Past events

Autumn Term

• Is it safe to go into the sea? Climate change and the increasing risk of human Vibrio infections

Speaker: Dr Elizabeth Archer, University of Essex

• Dark oxygen production at the manganese nodule-covered aphotic abyssal seafloor

Speaker: Prof. Andrew K. Sweetman, Scottish Association for Marine Science

Autumn term

• Using AI to Tackle Challenges in Life Sciences

Speaker: Dr Jon Chamberlain, University of Essex.

• Dispersal’s Role in Structuring Diversity at Hydrothermal Vents

Speaker: Otis Brunner, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.

Spring Term

• Natural Hazards - Emergency Response in a Changing Climate

Speaker: Guy Cooper, Environment Agency

• Rewilding the Sea

Speaker: Charles Clover, Blue Marine Foundation

• How Stories and Sagas Create Agency for the Climate and Biodiversity Crises

Speaker: Professor Jules Pretty, University of Essex

• The human gut microbiome explored at single nucleotide resolution

Speaker: Dr Falk Hildebrand, Quadram Institute Bioscience & Earlham Institute

• Radical Marine Spatial Planning

Speaker: Dr Glen Smith, Middlesex University

Autumn term

• Insights into Human Common Diseases via the Impact of Ageing & Genomic Variation on the DNA methylome

Speaker: Christopher Graeme Bell, Queen Mary University of London.

• Targeting the IRF4 Transcriptional Network to Subvert Multiple Myeloma

Speaker: Erika Mancini, University of Sussex.

• Philosophical Aspects of Theory, Observation, Evidence & Knowledge in Scientific Research

Speaker: Dr Matthew Rowe, Imperial College London

Summer term

• The making of a biological solar cell: Genetic approaches to understand the beauty and complexity of chloroplast biogenesis

Speaker: Dr Enrique López-Juez, Royal Holloway

Autumn term

• Monocot Grafting: A tool to future proof plants for changing climate

Speaker: Dr Pallavi Singh, University of Essex.

Spring term

• Things that go bump in the night: Understanding the role of nocturnal conductance in response to climate change

Speaker: Dr Laura McAusland, University of Nottingham.

Summer term

• Investigating plant processes from enzymes to ecosystems

Speaker: Dr Caitlin Moore, University of Western Australia.

Autumn term

• Structure and mechanism of [FeFe] hydrogenases

Speaker: Dr James Birrell, University of Essex.

• Manipulating iron storage and mobilization in the bacterial cell, a new strategy for developing antibiofilm interventions

Speaker: Mario Rivera, Louisiana State University.

• Electron Paramagnetic Resonance: what does it have to do with Essex?

Speaker: Dr Dima Svistunenko, University of Essex.

Spring term

• Expanding the biocatalytic toolbox

Speaker: Dr Patricia Rodriguez Macia, University of Oxford

Summer term

• Measuring mycobacterial bioenergetic systems within living bacteria as they power growth and respond to antibiotics

Speaker: Dr Jamie Blaza, University of York

Autumn term

• Fishers on the Frontlines - empowering coastal communities in marine ecosystem management

Speaker: Charlie Gough, Blue Ventures and University of Exeter.

• Living on the Edge - Salt marshes under global change

Speaker: Stefanie Nolte, University of East Anglia.

• The crucial role of marine vegetated ecosystems

Speaker: Ian Hendy, University of Portsmouth.

Spring term

• Sharks, skates and rays: Life-history, population status and fisheries management

Speaker: Jim Ellis, Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).

• Does wildlife provisioning help or hinder conservation?

Speaker: Dr Alexander Lees, Manchester Metropolitan University

• The dynamics of marine human-wildlife conflict

Speaker: Katrina Davis, University of Oxford

• Using ancient DNA to obtain long-term perspectives in the marine environment

Speaker: Bastiaan Star, University of Oslo.

Summer term

• Geodiversity matters for biodiversity, in theory and practice

Speaker: Dr Joseph J Bailey, York St John University.

• Coral reef in a bottle: eDNA for biomonitoring

Speaker: Dr Alessia Bani, University of Essex.

Autumn term

• Spermatogenesis, genomic conflict and evolutionary innovation

Speaker: Peter Ellis, University of Kent.

• Pseudotyping pandemics

Speaker: Dr Nigel Temperton, University of Kent.

Spring term

• RNA modifications as determinants of chromatin structure and genome stability

Speaker: Alexey Ruzov, University of Nottingham.

• An evolutionary approach to ageing research

Speaker: Jonathan Houseley, Babraham Institute.

• Mediator kinase-regulated transcriptional reprogramming: a broad therapeutic target

Speaker: Professor Igor Roninson, University of South Carolina.

• Microbial Influence on animal linear growth promotion

Speaker: François Leulier, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon

• Chromatin remodelling and cell fate plasticity during neuronal maturation

Speaker: Tony Southall, Imperial College London.

Summer term

• Wastewater based epidemiology – successes, challenges and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic

Speaker: Professor Mariachiara Di Cesare, University of Essex.

Autumn term

• Increasing crop yield through manipulation of photosynthetic carbon metabolism

Speaker: Professor Christine Raines, University of Essex.

• Spatially imposed specificity in chloroplast-to-nucleus signal transduction

Speaker: Professor Phil Mullineaux, University of Essex.

Summer term

• Unravelling the effects of winter temperature variation on arable crop yields

Speaker: Steven Penfield, John Innes Centre.

Autumn term

• The future of MSC-based therapies for cancer

Speaker: Dr Andrea Mohr, University of Essex.

Spring term

• Conformational disorder in regulation of enzymatic catalysis

Speaker: Vincenzo Venditti, Iowa State University.

Summer term

• Different ways for CD95/Fas to induce inflammation in chronic inflammatory disorders and cancers

Speaker: Patrick Legembre, Université de Limoges.

• Ex-vivo structural biology: new insights on systemic amyloidosis

Speaker: Stefano Ricagno, University of Milano.

• Disulfiram: An old antialcoholism medicine gives cancer patients new hope

Speaker: Professor Weiguang Wang, University of Wolverhampton.

• Addressing the flexibility issue in protein-ligand binding: the EDES protocol

Speaker: Attilio Vittorio Vargiu, University of Cagliari.

Autumn term

• Deep-water fisheries along the British Isles continental slopes: status, ecosystem effects and future perspectives

Speaker: Dr Rui Vieira, Center for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science/UEA

• Indicators of ecosystem resilience driven by human influence rather than climate

Speaker: Dr Laura Graham, University of Birmingham

• From Ions to Ecosystems: Tracing fish movement and health using natural tags

Speaker: Dr Anna Sturrock, University of Essex

• Who's in charge? Fungus-bacteria interactions in decomposing wood

Speaker: Dr Sarah Christofides, Cardiff University

• The marine and aquatic civil servants - applying science into policy for a sustainable blue future

Speaker: Dr Ewan Hunter, Center for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, and University of East Anglia.

Spring term

• Science and campaigning: how research can change the world

Speaker: William McCallum, Greenpeace

• Don't put your eggs in one basket: Why fish early life history stages maximize reproductive success

Speaker: Professor Audrey Geffen, Imperial College London and University of Bergen

• Ocean Optimism: Is there really hope for the oceans?

Speaker: Dr Bryce Stewart, University of York

Summer term

• The humpback whale: Socially intelligent or just ‘winging’ it?

Speaker: Dr Rebecca Dunlop, University of Queensland

• Hydrocarbon degradation in deep waters of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea at in situ pressure

Speaker: Dr Evina Gontikaki, Technical University of Crete

• Transitioning Advances in Molecular Epidemiology to Ocean Observing: Lessons from COVID-19

Speaker: Dr Peter Thielen, Johns Hopkins University

• Fidelity of yellowfin tuna to seamounts and island foraging grounds in the central South Atlantic Ocean

Speakers: Dr Serena Wright & Rhys Hobbs, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science & St Helena Government

Autumn term

• Prolonging transplant organ survival using novel immune based therapies

Speaker: Dr Lesley Smyth, University of East London and King's College London

• Genomic and metabolic regulation in proliferating and ageing cells of fission yeast

Speaker: Professor Jürg Bähler, University College London

• Zoonotic potential of bat Influenza A viruses

Speaker: Dr Efstathios (Stathis) Giotis, University of Essex

Spring term

• Range expansions into a heterogeneous world: How demographic noise and environmental heterogeneity shape genetic diversity

Speaker: Dr Wolfram Möbius, University of Exeter

• Science is a story: are you sharing yours?

Speaker: Olivia A. Grant, University of Essex

• Epigenetic regulation at the tip of the histone tails

Speaker: Professor Antonis Kirmizis, University of Cyprus

• Impact of canonical vs noncanonical NF-kappaB signalling on lung carcinogenesis

Speaker: Professor Evangelos Kolettas, University of Ioannina and Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Greece

• Chromatin structure as a transcriptional regulator in normal and malignant hematopoiesis

Speaker: Aaron Viny, Columbia University

• The development of droplet based long-read single-cell sequencing technology to understand the mechanism of multiple myeloma drug resistance

Speaker: Dr Adam Cribbs, University of Oxford

• Mechanisms underlying homeostatic plasticity in the Drosophila mushroom body in vivo

Speaker: Dr Andrew Lin, University of Sheffield

Summer term

• Computational approaches to quantify tissue organization

Speaker: Dr Luis Maria Escudero Cuadrado, IBIS / University of Seville

Variations on Size Control

Speaker: Professor Fernando Casares, CABD (Universidad Pablo de Olavide/CSIC)

• Human gastruloids: an in vitro model of anteroposterior axial patterning in early embryo development

Speaker: Dr Naomi Moris, Francis Crick Institute

• Increased fidelity of protein synthesis extends lifespan

Speaker: Dr Ivana Bjedov, UCL Cancer Institute

• Combining genome technologies with genetics to analyse MAGIC populations

Speaker: Dr Matt Clark, Natural History Museum

Autumn term

• Brighter days ahead: understanding and manipulating photosynthesis in a changing climate

Speaker: Dr Amanda Cavanagh, University of Essex

• Restoring degraded grasslands: approaches and opportunities

Speaker: Dr Ellen Fry, University of Manchester

Spring term

• The roots of change: global change and mycorrhizal symbioses through the Phanerozoic

Speaker: Professor Katie Field, University of Sheffield

Summer term

• C2 photosynthesis: a promising route toward food security

Speaker: Dr. Marjorie Lundgren, Lancaster University

Autumn term

• Campylobacter jejuni detection test: From the laboratory bench to the farm

Speaker: Dr Ahmed Jehanli, Technical Director, Soma Bioscience LTD, Wallingford, Oxfordshire

• Livewires: Transporting electrons across the bacterial outer membrane

Speaker: Dr Marcus Edwards, University of Essex

Spring term

• New tools for time-resolved X-ray crystallography

Speaker: Dr Briony Yorke, University of Bradford.

• Understand biomolecular interactions with MST and TRIC throughout the drug discovery process

Speaker: Dr Claire Hatty, NanoTemper Technologies