Under the Skin: A Night of Human Health

Simon is an Academic Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and a researcher in bacteriology. Using the example of Cystic Fibrosis, Simon will discuss how we can reproduce the conditions within the human lung in the research laboratory, how this alters the behaviour of bacteria causing infection, and how these insights can be used to design the treatments of the future.

Seb is a research fellow at the University of Sussex, where he completed his PhD researching tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease. Tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, where an important protein called tau begins to stick together and forms tangles - known as aggregates. These aggregates disrupt how neurons function and are a hallmark of tauopathies. But what if we could stop these aggregates from forming? Seb will be talking about how tau proteins self-assemble into harmful aggregates and how researchers are developing molecules designed to block this process, called tau-aggregation inhibitors.

There is increasing focus on the impact of the healthcare industry on climate change. This session discusses this, alongside some potential microbiology-driven solutions for improved decontamination of hospital equipment.