Veronika Cencen: Why Do Cells Sometimes Eat Viruses?

ASEF and the Youth Cultural Center Kompleks Koroška are organizing an online popular science lecture by Veronika Cencen, ASEF Fellow 2016 and a doctoral student in bioengineering at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. The lecture held in Slovene will take place online on Thursday, June 24, 2021, at 7 PM CET.

REGISTRATION
To view the lecture, you must register by June 24, 2021, at the latest by 6 PM CET. The Zoom link for access and the code for asking questions will be sent to all registered users by e-mail on the day of the event. It is possible to register for the event here.

ABOUT THE LECTURE
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is one of the ways cells ingest nutrients. The exact mechanism has been researched for decades, but many unknowns remain, including why errors in the detection of unwanted substances occur. With the help of innovations in the field of fast atomic force microscopy, we try to discover new information about the parameters that affect the process of endocytosis, as we can get real-time information from these images about topography and mechanical properties and forces. Based on the new information, we can work towards the health goal of preventing related diseases such as dementia, muscular dystrophy, as well as certain viral infections.

ABOUT THE LECTURER
Veronika Cencen completed her Master of Science (MSc) in Biomedical Engineering in 2016 in Canada with financial support from NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada). At the end, she joined the group of Andrej Košmrlj, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Space Engineering at Princeton University in the USA, as part of ASEF, where she had the opportunity to upgrade her experience in mathematical modeling of clathrin endocytosis. Now, as a doctoral student at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, she is researching a similar topic in the laboratory with the help of atomic force microscopy.