Science Week 2018

Science Week 2018 has arrived!

Birkbeck Science Week is coming up so we've put on a new Book Display around it. Find out more about what Science Week (18-22 June) is and about the lectures and events being put on: https://t.co/GsE5bJnMUe. Why not get yourself along to some of them? pic.twitter.com/BYL0uJhLvl

— Birkbeck Library (@BirkbeckLibrary) June 15, 2018

It's free to book a place at any of the lectures happening during the week, so make the most of learning from experts in their field of study. You can also come and take a look at the book display in the library, which reflects the subjects of the talks. 

Science Week 2018

Science week will be from the 18th-21st June 2018.  

The Rosalind Franklin lecture is by Prof Eva Nogales from UC Berkeley on on her work in cryo-electron microscopy. 2018 is the 60th anniversary of the death of Rosalind Franklin.

Earth and Planetary sciences will be presenting talks on Shark's teeth and the Paektu/Changbaishan volcano that spans the North Korea/China border.  

Psychological Sciences will present talks on self-representation of body and mind and building resilience in breast cancer.

Take a look at the full programme and book. 

Exam time in the Library

We're in the midst of the exam time now with students doing exams through into June. You may have already noticed the Feedback Board in the Library, we're asking what would be useful/helpful to you during the exam time, so please do ask us questions and make suggestions. You're welcome to email with suggestions as well. 

If you want to block out any noise while you're studying in the Library, you can get ear plugs from the issue desk and help desk. 
You may also want to make use of the take a break cards, so people know when you left and when you'll be back. If you do take a break, please make sure you take any valuables with you. 

There's also a book display near the Help Desk on the first floor with titles aimed to help you get through the exam time. 

Coming soon, near the seminar room, we'll have a display of books if you want to take a break from your revision and studying. Read for relaxation and well being as well as learning!
You can follow @BirkbeckLibrary on Twitter, #BBKLib #examtime

Tweets by BirkbeckLibrary

Arts Week at Birkbeck - 14th - 18th May

While not strictly related to Science, there's the opportunity to learn something new with a programme of really interesting events happening over the course of Arts Week at Birkbeck. How about, Bee Composed Live: honeybee communication or  Rare books London: a talk on printing and book binding. Perhaps Pharmacosexuality: sex and hormones or Anima shorts: a selection of animated short films on mental illness...
That's just a taster! There will be over fifty events including lectures, readings, film screenings, workshops, guided walks, performances and panel discussions, as well as two exhibitions.  All events are free and open to everyone. 

Three Minute Thesis Competition

On 23 May 2018 we are holding the 2018 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition from 18.00 – 21.00 in the Clore Lecture Theatre, an event which provides an opportunity to celebrate a diverse range of work from PhD Researchers across the College, and to invite you to come and support the Birkbeck PhD students taking part as they each compete to communicate their thesis in just three minutes.

The Three Minute Thesis Competition is a global event and the Birkbeck winner will have the opportunity to go through to the UK semi-final.

This year we are combining the 3MT event with a poster competition and prizes will be awarded for both competitions on the night: £500 for the best 3MT entry and £300 for the best poster. The winners will be chosen by an expert panel of judges and the audience will also get a chance to have their say by picking a people’s choice winner for the 3MT competition. A drinks reception will be provided after the 3MT event and you will have a chance to view the posters and meet with those who take part in the competitions.

How to attend

If you would like to attend this event on 23 May please register here.

Please note:

·         This event will be a great opportunity for prospective PhD students to find out more about the successes of Birkbeck research students and to be inspired to study for their own PhD - please do highlight the event to prospective PhD student who you think would benefit from attending.

·         There are still opportunities for PhD students to enter both competition: a 3^rd 3MT training session will be held on 10 May and PhD students are invited to submit entries to the poster competition by the end of Friday this week, 11 May. Further details are available on the event page.

Christmas vacation - Library arrangements

You may be aware that Birkbeck’s main Malet Street building will be completely closed over the Christmas period, from 16:00 on Thursday 21 December 2017 to Tuesday 2 January 2018 inclusive. 

This is to allow for essential maintenance work on the building’s electrical infrastructure. 

As a result there will be no access to the Library or any other part of the main building for students or staff. 

For full details of alternative arrangements, please see the opening hours information on the Library website. You will also find details of what's available while the library is closed for Christmas.

TB or not TB - A talk from Dr Sanjib Bhakta about his research in the Dept of Biological Sciences

In May 2017 Dr Sanjib Bhakta came to talk to Birkbeck Library about his research into antibiotic resistance, the title of his talk: Thinking beyond the obvious, TB or not TB? Tackling antimicrobial resistance in the superbug.
An accomplished and widely published scientist, Dr Bhakta's enthusiasm for this topic engaged a non-scientific audience, helping us understand complex scientific processes and leaving us with a good understanding of the basics of the research he has been involved with to date.   

To follow is a summary of what you can expect when you watch and listen to Dr Bhakta's talk:

• An overview of TB, how it works, what it does, how it infects and thrives in host cells, how it can be dormant and then wake up again, during which time it can become more virulent and resistant to antibiotics. 
  We learn how TB requires a cocktail of 4 drugs every day over a period of 6 months to combat it, that there are side effects and consequences of these drugs.
  Dr Bhakta talks about the complex structure of a TB cell in a clear and understandable way, explaining that the cell has a fatty acid layer which means that any standard antibiotic won't get through the cell wall. TB cells are continually evolving, through chemical and biological activity, making things even more difficult in antibiotic development, but this kind of research is helping to address these difficulties. 
• Focus of research: how Dr Bhakta and his team study from biologists point of view how these germs live in the host cell, the different physiological stages. This is linked with the existing understanding and knowledge of antibiotics, which in turn forms antibiotic development.
• We learn how antibiotics work, how they try to disrupt and shut down the different mechanisms of the bacterial cell. We start to gain an understanding of how the immune system and TB work and that in patients with HIV, TB is a high threat as the highly active antiretroviral treatment for HIV clash with the cocktail of drugs needed to be taken to stop the TB. So more research is needed to address this aspect of treatment.  There's a reality check in that, at the moment, no antibiotic that can eliminate dormant TB bacteria.
• Dr Bhakta gives an introduction to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), explaining how it develops 1) intrinsic 2) inherited
  We see a visual demonstration of a bacterial cell inside the host cell  to show how antibiotics work, adding to our understanding of how problematic this area is.
• The importance of the structure of the antibiotic, so that it can stop the function of the enzyme in the bacterial cell is explained as is the thousands of biochemical reactions - communications that are happening, the pathways created, for bacteria to keep going, stay alive and develop inside the host cell.
• We learn about the 5 key mechanisms contributing to antibiotic resistance that are being researched. The idea and exploration of targeting multiple enzymes, of limiting the pump mechanism of the bacterial cell which can pump out the antibiotic.
• We hear about how antimicrobial resistance in TB is being tackled with new drugs with novel mechanism(s) of action and how it will take many years to design and develop new classes of antibiotics for TB. A new antibiotic needs to act on a new molecule, different function of a cell, different mode of action. It's this kind of research that's contributing to figuring out how to do that.
• Plants as a major source of antibiotics, natural sources.
• Dr Bhakta is convincing in his assertion that science has to be collaborative, locally and globally. He describes the work that chemists, structural biologists  are doing  together to grow TB germs at different levels, nurturing them in some experiments and stressing them to see how they work. This along with using biology and chemistry together to discover molecules that then have novel anti-tubercular properties.
• We learn about the work in the labs using assays to help understand the function and working of enzymes and the SPOT culture growth inhibition methodology developed by Dr Bhakta and his colleagues.
• Other developments that have come from Dr Bhakta's research include a compound library from natural products and synthetic molecules - evaluation of novel chemical entities.
• There have also been interesting developments in connecting the research science to the end products with collaborations looking at how a molecule works in different areas and what happens when you bring all of that knowledge together. A discovery of a connection between painkillers and TB. The results of whole cell screening show that the painkiller carprofen is an effective TB killer! There's more research to be done to see how this can be developed in effectively treating TB. 

What I enjoyed in Dr Bhakta's talk is the way that he made complex scientific research understandable and accessible to those of us that don't have an extensive science background. The way that he connects the research and discovery that's happening in the labs and how their research is impacting on real life is really inspiring. 
Dr Bhakta was able to summarise the key milestones in his research career to date, which demonstrates that this type of scientific research is very much an ongoing process and that there will always be new things to learn, different approaches to take and discoveries to made that are likely to have a direct impact on our health. 
It's great that his research informs teaching on the Bsc Biomedicine module Microbes and Antimicrobials and on Msc Microbiology and MRes module, Medical Bacteriology as Birkbeck students are learning from an active researcher, making their learning more dynamic and current. 

Watch, listen and learn from this talk yourself: Thinking beyond the obvious, TB or not TB? Tackling antimicrobial resistance in the superbug.

Learn more about Dr Bhakta's work and his author profile by watching this short screencast which shows an author search in Scopus which shows Dr Bhakta's published research outputs.