BATS

Date/Time:

Feb 14, 2020 - 12:00 PM

Location:

Hosts:

Bevin Engelward

Speaker:

Title:

Engineering Biological Materials for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Reuse

Abstract:

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions rates continue to rise with humanity’s ongoing dependence on fossil fuel-derived products. Renewable carbon feedstocks, created by pulling CO2 from the atmosphere and electrochemically reducing it, provide an option to produce carbon-neutral fuel and plastic precursors, if the right membranes and catalysts can be developed. In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to improve CO2-capturing and CO2-catalyzing materials through biological templating, thereby imparting nanoscale structure and enhancing performance.

Speaker:

Title:

Saliva and Mucin Glycans Reduce Virulence of Streptococcal Species

Abstract:

We examined how saliva and its components influence the virulence of Streptococcus mutans. In addition to being the driving component in saliva’s ability to protect against biofilm formation, mucin suppresses genetic transfer, potentially through signaling by its attached glycans. Since bacterial gene transfer can spread antibiotic resistance, these results suggest that mucin and its glycans could be valuable tools in the arms race against resistant infections.