Sunday, September 15, 2019

Fall 2019 September Science Cafe lineup announced -- Welcome to our 11th year

Welcome to everyone as the Rochester Science Cafe begins its 11th year! We are excited to announce our Fall 2019 lineup as we continue on with Rochester's premier free monthly science talk series. 
As always, talks will be the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7pm, upstairs in the Community Room at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble, 3349 Monroe Ave.  All talks are free, and coffee and cookies are provided.

This Fall, our lineup will be

September 24
“Health around the clock: human circadian rhythm in health and disease”
Dr. Brian J. Altmann, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Genetics
University of Rochester Medical Center

Circadian rhythms in mammals are 24-hour cycles that govern gene regulation and cellular metabolism. While many cancers have altered or disrupted circadian rhythms, there is little understanding of the implications of this disruption on cancer cell metabolism, tumor cell growth, and prognosis. We have previously shown that the MYC oncogene, commonly overexpressed in many human cancers, disrupts circadian rhythm and metabolic oscillations, which may provide a growth advantage to the cancer cell.

Our research focuses on identifying the intersections between circadian rhythm, cancer cell physiology, and metabolism. We utilize diverse cell line models of cancer and mouse MYC-driven lung cancer to focus on amplified MYC, the extended MYC family of related proteins, and nutrient input and metabolic stress signaling in circadian rhythm control. Better understanding of how tumors and metabolic input modulate the clock and the circadian metabolic cycle could aid in developing novel treatment strategies to time increased efficacy and reduced toxicity.
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/labs/altman.aspx


October 22
“Bacterial seashells: How to build your environment using bacteria” Dr. Anne Meyer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology
University of Rochester


November 26 
 “Perception as controlled hallucination”
Dr. Edmund Lalor, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience
University of Rochester

Saturday, March 23, 2019

March Science Cafe (3/26): Dr. Lea Michel (RIT): "Prevention, Protection, and Diagnosis: One protein’s role in multiple diseases"

Our next Science Cafe talk will be this coming Tuesday, March 26. As always, 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble, upstairs in the community room. For this month, our topic is:


Dr. Lea Michel
Associate Professor, School of Chemistry and Materials Science
Chair of Women in Science & Director of Rochester Project SEED
RIT

Prevention, Protection, and Diagnosis: One protein’s role in multiple diseases
The Michel research group has focused on the Peptidoglycan associated lipoprotein (Pal) protein from two pathogenic bacteria: nontypeable Haemophilus influenza (NTHi) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). NTHi causes ear infections and other respiratory illnesses, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Michel group aims to use the NTHi Pal protein in a vaccine to protect against these diseases. E. coli can be found in the human gut, where they act as a “good bacteria,” helping to maintain gut health. However, E. coli can also cause serious illnesses, including sepsis, which is extreme inflammation caused by a serious infection. In this research realm, the Michel group studies the role of Pal in sepsis and aims to prove that Pal is a useful biomarker for early detection and diagnosis of E. coli sepsis.
https://www.rit.edu/science/michel

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There will be two more talks in our Spring series as well:


April 23: Dr. Ernest Fokoue (RIT):

To Bayes or not to Bayes? That’s no longer the question!
A light on the ubiquitous power of the Bayesian paradigm in Data Science.

This conversation will unapologetically make a series of bold claims seeking to make the case that the Bayesian Paradigm just might be the single most fundamental building block of statistical machine learning and data science. A tour of some foundational concepts in statistics and machine learning will serve as the fulcrum for anchoring all the claims, but concrete examples of the power of the Bayesian thought in modern data science will also be provided.

May 28: Dr. Andre Hudson (RIT):

Public Health Alert: Why should you care about antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the major public health challenges of the 21st century. The recent death of a United States citizen who became ill with an infection caused by Klebsiella pneumoniaethat was resistant to twenty-six antibiotics highlights this important issue. The rise in the number of multidrug-resistant bacteria such as; Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Vancomycin inter-mediate and resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (multidrug resistant strains), multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis among others has led to a significant increase in the morbidity and mortality of humans infected with pathogenic bacteria.

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Science Cafe Spring lineup announced; First cafe in a week, 2/26

The Rochester Science Cafe is excited to announce our lineup for the remainder of the Spring series as we continue through our 10th year. Below is the lineup of the remaining talks.

Our net talk will be a week from today, Tuesday February 26, at 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble. As always, cookies, coffee and conversation upstairs in the community room.

We thank everyone for their patronage for this past decade, and look forward to a
few more!

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February 26: Dr. Joel Kastner (RIT)
Professor, Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and
Astrophysical Science and Technology Program
"Needles in a haystack: the search for (and study of) young stars near Earth"
Thousands of extrasolar planets ("exoplanets") have been discovered over the past two decades. Astronomers seeking to understand the astonishing variety of planetary masses and orbital separations that characterize these myriad exoplanet systems, as well as the earliest evolution of our own solar system, must carefully study exoplanet birthplaces: dusty, molecule-rich “protoplanetary” disks orbiting young stars. Here, I'll talk about recent advances in the study of protoplanetary disks using the recently commissioned Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) radio interferometer as well as the latest generation of adaptive optics (AO) cameras on the world’s largest (8-meter-class) optical/infrared telescopes. My talk will focus on ALMA and AO studies of the nearest-known disks; these young neighbors afford opportunities to image disk structures and chemistry on solar system size scales. Also, I'll talk about finding the source of the air we breathe, from an astronomical perspective.

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March 26: Dr. Lea Michel (RIT)
Assoc. Professor, School of Chemistry and Materals Science
Chair, Women in Science program
"Prevention, Protection, and Diagnosis: One protein’s role in multiple diseases"


April 23: Dr. Ernest Fokoue (RIT)
Assoc. Professor, School of Mathematical Sciences


May 28: Dr. Andre Hudson (RIT)
Professor and Head, Thomas H Gosnell School of Life Sciences
"Public Health Alert: Why should you care about antibiotic resistance"