CIBIO PhD Colloquia - van der Meer

PhD Colloquia 2015

a forum between young researchers and scientists

This is a mini series of 6 seminars given by top experts in different fields covering almost all the area of the PhD program in Biomolecular Sciences. Each colloquium is a friendly forum where students can learn how to communicate and critically evaluate science. Additionally, it is an opportunity to discuss ongoing research in an informal atmosphere and obtain valuable feedbacks from the experts.
PhD Colloquia bring together young scientists, senior scientists and students in a colloquial setting, encouraging interactions and exchanges of ideas.

The third seminar will take place on September 3rd at 5 pm in the room B102 of the Polo Ferraris at Povo2.

Invited speaker:  Jan Roelof van der Meer (University of Lausanne)

Title: "Principles and applications of bacterial bioreporters for environmental monitoring".

Abstract:

The availability of chemical pollutants for organisms is a major parameter for understanding pollutant toxicity and for predicting biodegradation rates.
One possibility to assess pollutant bioavailability is to use bacteria that are engineered to express an easily measurable protein (a so-called reporter protein) in response to contact to the pollutant.
Here I will present some of the general design principles of engineering bioreporter strains, of different types of reporter bioassays and of quantitative interpretation of bioassay results in terms of pollutant bioavailability. A number of examples will be presented in which bioreporter bacteria were applied in field studies. Further application possibilities in microengineered systems are discussed.

Next seminar on October 24th. Speaker:Robin Weiss (UCL)