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Our body is in constant contact with naturally occurring viruses and bacteria but they can also often encounter pathogenic viruses, bacteria and parasites. Around a beer, you will learn the mechanisms our body uses to protect itself but also how pathogens escape these mechanisms and cause diseases. During the break, you will be invited to discover how to make a “DNA cocktail” to go along with the chill Irish beer of O’Reilly’s! All talks will be in english.
Visualizing malaria transmission (or how to hate mosquitoes even more)
Dr Freddy Frischknecht
(Professor for Integrative Parasitology at UniKlinik )
Malaria is transmitted during the bite of a mosquito. In this talk I will show how it happens and weave in a few "fun" facts about malaria. You will see how parasites erupt from cysts in the mosquito stomach and how they are spat into our skin. In the skin the parasites move around rapidly and outrun our host defense system before they attach to and enter a blood vessel. Be aware, your mosquito bites will itch more after seeing this presentation. And drinking beer makes you more attractive - at least to mosquitoes...
The complex harmony of the gut
Dr Steeve Boulant
(Group leader for infectious diseases research at UniKlinik)
The human gut is an organ that allows us to absorb nutrients from our food. Digestion and absorption of these nutrients is impossible for the human body without the help of specific microbes that live in harmony within our gastrointestinal tract. This complex cohabitation raises a major problem as our gut must tolerate the presence of these “good” microbes but in the same time need to identify and fight the “bad” ones. My talk will focus on the genetic and microscopy techniques used in my lab to investigate how the gut manages these complex tasks.
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