November Science Cafe -- November 26, 7pm: Dr. Margot Mayer-Proschel (UofR): "Iron deficiency: a silent threat to fetal brain development"

The November Science Cafe will be tomorrow, November 26, at 7pm, in the Community Room of the  Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble. Refreshments, as always, will be provided.


"Iron deficiency: a silent threat to fetal brain development"
Dr. Margot Mayer-Proschel, Ph.D.
Professor Biomedical Genetics, Neurobiology, and Anatomy
University of Rochester

Multiple risk factors compromise the ability of children to attain their maximal potential, including their cognitive abilities. Among such risk factors is iron deficiency, the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. Iron deficiency is particularly frequent during pregnancy and afflicts 50% of pregnant women. Contrary to common perception, iron deficiency - especially during pregnancy - is caused not just by inadequate or delayed iron supplementation but is often a result of impaired iron absorption. Many factors interfere with iron absorption, including diabetes, obesity, celiac and Crohn’s diseases, exposure to polyphenols and pthalates found in tea and coffee, high levels of calcium and exposure to environmental lead.
Iron deficiency during pregnancy is often only noticed because it compromises the overall well being of the pregnant mother. However, its major and far more dangerous impact is on the developing fetus with the serious consequence of impairing fetal brain maturation. This impaired maturation can result in altered behavior, emotional disturbances and learning disability and low IQ. While these impairments are now appreciated and well documented in both humans and animal models iron supplementation of both the mother (which normally does not occur until the third trimester) and the/or the offspring remain ineffective in preventing these neuronal impairments.
Our work has been dedicated over the last decade to understanding how maternal iron deficiency impacts the neurological development of children and why current therapeutic strategies have such a low success rate. In light of a new population based study on over 2000 children and adolescents that showed a clear association between psychiatric disorders and iron deficiency, there is a great urgency in providing information and awareness of the problem and in providing new insights of how to effectively stop the burden of iron deficiency on future generations.

October Science Cafe -- 22 October, 7pm : Dr. Stefan Preble (RIT) -- "Optical Computers - Computing at the speed of light"

The October Science Cafe will be tomorrow, October 22, at 7pm, in the Community Room of the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble. Refreshments, as always, will be provided.

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October 22: Dr. Stefan Preble
Associate Professor of Microsystems Engineering &
Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering, RIT
Title: "Optical Computers - Computing at the speed of light"

From the website of RIT's nanophotonics group:

Preble's group, R.I.T NanophotonicsGroup, is developing ultrasmall
devices that leverage the high bandwidths, low powers, low latencies
and sensitivities that are possible with light. The devices and
systems we are developing will revolutionize future microprocessor,
communication, and sensing systems. These nanophotonic devices are
primarily integrated on a silicon CMOS platform in order to leverage
the mature fabrication techniques that are used in the
microelectronics industry. This integration will enable unprecedented
electro-optical information systems that one day will be able to
process hundreds of terabits of information on a low cost chip.

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November 26: Dr. Margot Mayer-Proschel
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Genetics
University of Rochester Medical Center
Title: "Gestational Iron Deficiency"

It is my pleasure to announce the full Fall 2013 schedule for the Rochester Science cafe, now entering its fifth year (!). We have an exciting run of speakers ready for the fall, and hope to see everyone there starting in a week. As always, Cafes will be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month, in the Community Room of the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble, starting at 7pm, with refreshments provided.

Here is the lineup for the fall:

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September 24: Dr. Thomas Eickbush
Professor of Biology, UofR
Title: "Natural History of the Human Genome"

Abstract: The human genome is enormous in size and complexity, yet contains the blueprints for a surprisingly small number of genes. The bulk of our genome appears to be populated with remnants of virus-like elements, suggesting a surprisingly dynamic and intriguing evolutionary history. Is this abundance of DNA part of a fine-tuned machine that we do not yet understand or an indication of massive inefficiency? Either explanation presents a considerable obstacle to the goal of predicting the future health of individuals from their DNA sequence.

http://blogs.rochester.edu/EickbushLab/

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Future Talks:

October 22: Dr. Stefan Preble
Associate Professor of Microsystems Engineering &
Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering, RIT
Title: "Optical Computers - Computing at the speed of light"

November 26: Dr. Margot Mayer-Proschel
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Genetics
University of Rochester Medical Center
Title: "Gestational Iron Deficiency"

April Science Cafe: Dr. Steven Gill (UofR): "The Human Microbial Community and Its Impact On Health"

The April Science Cafe will be on Tuesday April 23, 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble.

"The Human Microbial Community and Its Impact On Health"

Steven R. Gill, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Director, University of Rochester Genomics Research Center
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry


Steven Gill is a leading expert in the genomics of microbial pathogens and microbial communities that grow on nearly all areas of the human body. The microbial communities or 'Microbiomes' exist in a mutually beneficial relationship with their human host and have essential roles in our development and health. Dr. Gill will describe the human microbiome and its functions, including how we acquire our microbiome, its role in our growth from infant to adult and the potential impact of the microbiome on immune diseases and allergies. Prior to UR, Dr. Gill was an Investigator at The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, MD, where he led the group that pioneered and published the first genomic analysis of the human gut microbiome. At UR, his research group is working on multiple microbiome projects in collaboration with clinicians and basic scientists in Pediatrics, Oncology and Microbiology.

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/people/27458778-steven-r-gill

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/mbi/resources/labs/Gill_Lab/index.cfm

We hope to see everyone there.

March Cafe: David Williams - "The Limits of Human Vision"

The next Science Cafe will be tomorrow, March 26, 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble:

“The Limits of Human Vision”
Prof. David R. Williams,
Dean for Research of Arts, Science & Engineering
Director of the Center for Visual Science
University of Rochester

David Williams is one of the world's leading experts on human vision and has pioneered new technologies that are improving the eyesight of people around the globe, from the legally blind to those with 20/20 vision. His laboratory developed an automated method to measure and correct the optical defects of the eye far more accurately than had been possible before. This development has improved laser refractive surgery and the design of contact lenses, and is a key technology in a camera that can take the sharpest pictures ever of the retina inside the living eye. Williams is the author of more than 100 papers and patents, a Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the recipient of the Tillyer Medal from the Optical Society of America, the Bressler Prize from the Jewish Guild for the Blind, the Friedenwald Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the António Champalimaud Vision Award.

Our April Cafe will be "The Human Microbial Biome", by Prof. Steven Gill, Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester.

February Science Cafe: February 26: “Inventing personalized cancer treatments through basic science”

Hello everyone, the next Science Cafe will be tomorrow, February 26, 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble:

“Inventing personalized cancer treatments through basic science”

Hartmut (Hucky) Land, Ph.D.

 Robert and Dorothy Markin Professor and Chair,
Department of Biomedical Genetics
Director of Research & Co-Director, James P. Wilmot Cancer Center
University of Rochester Medical Center

Hucky Land has contributed seminal work towards understanding the molecular basis of cancer. He was among the pioneering scientists who discovered that cancer requires multiple mutations to occur, and that these cancer mutations actively cooperate with each other. Land has made many other, vital discoveries about cancer-gene cooperation and most recently cancer-cell vulnerabilities common to a variety of cancers. Overall, his investigations aim at the development of more personalized cancer treatments. Born in Germany, Dr. Land earned his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, studied as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then worked for 14 years at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. He joined the University of Rochester in 1999 and founded the Department of Biomedical Genetics, building it into a scientific powerhouse of 150 associated researchers, many of whom study cancer cells’ unique vulnerabilities. He also serves as the Director of Research & Co-Director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

 Our March Cafe will be "The limits of human vision", by Prof. David R. Williams, the Dean for Research of Arts, Science & Engineering and Director of the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester.

January Science Cafe: Tuesday, January 22, 7pm: John Tarduno (UofR): Expeditions to the High Arctic: A glimpse of a world without ice

Hello everyone,

We want to welcome everyone to join us at the upcoming Spring 2013
season of the Rochester Science Cafe. Our first talk wil be next
Tuesday, January 22, 7pm in our usual location at the Pittsford Plaza
Barnes and Noble. The speaker will be Prof. John Tarduno from the
UofR, speaking about:

Expeditions to the High Arctic: A glimpse of a world without ice


John A. Tarduno is Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth
and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Physics & Astronomy at

the University of Rochester. He is a recipient of a John Simon
Guggenheim Fellowship and is a fellow of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and the
Geological Society of America. In addition to expedition work in the
Arctic, Professor Tarduno has conducted research in the Sahara,
southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India, and at sea in the
Pacific Ocean.


Cafes will continue through May, held on the fourth Tuesday of every
month. We hope to see everyone there.