC 1.

They featured the TwinsUK 21st Anniversary Party which was held at St. Thomas” Hospital on 8th June 2013.

Please click here for more information.

Tim Spector, Director of TwinsUK and some of our twins took part in a photo call today to celebrate the 21 year anniversary of TwinsUK.

The Department of Twin Research at King’s College London, based at St Thomas’ Hospital, celebrates 21 years of genetic research this week, highlighting key achievements and looking to the future of genetic research. The Department will celebrate this milestone with an event at St Thomas’ Hospital in London this weekend, where hundreds of twins will take part in scientific experiments for research into pain, short-sightedness, hearing loss, skin ageing and telepathy.

Thank you to the many thousands of our twins that have helped us with the research over the years.

For further information click here.

The KCL Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine is now offering bursaries for Masters programmes.

Students can choose twin-related topics for their coursework.

For further details please go to the “Taught Courses” part of the “Learning & Training” section of this website.

With the recent case of the French identical twins who have been implicated in serial rape, Quentin Cooper asks forensic geneticist Gill Tully from the Principal Forensics Services how DNA helps the police mobile gambling to find perpetrators and Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist from King”s College London, suggests that identical twins might not actually be as similar in their genes as we previously thought.

To listen to the BBC Radio 4 programme Click Here.

Identical twins are incredibly similar – which makes sense, since they have precisely the same genes. But a practiced eye can often find subtle differences. On this program, Bob MacDonald speaks with Tim Spector who explains how the new science of epigenetics can produce twins who are “Identically Different”.

The show “Quirks and Quarks – Identically Different:  The Science of Epigenetics” can be heard at the CBC website by

On Wednesday 24th October we were delighted to welcome the patron of TwinsUK, Baroness Betty Boothroyd, on a visit to the Department of Twin Research. Baroness Boothroyd is a British politician, who served as Member of Parliament and, from 1992 to 2000, as the first, and to date only, female Speaker of the House of Commons. In 1995 she was appointed the Order of Merit, an honour that is a personal gift from the Queen.

Baroness Boothroyd discussing the TwinsUK resource with Director Prof Tim Spector and Dr Debbie Hart, Executive Director

Profesor Spector first had the pleasure of meeting with the Baroness when they featured together in December on BBC Radio 4’s “Today Programme”. The programme was questioning the Baroness about how, as a woman in her 80’s, she continues to be “in fine fettle” – something that those who meet her often comment on. In order to get some answers she met with Professor Spector to discuss the genetics of ageing and underwent a ‘twin visit’ at the Department where she had a number of routine tests.

Impressed by our successful research into ageing and a whole range of health issues such as obesity, heart disease and osteoarthritis she agreed earlier in the year, much to our delight, to become a patron of TwinsUK, our twin registry.

On her visit to the Department she spent the morning meeting our senior investigators and members of staff, discussing our work and future ambitions. She also took this opportunity to walk round our new offices where she had the chance to see closely how the input of each member of staff contributes to our research.

We will shortly be posting a YouTube video of our interview with her, where she answers questions about which areas of research are closest to her heart, what she enjoyed most about her “twin visit”, the way her childhood influenced her and her top tips for healthy ageing.

We were all struck by her keen interest and vigour, and how enthusiastic she was to learn about our research advances and our media appearances. We look forward to many years of her patronage and to celebrating our 21st anniversary with her.