Applied Sciences Lecture Series

Overview

PS:One Applied Sciences conducts events such as lectures on an ad-hoc basis. Contact Zlatan Klebic to suggest topics, speakers, or volunteer to speak on a topic of interest.

Lectures

07/07/2014 - Artificial Intelligence Q&A with Tim Winkler,IBM

Abstract:

Q&A with Tim Winkler, a former PS:One member and software engineer at IBM who works on Watson, the Jeopardy winning artificial intelligence.

Tim has worked for IBM for 10 years and on Watson for about 3 years. He works with natural language parsing and machine learning. Watson processes unformatted data, i.e. natural language documents, and not structured databases, so part of Tim’s job is to work on ingesting that data and making sense of it. One of his current projects is cognitive cooking, in which Watson comes up with recipes for us to cook and is really awesome:)

Meeting write-up

05/20/2014 - Fundamentals and Future of Microbiological Monitoring in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

by Peter Noverini

Abstract:

This presentation will outline the key components of what goes into monitoring cleanroom environments in pharmaceutical manufacturing for microorganisms. Discussion points include:

• Basic microbiology
• Manufacturing processes including sterilization
• Types of traditional microbial collection devices
• Determining sampling points
• Techniques for data analysis
• Rapid Microbiological Methods and Quality by Design

At the end of the presentation, there will be a demonstration of a new environmental monitoring system that is being implemented in the industry today.

01/21/2014 - Introduction to Extremophiles

by Frank Hammer

1. What is an extremophile, otherwise known as archaea
2. What do they look like
3. Who discovered them and when were they discovered
4. Thermophiles, which live at high temperatures
5. Hyperthermophiles, which live at extremely high temperatures (present record is 121 °C).
6. Psychrophiles, which like it cold (one in Antarctic grows best at 4 °C)
7. Halophiles, which live in high saline environments (like the Dead Sea)
8. Acidophiles, which live at low pH (acid) as low as pH 1 and who die at pH 7 (neutral)
9. Alkaliphiles, which thrive at high pH (alkaline).
10. Methanogens, found living in anaerobic (without oxygen) environments, and which give off methane
11. Commercial uses

12/10/2013 - Introduction to Bacteriophages

by Frank Hammer

1. What are bacteriophages (phages)?
2. History of the discovery of phages
3. The two major classes of phages, lytic and lysogenic
4. How phages work
5. Antimicrobial resistance in the food chain
6. How phages might be used to combat this resistance
7. History of phage therapy
8. Phage cocktails and the future of phage therapy
9. Phages in clinical trials

09/17/2013 - Introduction to Epigenetics

by Frank Hammer

1. What is epigenetics?
2. Epigenetics and epigenomics.
3. How our ancestors' experiences affect us, and how our experiences affect our offspring.
4. Some of our epigenetic tags our established in utero.
5. How a woman's diet during pregnancy has an impact on the baby's epigenetic tags.
6. The role of nutrition on epigenetics from a study done in Overkalix, located in northern Sweden
7. Epigenetics of obesity and diabetes in humans.
8. The effects of environmental toxins on our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
9. Pottenger's cat studies.
10. The role of epigenomics in cancer management.

• Video from 2nd lecture: Genetics and Epigenetics Part 2 of 3

Lecturer Bios

Frank Hammer

Frank Hammer has worked as a scientist at Monsanto Corporation, and has been involved in the life sciences for about sixty years. Has written two book chapters, many reports, including one about antisense which was published by Frost & Sullivan. Has eight patents, in the fields of food technology and diagnostic biochemistry. His avocations are reading and writing poetry.

Peter Noverini

Pete Noverini (aka Bioguy) is a microbiologist and has 15+ years of experience in food and pharmaceutical microbiology, specializing in environmental monitoring, product bioburden testing, disinfectant validation, and design of microbiological assessment programs. Pete has been a member of Pumping Station: One since February 2014.