Pandemic! The global threat of deadly diseases

Wed 3 June 2015

Cambridge Union Society

Wednesday 3 June 2015, 6.00pm-9.15pm
The Cambridge Union, Cambridge
Free EMBL-EBI Science and Society event
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/events/science-and-society-2015

The threat of rapidly spreading infectious disease has captured our imagination. The success of Hollywood blockbusters such as Contagion and Outbreak reflect this fear, showing how society might fall apart in the wake of a global epidemic. This concern is amplified by the knowledge that infectious diseases - caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites - kill millions of people worldwide each year.

The current Ebola crisis has brought the risk of a global pandemic to the forefront of people’s minds, following in the footsteps of other recent epidemics such as bird flu. But the sheer scale of the Ebola outbreak and its high mortality rate has attracted wider attention and concern.

Yet do we, in Britain, genuinely need to be concerned that these outbreaks taking place in other parts of the world might reach our shores? Pandemics are not a new threat, but are there aspects of our modern world that make them more likely? What can scientific research do to help us in the fight against infectious diseases? These are the kinds of questions we would like to explore in our Science and Society event.

After three talks from expert speakers in the field, we look forward to exciting discussions on these topics.

Speakers:

- Derek Smith, University of Cambridge
- Oliver Billker, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
- Kristian Andersen, Harvard University

Cost: Free