Completed Workshops
“Better Living through Chemistry: How the Complexities of the Molecular World are Connected with Our Health and Well-Being”
Featuring: Alexander Aksenov, PhD (Chemistry)
March 31, 2022 | 12:30-1:15PM EST Via Zoom

Personalized medicine or disease diagnostics kits that one can order in the mail used to be something from sci-fi, but now are becoming commonplace, fueled by scientific breakthroughs. Mass spectrometry (MS) is a key analysis technique that allows deciphering complex molecular distributions (so-called MS-based metabolomics). However, the high cost and difficulty in large scale data analysis have been hampering MS applications.
In the past few years, the MS-based metabolomics has been undergoing a revolutionary transition. Many new tools, especially in data analysis, have emerged and now enable endeavors that were not possible due to previously unsurmountable technical limitations.Disease detection, monitoring of chemistry of our surroundings (e.g. toxins), or designing nutrition for health effects, etc., all are now possible and will eventually become routine. Adopting new technologies, however, is notoriously challenging as it requires navigating entirely different set of aspects outside of just technical consideration.
To harness the potential power of mass Spectrometry, new interdisciplinary collaborations are needed to explore how best to introduce this technology into our everyday lives. This is where the analytical chemistry meets the social and behavioral sciences. Sociology, political sciences, psychology, and many of other social and behavioral science domains are essential for maximizing benefits of these new technologies while minimizing possible harm. In this talk, Dr. Alexander Aksenov (Chemistry) will provide a high level overview of his work on metabolomics and invite conversation about what might be possible moving forward with interdisciplinary collaboration.