Seminar Series

Upcoming Seminar

The Power of Bacteria: from pathogenic mechanisms of antibiotic resistance to commensal gut microbiome effects on feeding behaviors
Dr. Amanda Carbajal, Duke University

November 21, 2024
4:00pm-5:00pm via Zoom

Join 11/21 Zoom
Meeting ID: 875 8863 6061
Passcode: 405133

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Amanda Carbajal is a daughter of Mexican immigrants, bicultural, and a first-generation college student from Oxnard, California. She began her journey seeking a car insurance discount at the local community college and from there, discovered she loved learning but lacked access and self-awareness on how to navigate academia. Thanks to perseverance and seeking out many mentors, she was able to transfer to San Francisco State University, where she completed her B.S. (after 10 years!) and her M.S. (in just 2 years). From there, she did a Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz (9/2018-5/2024) studying microbes and the power they hold over us, and engaged in biotech internships to gain a well-rounded perspective on conducting research. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University through the School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, where she studies the microbiome and the gut-brain axis. She and her colleagues discovered a direct mechanism that connects gut microbes to the brain and feeding behavior, allowing us to open up the possibility of treating feeding-related ailments like obesity from the gut instead of drugs that affect the brain.