Lowell Lecture

Lee and Nile Albright Annual Symposium: Friends with Benefits: Microbes, Diet & Me

Date & Time

Oct. 7, 2015 at 7 p.m.

Location

Cahners Theater, Blue Wing, Level II at Museum of Science
1 Science Park Boston, MA 02114
Driving Directions

Speaker(s)

Eric Alm, PhD, Karl Van Tassell Career Development Associate Professor of Bioengineering at MIT, Associate Member of the Broad Institute, and Co-Director of the Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics; and Tim Spector, MD, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, Honorable Consultant Physician at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, and author of The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat

Presenting Organization

Museum of Science

Topics

Science

Why is it that one person can eat a meal and gain weight and another eats exactly the same food and loses pounds? Genes are part of the answer, but the latest science shows another vital aspect that lies within us: microbes. This microbiome of 100 trillion “bugs” co-habit our bodies and influence our biology in myriad ways that scientists are beginning to understand.

Tim Spector leads the largest microbiome project in the United Kingdom, using genetic sequencing to study the gut bacteria of 5,000 twins, and founded the British Gut project in 2014. Eric Alm studies microbial ecology, how our microbes can improve human health, and how we can turn our “bugs” into drugs. Join us to learn how your diet affects your microbes and your microbes affect your diet. Book signing to follow.

Advance registration begins at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, September 23 (Monday, September 21 for Museum members) at mos.org/events.