Join us for the second FoNS seminar, on the 12th may at 4pm. Talks will take place in SAF G034, followed by a wine reception on the SAF concourse. View event flyer
Caroline Colijn (Department of Mathematics)
Bacterial Olympics: modelling and detecting competition to control resistance
The rise and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most pressing examples of evolution today, as we are threatened with a “post-antibiotic” era of untreatable infectious diseases. Resistance arises following selective pressure from the use of antibiotics. But once resistant strains have emerged, they can circulate alongside their drug-sensitive counterparts. It is not clear whether resistance is best controlled by reducing the selective pressure of antibiotics, or by treating aggressively to reduce opportunities for resistance to emerge.
Modelling must play a central role in answering these questions: the dynamics occur at the scale of whole populations and the time scales are too long for direct experiments. I will argue using models that the effectiveness of competition amongst the circulating pathogen strains is key to understanding how to control resistance, and I will describe why the whole-population scale is essential to understanding the future of resistance. I will then move to the challenges of measuring competition. The rise of sequencing technologies present an exciting opportunity to examine the ancestry and evolution of pathogen populations in the recent past and watch as resistance evolves and spreads. I will propose ways to use this rich genomic information to understand and model competition and the future of resistance.
James Durrant (Department of Chemistry)
Materials design for solar energy conversion: insights from photochemistry
The development of low cost, stable and efficient materials for solar energy conversion is a key scientific challenge for addressing global sustainability and energy supply. My talk will address focus on the charge carrier dynamics which play a key role in determining the efficiency of many of the developing solar energy technologies. I will focus on two technologies – organic solar cells based on polymer / fullerene blends for solar to electric power conversion, and metal oxide nanoparticles and photoelectodes for solar driven fuel synthesis. In my talk, I will also draw upon lessons we can learn from our understanding of the processes of charge separation and utilization in natural photosynthesis.