Microbes and Immunity - Striking a Delicate Balance

Every year, across the world, 1 million people catch a parasitic disease called leishmaniasis. While it mainly affects people in tropical and sub-tropical regions there is a risk of this increasing as the climate changes. Leishmaniasis can cause disfiguring skin ulcers or even lead to death when it infects organs like the liver or spleen, but all the medicines used to treat it also have problematic side-effects. Researchers in York are working to understand the Leishmania parasite's biology, aiming to identify improved treatments and vaccines. This talk will explore how understanding a unique aspect of parasite gene expression can be used to find targets for potential new medicines.

Antimicrobial resistance is increasing in both the hospital and community setting. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to most of the commonly used antibiotics and have become a significant threat to our health and healthcare as we know it. How is this changing the way healthcare is provided? What is being done to combat this threat?

Hormones and chromosomes affect so much of our biology and are a core part of biological sex, but do they also impact how we fight off diseases? I aim to introduce to you to all the different parts of our immune system (with a little background on how they combat illness), and talk about how our biological sex changes how they all work!

Bacteria are everywhere. We are covered in them, inside and out, and almost every surface we touch is colonised by them. But have you ever considered whether your taps are harbouring their own bacterial ecosystems? This talk will explore ways to identify and track microbes living in tap water. It will also discuss ways to limit bacterial colonisation and ponder whether there are any implications for your health.