Sept 2 Cafe – What can microbial communities tell us?

 

What can microbial communities tell us? Research in a model human intestine and wastewater system

with Dr. Alicia  Taylor

Wednesday September 2, 2015 at 7:00 PM

Restaurant Valparaiso, 1403 Solano Ave., Albany

This cafe is an informal forum for discussing interesting and relevant scientific issues. The goal is to encourage public engagement with science by inviting members of the scientific community to present topics for a casual evening of conversation. Cafes may vary in length and format depending upon the speaker and the topic. Audience questions are encouraged both during and after!

Microbial communities can be used to study emerging contaminants (nanoparticles) and serve as a proxy for understanding nanoparticle effects on human and environmental health. Using microbial communities in research offers many advantages to the traditional laboratory bacteria tests, which are often performed with one bacterium in idealized settings, and are not representative of realistic exposure scenarios or environments.

Alicia Taylor is a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley in the Plant & Microbial Biology Department. Alicia received her Ph.D. from UC Riverside in Environmental Toxicology. At UCB, Alicia uses plants and microbes to remediate soil and water contaminated with metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Her background is in water quality, nanotoxicology, and studying microbial communities in complex environments. Alicia’s interests include science outreach, science education, and science communication. You can find Alicia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/alicia-taylor/96/971/a96