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Where did we come from and how did we get here? Two big questions that get asked a lot. In this event we are hoping to give two new perspectives on these questions from LMS research. Learn about how our species came to exist from distant relatives, but also about how we became a mass of cells that started as one single cell.
To divide or not to divide?
Dr Betheney Pennycook
(Postdoc, MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences)
How do cells decide whether to divide or not? During development, cell division is essential for making a whole human but too much division can cause cancer. Find out how work in the Barr lab is investigating how healthy cells make this important decision and how we can use this information to understand how things go wrong in cancer.
Genes, drugs, and behaviour: lessons from our distant cousins
Dr Andre Brown
(Group Head, MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences)
We study the behaviour of a tiny nematode worm called C. elegans. It's an amazing creature with only 302 nerve cells that is still able to find food and mates, avoid danger, and form memories. We use imaging to capture these behaviours and physics and machine learning to make sense of them. Our goal is to find genetic changes that evolution uses to shape behaviour and compounds that we might use treat psychiatric diseases. The jump from worms to humans isn't as crazy as it might sound once you learn that they are our distant cousins and their brains are built using similar parts as ours.
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