My Genes, My Proteins, and My Health Science Café series to be held at Milwaukee School of Engineering

The Community Engagement Key Function of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin will hold a series of Science Cafés at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Center for BioMolecular Modeling that are free and open to the public. The theme of the series is “My Genes, My Proteins, and My Health,” and topics will include the drug discovery process, the role of genomics in determining treatment for diseases, advances in the treatment of cystic fibrosis, and the promise of gene therapy.

The series kicks off Tuesday, September 24, with a discussion led by Tim Herman, Ph.D., the director of the MSOE Center for Biomolecular Modeling. Dr. Herman will explain the mechanics behind drug development and drug targets in a special hands-on session to introduce the basic concepts of drug discovery.

On Tuesday, October 7, Dan Sem, Ph.D., professor of pharmacy science at Concordia University, will discuss the process of creating new drugs, and the factors that have slowed drug discovery in recent years.

On Tuesday, October 22, Tim Herman will use a variety of models to demonstrate how DNA lays the foundation for proteins, and how genomics can be used to diagnose the cause of disease and, in some cases, direct treatment.

New methods to treat cystic fibrosis will be the subject of the presentation Tuesday, November 5. Julie Biller, M.D., professor of medicine (pulmonology) at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), will discuss how the care of cystic fibrosis patients has changed over the years. A new drug that is an effective treatment for a small group of cystic fibrosis patients will also be discussed.

November 18 is the final Science Café of the fall series. The format will be a book club reviewing The Forever Fix, a book that documents the recent history of gene therapy.

All five Science Cafes will be held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Center for Molecular Modeling, located at 1025 N. Broadway Street in Milwaukee, on the second floor. Discussion begins at 6:00 p.m. and continues through 7:30 p.m. The discussions are designed to engage and involve members of the community, and all are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided as well as parking.

Registration for is available now at https://ctsi.mcw.edu/community/science-cafe/, or contact Mia DeFino at (414) 955-5754 or mdefino@mcw.edu. Science Cafés are a program of the Community Engagement Key Function of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin. Funding for this program comes in part by the CTSI of southeastern Wisconsin and in part by Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Research and Education Initiative Fund, a component of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

CTSI is part of a national consortium of top medical research institutions. Working together, the CTSI institutions are committed to improve human health by streamlining science, transforming training environments and improving the conduct, quality and dissemination of clin-ical and translational research. The CTSI program is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The eight member organizations of the CTSI are the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the BloodCenter of Wisconsin, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center.