Home EventsPart of The Evidence

Our Microbes and Our Health

, –
Past
  • Free
  • Discussion
  • Speech-to-text
  • British Sign Language
Claudia Hammond standing in front of an audience in the Reading Room at Wellcome Collection. She is holding a microphone, behind her is a red carpeted staircase with cushions on it.
Claudia Hammond, Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

What you’ll do

Join Claudia Hammond and a panel of global experts as they consider the explosion of scientific knowledge about the multitudes that call our human body home. Millions of microbes live in us and on us. They also make up our personal universe and have a significant impact on our health.

Claudia will present the evening and interview the speakers. Then the audience will have the chance to ask questions. You can participate or just listen in. 

The event will be recorded live and edited into a programme to be broadcast on the BBC World Service as part of ‘The Evidence’ series. After broadcast, this episode will be available on the BBC website.

Dates

, –
Past

Need to know

Location

We’ll be in the Reading Room on level 2. You can walk up the spiral staircase to the Reading Room door, or take the lift up and then head left from the Library Desk.

Place not guaranteed

Booking a ticket for a free event does not guarantee you a place. You should aim to arrive 15 minutes before the event is scheduled to start to claim your place. If you do not arrive on time, your place may be given to someone on the waiting list.

Speech-to-text

This event will be live-transcribed, with text displayed on a large screen.

British Sign Language

This event will have British Sign Language interpretation.

For more information, please visit our Accessibility page. If you have any queries about accessibility, please email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call

Our event terms and conditions

In partnership with

BBC World Service

Partner

The BBC World Service is the world’s largest international broadcaster. It broadcasts radio and television news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world.

Photographic black and white, head and shoulders portrait of Claudia Hammond.

Claudia Hammond

Presenter

Claudia Hammond is an award-winning broadcaster, writer and psychology lecturer. She is the presenter of ‘All in the Mind’ and ‘Mind Changers’ on BBC Radio 4, and ‘The Evidence’ and ‘Health Check’ on the BBC World Service.

Black and white photograph of a young woman with long blond hair looking straight at the camera and smiling.

Sheena Cruickshank

Speaker

Professor Cruickshank is an immunologist based in the Lydia Becker institute of Immunology and Inflammation at the University of Manchester. Her research investigates the immune response to threats like infections or pollutants and the microbiome. She is an award-winning science communicator who involves diverse communities in her research both in the UK and Africa. She also regularly discusses immunology, the microbiome and infection in the media and was awarded the 2021 Association of British Science Writers Dr Katharine Giles Award 2021 for best popular article written by a scientist or engineer.

Black and white photograph of John Cryan

John Cryan

Speaker

Professor John F. Cryan is Vice President for Research and Innovation at University College Cork, Cork Ireland and a Principal Investigator in the APC Microbiome Institute. Professor Cryan’s current research is focused on understanding the interaction between brain, gut and microbiome and how it applies to stress, psychiatric and immune-related disorders at key time-windows across the lifespan. He has co-edited four books and is co-author of the bestselling ‘The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection’ (National Geographic Press, 2017).

Glenn Gibson

Speaker

Professor Glenn Gibson researches interactions of the gut microbiome. He is based at the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Reading.  His current research focuses on acute and chronic gut disease, autism, obesity, probiotics and prebiotics, gastroenteritis in sportspersons, the development of the gut microbial ecosystem with age, and overall gut health.