The Living Cell: A Factory Run By Actors
Date: Monday 9th May 2016
Time: 7pm
Venue: the Victorian Bar, Tron Theatre
Speaker: Rob Beynon
Is the cell a factory? Can we describe the cell as a ‘complex manufacturing complex’. Can we recognise parallels between manufacturing processes in our macro-world and the nano-world inside a cell? And lastly, do we know enough about these nano-factories to be able to subjugate them to our will, to make new drugs, new foods, new weapons? A famous, Nobel prize winning scientist once said “DNA and RNA are the script, but proteins are the actors’. In my talk I’ll concentrate on the actors - the proteins. Oh yes, there’ll even be audience participation!
About the Speaker:
Rob Beynon is the Chair of Proteomics at the University of Liverpool. He is a biochemist whose research is in the areas of protein chemistry, proteomics, proteolysis, and proteolytic enzymes. He’s easily seduced by challenges in biology, and devotes much of his time to collaboration with biologists, where he can apply sophisticated methods of protein analysis to challenges in fundamental biology. A further major research interest relates to chemical communication between animals, particularly the use of pheromones by rodents. Rob is Chair of the Education Committee and Member of Executive and Council of the Biochemical Society. He is Head of Department and Head of the Technology Directorate in the University of Liverpool. He has written over 280 research papers. He has won several prizes and awards for his research and teaching, and in 2015, was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. Twitter: @astacus