Are you all as surprised as I am that it’s September already and our next Nerd Nite is barely more than a week away?? Let’s blame back-to-school, even though it’s probably been awhile for all of us since we posed with a backpack on the front porch for a first-day-of-school picture!
But just because we’re not hitching the bus to elementary school, it doesn’t mean we’re done with learning! Except now we get to do it at a Nightclub! Specifically, LIVE (102 S First St.) on Thursday, September 10 at 7pm (doors at 6:30).
We’ll begin with Willow Dimmer and Digging into the Ig Nobel. Every year, the Ig Nobel prizes celebrate achievements that, “first make people laugh, and then make them think,” honoring some of the silliest science in the world. Come learn about the award’s history of ridiculous research, paper airplane deluges, and the important job of an 8 year old, Miss Sweetie Poo!!
Willow a Production Technician at AADL with a love for shenanigans, hijinks, and committing to the bit. They also collect an ever growing mass of fun facts, Katamari Damacy-ing their way through Wikipedia, and have a deep appreciation for hyper-specific studies, decades old forum threads, and long-obsolete technical standards.
Moving on from Silly Science to the more serious stuff, we have Rajanti Dey with Stuck ON: The Cellular Light Switch Behind Cancer and the Drug That Tries to Turn It Off. What if a type of cancer could be understood as something as simple as a light switch that got stuck in the “on” position? Using everyday analogies and a peek into the molecular mechanisms of our body, this talk explores how a tiny protein called Abl kinase acts as one of our cells’ most important switches, how an innovative leukemia drug ‘asciminib’ tries to lock it off, and why some mutations of the Abl kinase cleverly learn to escape it.
Rajanti is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry at the University of Michigan, where she spends her days investigating the molecular basis of how a cancer drug targets the enzyme of interest (light switch) effectively. When she’s not chasing tiny proteins or humble cells in the lab, she’s usually chasing good coffee, new hiking trails, or convincing people that molecules have surprisingly great stories to tell.
And finally, we have the talk y’all have been waiting for since rain ruined the show in June: Nerd Nite 2: Electric Boogaloo! Expanding the Protein Binder Universe: From Llamas to Generative AI. The Taubman Nanobody Initiative’s Mary (Skinner) Mora is returning to the stage, and she’s determined to make things even weirder. Step into the bizarre world of “molecular lockpicking,” where we explore how tiny, llama-derived nanobodies are revolutionizing medicine. But this time, there’s an eco-futurist plot twist: Mary will reveal how Generative AI is stepping in as an unlikely green hero, slashing the massive plastic and environmental footprint of traditional laboratory science. Come for the llamas, stay for the compelling tech, and find out how failing in pixels can help save our physical planet.
Mary is the Research Lead at The Taubman Nanobody Initiative at the University of Michigan and has been working in the molecular biology field for the past 17 years.