Inside Manchester Science Festival

With the countdown to this year’s Manchester Science Festival underway, Microbiologist and Salford academic Professor Chloe James explains what attendees can expect from the exciting line-up of events.

Taking place at the Science and Industry Museum and across the city the festival runs for ten days  from this Friday, October 18 – Sunday October 27. This year, the festival is exploring the theme of “extremes”. Boasting an array of activities, from interactive activity zones, to immersive artworks, to after-hours events like quizzes and Q&A’s, the festival won’t leave you short of something to do.

Professor Chloe James will be among those exhibiting in the activity zones at the event, as part of the University’s contribution to the festival. The University is also Lead Educational Partner for the whole Festival.

Working in collaboration with academics from the University of Liverpool, Prof James will present an interactive exhibit linked to her extensive research on bacteriophages.

Bacteriophages (phages for short) are viruses that infect bacteria. They are the most abundant and diverse organisms on the planet and their actions impact the fundamental biology of everything on it.

Phages have been in an evolutionary battle with their bacterial hosts for millions of years. Some are being developed as novel antibacterials (phage therapy), but others form partnerships with the bacteria they infect, helping them to adapt to new surroundings.

Research at Salford is revealing the secrets of phages that make bacteria more able to survive in the body and cause disease. With the theme of ‘The Future of Pharmacy – Extreme Medicines’, the main event of the stall will be the Virtual Reality Lung, developed with artist Paul Miller and Reflex Arc.  Visitors will be virtually inhaled into the airways of a lung, while different bacteriophages rain down and either kill their bacterial targets or make them stronger.  With years of research and intricate work on the matter, cystic fibrosis lung infections are one of Professor James’ specialties, and this exhibit highlights the complexities surrounding the topic.

Other activities include giant phage infection games, which visitors can have a go at, to explore some of the challenges in developing phages as therapy. Salford’s Maker Space team, are providing one of their portable 3D printers showing how the models are made, and there will be a craft station where bacteriophages will be made using cardboard and plenty of decorations to take home.

Professor James says: “We’re excited to engage with the public and find out more about what people think of phages and our research that we’ve been doing at Salford.

“These activities are a reminder that developing new medicines can be hard, but by getting people to actively participate in the research within a fun setting is such a great way to get people thinking and to understand the impact science really has”.

You can now book tickets to the Manchester Science Festival here.