Sex, DNA and chemistry in microscopic animals: the strange tale of rotifers - Dr Chris Wilson on 2 October at 2pm - BOOK HERE

Bdelloid rotifers are tiny filter-feeding animals that live in freshwater habitats worldwide: in ponds, streams and lakes, even where the water sometimes dries up or freezes, like moss, soil, puddles and ice sheets. They are among the most resilient of all animals and have some of the strangest biology. Unlike other known animals, all bdelloid rotifers are females, with no sightings of males in the 300 years since they were discovered. Rotifer mothers lay eggs that hatch into genetic copies of themselves, without sex, sperm or fertilisation. Another surprise is that bdelloid rotifers have been stealing DNA from other organisms on a massive scale by a process called horizontal gene transfer. About one in ten of their genes have been copied from different kinds of life, including bacteria, fungi and even plants. Among these stolen genes, we recently discovered that bdelloid rotifers have copied dozens of recipes for antibiotic chemicals from bacteria, which the rotifers now use to fight off their own diseases. This unusual defensive strategy could lead to short-cuts in the race to develop new drugs against antibiotic-resistant infections in human patients. It also sheds light on the strangely sexless lifestyle of these peculiar animals.

About the speaker

Dr Wilson is a Lecturer in Biology at the University of Oxford. Originally from Kent, he completed undergraduate studies at St Anne’s College and a doctorate at Cornell University in the USA before returning to the UK, where he has held research fellowships and teaching positions at Imperial College London and St Hilda’s College, Oxford. He is interested in the causes and consequences of sexual versus asexual reproduction. To address this, he studies the ecology, evolution and genomics of microscopic freshwater rotifers and their natural enemies, especially disease-causing fungi.

Modern chemists’ toolkit to investigate Molecular Structure - Dr Barbara Odell BSc, Ph.D., FRSC on 15 October - BOOK HERE

This talk will focus on the three principal modern analytical techniques in chemistry in order to determine molecular structure efficiently and safely, which lies at the heart of most of the chemical analysis performed in today's chemical laboratories all over the world. We will be focusing on X-ray Crystallography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry (MS) techniques all used to fully determine molecular structure.

About the speaker

Dr Barbara Odell, BSc, Ph.D., FRSC, had an extensive career in both the chemical industry and academia spanning over 45 years and specialised in chemical research of organic, organometallic and biological molecules of relevance to the design of new therapeutic drugs, biologically important peptides and catalysts for chemical transformations.