Join us at the Blue Ball Inn, Sidford for this sociable, light-hearted evening of leading-edge science presentations and discussion. Have a drink or come for a meal beforehand.
Could diabetes drugs defeat dementia?
Prof Craig Beall, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Exeter
In this talk, Prof Beall will uncover how diabetes and ageing impacts brain energy metabolism. He will also discuss how several diabetes drugs might reduce the risk for dementia.
Craig is the departmental research theme lead for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Health in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at the University of Exeter. He is a neuroscientist interested in diabetes. His team use stem cells and lab grown organoids aka ‘mini brains ’to investigate how brain cells respond to changes in sugar levels, drugs and how neurobiology can go wrong in disease.
Ants on a water slide – how pitcher plants catch insects
Dr Ulrike Bauer, University of Exeter
Ants have sticky feet and can hold 100x their own body weight while hanging upside down from a glass plate, yet they helplessly slip and tumble into the pitfall traps of insect-eating pitcher plants. I will explain how these plants make use of environmental wetness to turn the pitcher trap rim into a deadly water slide for insects.
Ulrike Bauer is a biologist at the University of Exeter where she leads an interdisciplinary research group studying plant biomechanics in the context of ecology, developmental biology and evolution. After graduating with a major in tropical ecology from the University of Würzburg in Germany, she embarked on a PhD in Cambridge studying the ecology and biomechanics of prey capture by insect-eating pitcher plants in Borneo. Ulrike held multiple competitive Research Fellowships after her PhD, first in Bristol, and since end of 2023 in Exeter. She continues to be fascinated by pitcher plants and their many elaborate trapping mechanisms.
Depression, type 2 diabetes and disrupted sleep: partners in crime
Dr Renu Bala, University of Exeter
Dr Bala has over eight years of research experience, with a background in reproductive genetics. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter. Her work focuses on understanding how depression and type 2 diabetes may be connected, and identifying the risk factors that link these two conditions, using large health data sets like the UK Biobank.