- Location
- Innis Town Hall, Innis College, 2 Sussex Avenue
- Series/Type
- Alumni Event, DLSPH Partner & Affiliate Event, Faculty/Staff Event, Student Event
- Format
- In-Person
- Dates
- March 19, 2026 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm
Links
Presented by the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology …
LECTURE TITLE
“Leveraging Evolutionary Trade-Offs in the Development of Phage Therapy”
DESCRIPTION
The talk explores novel approaches to targeting and killing bacterial pathogens, tackling one of the most pressing issues in modern medicine: antibiotic resistance.
Phage therapy offers a possible alternative to antibiotics, but a downside is the ability for target bacteria to evolve phage resistance. This talk explores how interventions can take advantage of such evolutionary ‘trade-offs’ to help clear infections.
The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion with Greg German (UHN), Nicole Mideo (EEB), Arjumand Siddiqui (Dalla Lana School of Public Health), and Paul Turner himself on the larger implications medical, ethical, and social of therapies exploiting principles of evolution to treat infectious disease and neurodegenerative disorders, among other things.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Turner studies evolutionary genetics of viruses, particularly phages that infect bacterial pathogens and RNA viruses transmitted by arthropods, and researches the use of phages to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial diseases. He also actively engages in science-communication outreach to the general public, and is involved in programs where faculty collaborate with K-12 teachers to improve STEMM education in underserved public schools.
ABOUT THE MARTIN LECTURE
The Martin Lecture series is held annually, welcoming top thinkers and researchers in astronomy and astrophysics, ecology and evolutionary biology, physics, and public policy to the University of Toronto.
