Get your blood pumping!

Microscopy allows us to make the invisible visible and is a technique widely used in scientific research. From understanding how individual cancer cells behave after chemotherapy treatment to understanding how our own immune system could help to fight disease, microscopes allow us to visualise and understand key biological concepts. Join us as we discover the important discoveries of the past and the remarkable research taking place at St George’s through a collection of amazing images all made possible with microscopy!

MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is an antibiotic-resistant version of a bacterium that lives its life up your nose. Like other members of microbiome, it uses you as a dining table, toilet, pub, fighting ring, and a bed – usually harmlessly. In this talk, we’ll discuss the sex life of this infamous bacteria, how this can render antibiotic treatments useless, and why I spend hundreds of hours recording MRSA doing the devils dance right under your nose.

Platelets are tiny cells in our blood and hey are responsible for forming blood clots to stop blood loss. Platelets start forming a clot after receiving signals from damaged blood vessels. Unfortunately, platelet signalling can become a bit scrambled and can result in dangerous blood clots. These dangerous blood clots block blood vessels and cause heart attacks and strokes. In my talk I will discuss how research into understanding how platelets work can help us to create better treatment options for dangerous clots.