PINT OF SCIENCE FESTIVAL
13-15 MAY 2024
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Exploring Mini Marvels: Breakthroughs in Brain Science and Nano Gold Particle Innovations
Join us at Pint of Science for an enlightening session where minuscule marvels drive significant breakthroughs in health and technology. "Exploring Mini Marvels" spotlights the leading edge of biological and material sciences, with a special focus on revolutionary discoveries in brain research and the inventive uses of nano gold particles. Witness how these diminutive wonders are not merely pushing the boundaries of innovation but are completely redefining them.
Gold nonstandard
Nicolò Filippi
PhD Student
University of Antwerp
What colour is gold? Yellow? Red? Purple? Green? Black? Turns out, all of the above are correct. How? For the same reason why microprocessors are not infinitely downsizable: when the size of objects gets smaller and smaller, their properties change, sometimes dramatically. Some folks even invented a whole new type of physics to explain how! Come along to discover how useful and pretty nanogold can be, from stained glass, to Covid-19 test strips, to oncology.
Building brains
Julia di Stefano
PhD Student
University of Antwerp
Imagine being able to recreate a whole brain in a lab: we could study the way it develops, what are the mechanisms that regulate neuronal functions and even compare a healthy brain with one affected by some kind of disease! All of this, without the need to sacrifice any animal!
What I do in my PhD is growing small mouse brains called brain organoids, that I use to reproduce neuroinflammation and then try to find some treatments that could cure it.
If you want to know more about how to “build” brains starting from single cells, how similar this model is to a real human brain and how close we are to find a solution, come to listen to my talk!I
