March 13th at Northeastern University Seattle | Dr. Sid Venkatesh, Assistant Professor, Institute for Systems Biology (ISB)

“The Gut Microbiome and New Therapeutic Foods for Childhood Undernutrition”

What if combating childhood malnutrition isn’t just about food insecurity — but also about the microbes living in their intestines?
For decades, gut‑microbiome research has revealed tantalizing correlations but hasn't explained why certain bacteria matter. In this Discovery Lecture, Sid Venkatesh will discuss how researchers built “defined” communities of gut microbes and used germ‑free animal models to test the effects of adding or excluding specific bacterial strains. By combining these approaches with gene‑expression profiling, mass spectrometry, and biochemical analysis, researchers are uncovering cause‑and‑effect relationships.
 Sid's work has led to two major breakthroughs:
- the development of a microbiota‑directed therapeutic food, already reaching 20,000 malnourished children around the world, and
- the discovery of a gut microbial enzyme that activates hunger‑related pathways in malnourished children.
This Lecture will illustrate how mechanistic insights from the microbiome can translate into solutions with global public health impact.

Agenda -

11:30 am to 12 pm - lunch

12 pm to 12:40 pm - presentation

12:40 pm to 1 pm - audience Q&A

Register on Luma: Discovery Series, Dr. Sid Venkatesh, Assistant Professor, Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) · Luma

April 10th | Dr. Bruce Maxwell, Teaching Professor & Director of Computing Programs, Northeastern University Seattle

What if the way we prepare images for computers is getting in the way of understanding them?
Most digital images are designed to look good to human eyes. But what’s best for people isn’t always best for machines. Bruce Maxwell, teaching professor at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, explores how rethinking image formats—especially how brightness and color are represented—can unlock new capabilities in computer vision.

Inspired by how the human eye processes light, Maxwell’s research shows that using alternative formats can make AI models more stable under changing lighting, reveal hidden patterns, and improve performance across tasks like object recognition and image generation. His experiments suggest that small changes in how we feed images to machines can lead to big improvements in how they interpret the world.

This talk invites us to look beneath the surface of everyday images—and discover how seeing differently might help machines see better.

Agenda

11:30 am to 12 pm - lunch

12 pm to 12:40 pm - presentation

12:40 pm to 1 pm - audience Q&A

Register on Luma: Discovery Series, Dr. Bruce Maxwell, Teaching Professor & Director of Computing Programs, Northeastern University Seattle · Luma

Metastasis in Slow Motion: Preventing Cancer’s Return

What if cancer didn’t strike in one dramatic moment—but instead lingered, quietly, for years? Long after a tumor seems gone, rogue cells can lie dormant. They wait. And sometimes, they return. This is the mystery of metastatic relapse—and the frontier where Dr. Cyrus Ghajar works. 

 At Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Ghajar leads research into how dormant cancer cells evade treatment and what reactivates them. His lab bridges oncology, immunology, and bioengineering to explore the role of the immune system in suppressing dormant cancer cells. It’s a delicate numbers game that can tip the balance between remission and recurrence. 

Supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Kuni Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense and other funders, Ghajar holds the Peter S. Lefkarites Memorial Endowed Chair. Ghajar’s work is reshaping how we think about metastasis—not as a sudden invasion, but a slow, stealthy process that might be intercepted. Join us to explore how silence in the body might hold the key to preventing relapse. 

Agenda -

11:30 am to 12 pm - lunch

12 pm to 12:40 pm - presentation

12:40 pm to 1 pm - audience Q&A

Register on luma: Discovery Series, Dr. Cyrus Ghjar, Professor, Fred Hutch · Luma

Designed to bring together the state's preeminent researchers, innovative leaders, and elected officials who want to stay on top of important advancements being made in our state, each Discovery Series program includes lunch, networking time, a Q&A session, and an opportunity to meet the speaker.