Outreach
Edinburgh Arts Festival - 28 July-28 Aug 2022
Luke Jerram: E.coli National Museum of Scotland
This 90ft long inflatable sculpture by Bristol-based Luke Jerram will be suspended from the ceiling of the National Museum of Scotland’s Grand Gallery (NMS). The E.coli is 5 million times bigger than the real bacteria. When standing next to it, does the bacteria alter our personal sense of scale? Does it look scary, beautiful, comical or alien? Will audiences be attracted or repelled by it?
Bacteria were the earliest form of life on our planet, and so this artwork could be considered as a curious portrait of our distant ancestors. If there is life on other planets (or moons) in our solar system, it may well look like this. This artwork, brought to Edinburgh with the support of the University of Sheffield, was also made to reflect upon the importance of bacteria in our lives. Although some forms of Escherichia coli (or E. coli) bacteria can cause illness and even death in humans, the use of the bacteria is vital in medical research.
Brought to Edinburgh with the support of the University of Sheffield.
How do antibiotics kill bacteria?
I'm a Scientist - Get me out of here
I’m a Scientist is an online, student-led STEM enrichment activity. It connects school students with scientists through energetic real-time text based chats.
Abimbola Feyisara Olulana, Hamed Mosaei Sejzi, and Leonardo Mancini participated in The Orange Zone as a part of I'm a Scientist, Get me out in December 2020
746 students across the UK logged into the activity. They took part in 40 live chats and asked 179 questions, ranging from "What does coding mean?" to "What's the hardest thing you have had to overcome being a scientist?" to "Who do you prefer Bastille or Green day?".
Lectures and Seminars
Undergraduate Research Seminar on 11 March 2021 at the University of Sheffield delivered by Bohdan Bilyk as a part of "MBB407 Global Policy, Disease Control, and New Therapies" module and delivered in the form of a 50 min lecture. The topic was "Genetic background of methicillin resistance in S. aureus" The lecture focused on the thread of methicillin resistance and findings on the step-wise character of the transformation from MSSA to MRSA, genetic factors of the S. aureus required for resistance (auxiliary genes), and the set of genes that are required for the transformation from low MRSA into high MRSA (potentiators).
Undergraduate Invited Lecture on 24 November 2021 at the University of Cambridge delivered by Leonardo Mancini and Marco Mauri as a part of the course of Biological Physics host by Diana Fusco and Pietro Cicuta, and delivered in the form of a 50 min lecture. The topic was "Biophysics of the cellular envelope: an AMR perspective". The lecture focused on the biophysics of the peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall in E. coli and its response to antibiotic attacks. We presented two modelling approaches developed in the group: a bead-and-spring model of PG that mimics the mechanical properties of the cell wall (Marco Mauri), and a geometry-constraint growth model of cell size and shape in the presence of antibiotic (Rebecca Brouwers). Finally, Leonardo Mancini showed the experimental measurements and verifications done in microfluidic devices to verify the geometry-constraint model in the presence of mecillinam antibiotic.
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