Dear Café Scientifiquers,
Our next café will happen on Tuesday October 25th, 7:30PM at the Railway Club, and the speaker for the evening will be Jenna Capyk (PhD candidate from UBC’s Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department). Her talk will be on:
Tuberculosis and Cholesterol: Growth of a biochemical field
Tuberculosis may be an ancient disease, but it is also one that still represents a major global health concern. With about 1/3 of all people carrying the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, bacterium that causes TB, and drug resistance becoming a more serious problem every year, research into this bacterium has intensified over the past decade. Our knowledge of exactly what factors allow the bacteria to survive and cause disease, however, is very limited. A discovery made a few years ago has opened doors to a new research field on cholesterol degradation by M. tuberculosis. I’d like to talk about my biochemical research into how and why this bacterium uses cholesterol, and how this work fits into our understanding of the bacterium and the disease. I would also like to put this work in the context of research community building a new field, and use it as an example to explore the limitations and progression of biochemical research.
We hope to see you there!
– Your Café Sci Vancouver Organizers
