Science Pub Portland presents The Microbiome: An Alien Organ Within the Human Body at the Empirical Theater at OMSI (1945 SE Water Ave.) on Tuesday, 18 August 2015.
For almost a century the human body has been conceived as a set of trillions of human cells organized into organs and systems that work synchronously to keep our body alive and free of germs. However, in the past few years it has become evident that in our quest to understand how the human body works we were missing one essential piece of the puzzle: a new organ composed of hundreds of trillions of microorganisms known as the human microbiome. This huge collection of microbes performs many vital functions helping us to fight diseases, participating in the processing and synthesis of essential nutrients and even controlling our behavior. In this talk Lorenzi will present what we currently know about the role of the human microbiome in health and disease, how it is inherited from our parents and varies across individuals and how it can be used as a therapeutic tool.
Presenter Hernan A. Lorenzi, PhD, is assistant professor in the bioinformatics department at the J. Craig Venter Institute.
The Portland Science Pub takes place monthly at the Empirical Theater at OMSI. Check in at the theater entrance (doors open at 5 PM) – there’s a $5 suggested admission. OMSI’s restaurant Theory, and the Empirical Cafe are open and you can take food and drinks into the theater with you.
Parking is free for the event, but consider taking the streetcar or any of the multitude of buses that cross the Hawthorne Bridge (eastbound/westbound), which has stops a few blocks from OMSI.
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