On October 1, 2016, the University of Kentucky Department of Biology is hosting BioBonanza, a one-day open house festival.

 

BioBonanza will be held at the new Academic Science Building at 680 Rose Street on Saturday, October 1 from noon to 4 pm. Free parking is available in the parking garage on Hilltop Avenue, next to the Academic Science Building.

 

This free event will showcase interactive displays on research taking place in biology at UK. “As soon as you walk through the doors you’ll see all sorts of activities: displays of how a human heart works, butterflies and all sorts of insects, and you can even try to catch some local insects,” said Jennifer Simkin, a postdoc in biology who helped organize the event. “The displays will target high school and middle school students, but we’re going to have activities for people of all ages, so we welcome families. Students can come see the research and interact with the researchers.”

 

Those researchers include grad student Cole Malloy and his mentor neurobiologist Robin Cooper. They study how the nervous system adapts to changes in the environment using fruit flies and crayfish. Malloy said, “The breadth of the field is what drew me to biology. In high school I was more a chemistry guy, like my advisor, and when I came to UK I became more interesting in biology, especially genetics and neuroscience.”

 

This event is part of a month-long celebration of the 150th birthday of Thomas Hunt Morgan, Lexington’s first Nobel Laureate. Listen to this podcast and visit the BioBonanza Facebook page for more information.