Scientist Spotlight for May 4, 2013

Morning (11 a.m.–2 p.m.):

In Ackerley Family Exhibit Gallery:

Terri Gilbert, "Exploring the Genetics in Your Brain"
Allen Institute for Brain Science
How do researchers put together a 3-D map of the human brain, one slice at a time?

Philia Gau, "How to Become a Pain-Sensing Neuron"
Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington
How do your genes control the pathways that allow us to sense different types of pain?

Gina Fridley, "Could a Strip of Paper Save Your Life?"
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington
Experience the challenge of designing a low-cost test that can be used to detect diseases like flu or malaria.

Ivonne Ortiz, "Who Eats Who in the Bering Sea?"
School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington/Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA
Food webs are made up of so many different creatures, but how can you know which ones are the most important? How do changes in the ocean change the food web?

In The Studio:

Greg Brennan, "Genetic Warfare: How We Change Viruses and How They Change Us"
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Discover how and why a virus and a species like humans evolve together.

Tom Paulson, "Finding Cancer Risk in the Esophagus"
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Look inside a throat to search for genetic clues that show if someone is likely to get a dangerous form of cancer.

Adam Gordon, "What Can You Learn from a Genome?"
University of Washington, Genome Sciences
How can we use the information in our genes to make better medicine? Discover how researchers look for clues in our DNA to make better more accurate treatments.

Afternoon (2–5 p.m.):

In Ackerley Family Exhibit Gallery:

Susan Fung, "Fighting Brain Cancer"
University of Washington, Department of Neurobiology & Behavior
Explore how brain tumors can turn the brain's protective cells against itself.

Elisabeth Wurtmann, "Extreme Survivors: How Do Bacteria Survive (and Even Eat!) Pollution?"
Institute for Systems Biology
How do bacteria use different genes to survive in extreme environments like oil spills?

Stefanie Iverson Cabral, "Can't Catch Me: How Pathogens Evade the Immune System"
UW Medicine
Like a bank robber running from the police, how do germs try to trick your immune system? How does your body discover the germ's "disguise?"

Brad Dickerson, "Lessons in Flight"
University of Washington, Department of Biology
How does movement help us sense the world around us? Explore how insects sense their environment during flight.

In The Studio:

Jill Johnsen, "Inheritance and Blood Type"
Puget Sound Blood Center Research Institute/UW Medicine
Explore how you inherit your blood type and how it influences your immune system.

Hannah Claxton Cox, "Studying sequences: How to Identify Changes in DNA from Families"
Institute for Systems Biology
Discover how we inherit our genes, how they mutate, and what impact those changes might have on people.

Siva Kasinathan, "DNA Wrapping"
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/UW Medicine
Discover how cells manage to store long strings of genetic information without ending up with a tangled mess.