BEND, OR — Chlamydia has gotten a bad rap- and rightfully so, says a 2009 OSU-Cascades graduate.
Tim Putman is now a doctoral candidate at Oregon State University, and he will present the latest Science Pub, a series hosted by McMenamins.
Putman will present a one-hour examination of his research, explaining the groundbreaking techniques used at the University in trying to understand how the bacteria works.
“I’m going to go through the background, how we purify chlamydia, and how we take that, extract its DNA, and then map it’s genome. I’m going to wrap it up basically with what we have to learn from that.”
Putman says Chlamydia isn’t just the embarrassing affliction you’re thinking of; it’s also the number one cause of infectious blindness in the developing world.
AND it is threatening the extinction of the Australian koala.
“Marsupials especially are really sensitive to it. It’s an ocular strain which is the biggest problem; it causes a buildup of scar tissue that will actually lead to blindness. It also causes sterility.”
The Science Pub will be at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend on Tuesday, August 19th.
The Pub is free but registration is required.
To reserve your seat, click here.
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