Winning essay explores genetic testing

An essay on the quest to treat incurable Huntington's Disease and the questions thrown up by genetic testing has won the 2015 Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing.

Author and journalist Christine Kenneally's essay, The Past May Not Make You Feel Better, was announced as the winner of the $7,000 prize at a ceremony in Sydney on Tuesday night.

Kenneally's work traces the history of the disease and the work of Jeff Carroll, a researcher whose mother died with Huntington's Disease and who has himself inherited the gene mutation that causes the degenerative condition.

The essay also examines the use of gene data in diagnosing Huntington's Disease and the broader attitudes and fears that exist in the rapidly growing field of genetic testing.