Science Cafe is held the first Wednesday of every month at McMullan's Irish Pub (4650 W. Tropicana Ave). Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with trivia and the presentation starting promptly at 7 p.m.

Bring friends and family for informal public discussions with leading scientists on interesting topics. Grab some dinner while listening.

Erin Cassin, Ph.D., a post-doctoral scholar in UNLV's School of Life Sciences will be giving a talk titled, "Deconstructing Bacterial Cities to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections." 

Abstract:

If you or someone you love has ever been hospitalized, you know the vulnerability that comes with being sick or injured - yet at any given moment, 1 in 31 hospital patients has a healthcare-associated infection. Many of these infections are caused by bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa that form biofilms on catheters and ventilators. Biofilms are microscopic “cities” of bacterial cells protected by a sticky, protective matrix that can be up to 1,000 times more persistent against antibiotics. In the Boo Tseng Lab at UNLV, we study how these bacterial communities are built and maintained so that we can learn how to take them apart. My research focuses on a surface protein called OprF, which plays a surprising role in stabilizing the biofilm matrix. When bacteria lack OprF, their biofilms shrink - not because the bacteria disappear, but because they contain less extracellular DNA, a key “molecular glue” that holds the community together. Using RNA sequencing, we found that OprF influences the activity of hundreds of genes, many involved in releasing DNA into the matrix, revealing a new vulnerability that could one day help us weaken biofilms and make antibiotics more effective against stubborn hospital-acquired infections.