Christ's College Darwin Society

Last week, the Darwin Society wrapped up our final speaker event of the year with a fireside chat between our Speaker Officer Nas and Sir Mene Pangalos.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at our talks this year. We hope to see you all again next Michaelmas!

A round-up of our amazing events in Lent!
With more to come in Easter :)

Darwin Society is back!

We are having our last speaker event on April 30th (Thursday) 6-7pm in Yusuf Hamied Theatre (Christ’s College) where our Speaker Officer, Nas, will have a fireside chat with Sir Mene Pangalos.

In case you don’t know about our speaker, Sir Mene Pangalos is a legend:

“Sir Mene Pangalos, FRS, is one of the most influential figures in modern pharmaceutical research. As Executive Vice President at AstraZeneca, he drove their clinical trial success rate from 4% to 19%, against an industry average of 6%. He’s contributed to the approval of over 20 new medicines, and spearheaded the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine partnership, awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 2023. He has since joined Isomorphic Labs, the AI-driven drug discovery company spun out of Google DeepMind.“

In this fireside chat, Sir Mene will discuss:

Why most drugs fail
How the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine went from idea to a billion doses
How AI will and is transforming drug discovery
What a career at the interface of science and industry looks like.

This fireside chat is co-hosted by the Darwin Society and CU Biological Society, we hope to see many of you there!

Join our last speaker event in Lent this Thursday!

We invited Dr. Antonio García Guerra to give us a talk on CRISPR MiRAGE, cell-type and mutation specific genetics. This will take place from 5:30 to 6:30pm, in Yusuf Hamied Theatre.

See you there :)

Miss your subject sibling/college parents? Not sure what to do next year? Join our STEM social this Saturday!!!

You can come and chat with people about subject choices for next year with snacks and drinks, in TV room at 7pm March 7th (Saturday).

We will also be playing a film after the social if you want to have a relaxed night together!

We are having our next talk on Feb 26th (tomorrow!)

Dr. Michaelides from AstraZeneca Cambridge will give us a talk about the discovery and optimization of the first ATP competitive type-III C-MET inhibitor.

See you at 6pm, Yusuf Hamied Theatre!

Not sure how to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Join our annual Darwin Talk on February 14th!

Prof. Asher will be talking about Ronald Fisher and Group Selection at 6-7pm, Yusuf Hamied Theatre, Christ’s College. Drinks will be provided after the talk!

This term was highlighted by the gLarmorous formals with St John’s, supervised by our beloved Lady Margaret Beaufort

Join us for our second talk this term in Christ’s College Seminar Room 2&3 on December 2nd (Tuesday), where Dr David Dexter from Parkinson’s UK will share insights into the journey of developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease. See you there!

Time: 6-7pm; Date: 28th of April; Professor Dave Goulson is a leading insect ecologist and author of the Sunday Times bestseller ‘Silent Earth’. He will explain why insects are declining, and the consequences if we allow this to continue. He will then consider the many ways we can all get involved in saving our insects, from making our gardens more insect-friendly and rewilding unproductive land to support systems of farming that are truly sustainable.