Pint of Science CBD 15 May Our Body

Tue May 15, 18:30 - Tue May 15, 21:00

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ABOUT

Pint of Science is a charity run by volunteers that brings some of the most brilliant scientists to your local pub to discuss their latest research and findings with you. You don't need any prior knowledge, and this is your chance to meet the people responsible for the future of science (and have a pint with them). The festival started in the UK and runs every May in over 150 cities across 19 different countries - including South Africa! This year Pint of Science will take place on 14, 15 and 16 May 2018. 

The theme on 15 May is Our Body

Dr. Smritee Dabee - STDs  and Inflammation: Finding the chink in HIV's armour

More than three decades into vaccine research and prevention strategies, HIV prevention is still one of the major health challenges in South Africa. Adolescent girls and young women are the most vulnerable to infection, and are about 3 times more likely to be HIV-positive compared to men their age. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that this cannot completely be explained by social behaviour and that there must be biological factors at play.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and other reproductive infections are common among young men and women and are responsible for increasing a person’s risk of HIV infection. It turns out that factors that cause inflammation at the genital tract could put a woman at a higher risk of HIV.  Knowing that, what we can do about it? Sex education and learning about your own body can have a major impact.

At Pint of Science, I will be talking about how STDs are linked to HIV among our young people, and about how educating young women can make a difference. South Africans do have the tools to fight HIV!

At 18 years old, Smritee Dabee moved to Cape Town to study at the University of Cape Town and 10 years later, completed my PhD. Dabee focuse is on biological ways in which HIV could be prevented in young South African women. As a postdoctoral fellow at UCT, when Dabee is not eating, sleeping or reading fantasy novels, she is involved in research about STDs, genital conditions, and other factors that put young South African women at a higher risk of HIV infection.

Dr. Rubina Bunjun - HIV's new BFF

Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of the HIV pandemic, with the highest burden of disease worldwide. Recently, inflammation in the female genital tract has been shown to increase HIV risk in young women by more than 3-fold.Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is a common cause of this inflammation and is highly prevalent worldwide, including South Africa. In addition to increasing HIV risk, chlamydia is also associated with adverse reproductive outcomes, including infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease. There is currently no vaccine for chlamydia. Understanding the nitty-gritty of how chlamydia causes disease and contributes to HIV risk is vital for vaccine development. A vaccine against chlamydia would not only decrease the number of chlamydia infections, but also contribute to lowering the number of HIV cases.

Rubina Bunjun grew up in Botswana and moved to Cape Town in 2006 for her undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town. Bunjun has lived here ever since. Her BSc and BSc (Hons) were completed in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Bunjun's PhD focused on the immunology of HIV-TB infection and was completed in the Division of Medical Virology and she is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the same Division, working on identifying and characterising risk factors of HIV acquisition.

Dr. Kerryn Warren - What would a human-neanderthal hybrid look like?
Our understanding of interactions between humans, Neanderthals and other human-like groups has improved tremendously in the past decade, largely owing to successes within the field of ancient DNA. We know that hybridization, or interbreeding, between us and our now-extinct cousins was rife. But ancient DNA is not possible in many sites, so how may we look at interbreeding between older species, such as Australopiths, which have long become fossilized (turned to stone), and where ancient DNA may have long degraded?

It is therefore also important to understand what hybrids look like: is there a pattern of change between the skull of parents and that of their offspring? For my research I try to find out, using mouse and other mammalian models, what a human-neanderthal hybrid may look like, and suggest possible hybrids in the human fossil record which have not been successfully sequenced.

Kerryn Warren completed her PhD  in 2017 where she used mouse hybrids as models for understanding human-neanderthal hybridization in the past. Warren enjoys science communication, and is the winner of the 2017 three-minute thesis competition, and runner up of the audio category for the 2017 SAASTA Young Communicators Competition. Warren is currently working at SAEON as a data scientist, improving online atlases for renewable energy. On the side, she is working on a collaborative project with marmoset hybrids, and playing around with Machine Learning as a tool for understanding animal morphology.

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Pint of Science CBD 15 May Our Body
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2A Park Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
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