Microbiology Seminar Series 2009-2010
Beginning this year, MITEI and the Microbiology Graduate Program are pleased to bring you the Microbiology Seminar Series. Each month we will host a speaker doing exciting fundamental and applied microbial research to the MIT community. The study of microbes has been critical in our current understanding of basic biological processes, evolution, human disease, and the functions of the biosphere, and has contributed to numerous fields of engineering. As great chemists, microbes have vast untapped potential for development of sustainable energy-generation technologies, and this series will showcase several examples of what microbes can do and how scientists are pushing the frontier in understanding and harnessing them.
Speakers include those who have worked on biological hydrogen production, biofilms in microbial fuel cells - which are capable of generating electricity by feeding microbes with wastewater, bacterial nanowires, and more. Several other speakers will focus on the roles of microbes in prevalent human diseases and, conversely, how they may augment human health. This seminar series is intended for anyone interested in the diverse and amazing abilities of microbes.
Designing Biological Systems for Programmed Interface with the Environment
Pamela Silver, Harvard University
September 17, 2009
Understanding the Biofilm Anode in Microbial Fuel/Electrolysis Cells (MXCs)
Bruce Rittman, Arizon State University
October 15, 2009
Selective Pressures on Enzymes and Adaptation of Metabolic Systems
Chris Marx, Harvard University
November 19, 2009
A Darwinian View of Hygiene Hypothesis
Graham Rook, University College London
December 17, 2009
The Microbe Electric: Combining Systems Biology and Physics to Understand and Optimize Microbe-Electrode Interactions and Their Applications
Derek Lovley, University of Massachusetts Amherst
January 21, 2010
Peering into the Lives of those Gassy, Electrifying Microbes
Peter Girguis, Harvard University
February 18, 2010
To Be Announced
Bruce Walker, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard University
March 18, 2010
To Be Announced
Farooq Azam, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UC San Diego
April 15, 2010
Engineering Microbial Gene Networks: Integrating Synthetic Biology and Systems Biology
James Collins, Boston University
May 20, 2010
