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Nature has a long track record of being a source of compounds that led to FDA-approved drugs. Fungi, in particular, may have had one of the biggest impacts on survival rates in the 20^th century due to the discovery of penicillin and the antibiotics revolution that it stimulated. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the world who has not been treated with an antibiotic at least once in their lifetimes. However, much of the work that led to modern antibiotics was carried out in the 1950s through 1980s. Have you ever wondered how someone goes about ‘discovering’ a drug lead from fungi in 2023? This talk will go into details about how fungi, collected from the environment, are used as a source for drug leads, particularly for the sake of anticancer drug discovery, by telling you how this is carried out in a project that is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute. 

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Dr. Nicholas Oberlies is an internationally recognized expert in the chemistry of nature and medicines from natural products. Leads a team of scientists focused on the discovery of new drug leads. Skilled in the discovery, biological evaluation, structure elucidation, and optimization of natural product drug leads.

Consulted on the analysis of natural products (e.g., setting up drug discovery pipelines and determining safety of herbal remedies) for clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations (e.g. Procter & Gamble) to biotechs. Served as a qualified expert witness. Trained chemistry students in communication skills and public speaking. Developed workshops on Scientific Entrepreneurship. Served on Scientific Advisory Boards for Mycosynthetix, Ionic Pharmaceuticals, Clue Genetics and several Journals (e.g., J. Antibiotics, Phytochemistry, Planta Medica). Over 100 invited scientific presentations, both nationally and internationally. Published >220 manuscripts.

Hunting for mushrooms is, almost by definition, a local undertaking. Forested paths, the undersides of fallen trees, and neighboring yards all make for good collecting sites. But toward the end of the 19th century, mycology became an increasingly international undertaking as global collectors attempted to gather and chart the worldwide distribution of fungal species. Curtis Gates Lloyd played a vital part in this project through a mixture of travel, specimen solicitation, and publication. This presentation explores how Lloyd and many others developed extended webs of correspondence that set the foundations for contemporary fungal science.

Registration Required.

Brad Bolman is a Postdoctoral Member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. His first book, The Dog Years: A History of Beagle Science, published by the University of Chicago Press, is due out next year. Brad is currently working on a second book which explores the international history of mycology and fungal science.

Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi which means they aren’t plants and yet we often cook them the same way as we do vegetables. That’s a shame, because mushrooms are an altogether different food, with their own caveats and pleasures. In this presentation, Eugenia will show how the biology of mushrooms can guide your approach to them in the kitchen. She will discuss how to select mushrooms, how to clean them and how to store and preserve them, and the basic principles of cooking mushrooms. She will describe the range of mushroom flavors and textures, the difference between wild and cultivated species, dried and fresh, and what foods marry well with them. Folding mushrooms into your diet makes sense on many levels, and Eugenia will explain why. She will also share some simple recipes. 

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Eugenia Bone is an internationally known food and science writer whose works have appeared in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, The National Lampoon, Saveur, Gourmet, BBC Science, and The Wall Street Journal. An author of eight books, her latest, The Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook (2021), features 100 recipes from over 50 mushroom-philes. Bone appeared in the hit documentary Fantastic Fungi and an episode of Netflix’s Waffles + Mochi. She is also a member of the American Society of Science Writers, a past president of the New York Mycological Society, and is the founder of Slow Food Western Slope in Colorado. Currently, Bone is a faculty member of the New York Botanical Garden where she teaches classes on mycophagy and psychedelic mushrooms

 

 

Mycologist Nicholas Money provides a guided tour of a marvelous unseen realm, describing how our immune systems are engaged in continuous conversation with the teeming mycobiome inside the body, and how we can fall prey to serious and even life-threatening infections when this peaceful coexistence is disturbed. He also sheds light our complicated relationship with fungi outside the body, from wild mushrooms and cultivated molds that have been staples of the human diet for millennia to the controversial experimentation with magic mushrooms in the treatment of depression.

Watch the recording on YouTube.

 

Nicholas Money is an Anglo-American biologist, author, and Western Program Director and Professor of Biology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is an expert on fungal biology and has authored a dozen popular science books that celebrate the microbial world. His website is www.themycologist.com.

Join us for the opening of A Foray into Fungi, showcasing the wonders of the kingdom of fungi through a rich collection of rare books, photography, dried specimens, and multimedia representations. Beginning in the 16^th century, the exhibition traces the development of disciplines as diverse as mycology, ethnobotany, and natural history. Highlights include the first published image of the famous agaric mushroom that inspired Alice in Wonderland, and an 1827 French publication with illustrations full of rich, color-saturated, almost psychedelic mushrooms. Works by avid mycologist and Lloyd Library co-founder Curtis Gates Lloyd join those of Mazatec shaman María Sabina and others in this multifaceted journey.

Free and open to the public. Light refreshments.

 

Explore depictions of marine life in the art of Late Bronze Age Greece (ca. 1600–1100 BC)! Amid a survey of sea creatures found in these works, including octopods, dolphins, and fish, special attention is given to the enigmatic argonaut motif and its appearance on wall paintings of the Mycenaean ‘Palace of Nestor’ at Pylos. While the focus is divided between the motif’s various meanings, its painted depictions offer exciting insight into the thought processes and working methods of Greek Bronze Age artists.

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Emily Catherine Egan is Assistant Professor of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology in the Department of Art History & Archaeology at the University of Maryland. She holds a dual B.A. from Brown University in Classics and Old World Archaeology and Art, an M.Phil. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Armenia, and Greece, where she is currently involved in projects at the sites of Mycenae and Pylos. Her research focuses on painted surface decoration, and especially on the iconography of Greek wall and floor paintings from the late second millennium BC.

Join Dann Woellert on a deep dive into the history of America’s first Louisiana-style hot sauces. Starting with the earliest brand, Tabasco, we will explore the history of Trappey’s, Buillard’s, Frank’s, Louisiana, and Crystal – one of which has a Cincinnati connection. All were made within miles of each other centering in New Iberia, Louisiana, and sparked today’s explosive growth of the hot sauce condiment category. Amongst the thousands of American hot sauces today, these six speak to the origins of heat in American cuisine. The presentation will end with a progressive Scoville tasting and comparison of each sauce to learn their distinct nuances.

Registrations Required.

Dann Woellert is a Food Etymologist, studying the origin of our food customs and regional dishes. From discovering the region in northwest Germany where our Goetta originated, to breaking down the Cincinnati style three-way, Dann takes us on a journey of discovery and connection to our ancestors. For the last decade he has curated the blog Dann Woellert the Food Etymologist and has written eight books about Cincinnati Food History. He has recently been in five episodes of Season 4’s Food that Built America on the History Channel (streaming on Hulu and Amazon). He’s a history preservationist and is closely tied to several local organizations including the Delhi, Cheviot, Westwood, Price Hill, Milford, Loveland and Green Township Historical Society, the German Heritage and Over-the-Rhine Museums, and the Brewery Heritage Trail. Dann also teaches at UC’s Communiversity and has been seen dressed in Civil War uniform, as St. Nicholas, and as beer baron Fred Linck around town.

Polar bears rely on sea ice for survival and, fittingly, have become the flagship species for climate change. These marine mammals exhibit impressive physiological adaptations and behavioral strategies that enable them to survive and reproduce in extremely harsh conditions. Population monitoring is critical to determine how bears are responding to their changing environment but is challenging to study. Scientists are turning to polar bears in zoos, which serve as a valuable resource for advancing scientific knowledge and producing solutions for the conservation and management of their wild cousins.

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Erin Curry, Ph.D., is the Director of the Polar Bear Signature Project® at the Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. Originally from Philadelphia, Dr. Curry earned her B.S. degree in Animal Science from the University of Delaware in 2003, with minors in Wildlife Conservation and Psychology. She went on to graduate school at Clemson University in South Carolina, where she earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal & Veterinary Sciences, focusing on beef cattle and pigs.

 

View ceramic pieces from the historical collections of the Lloyd Library that were brought from Turkey to Cincinnati in the early 20th century, along with various American apothecary jars from donated collections. Artists include 2019 Lloyd Artists-in-Residence Future Retrieval. Running March 13-24, 2023, this mini-exhibition is in conjunction with CURRENT, the annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts to be held in Cincinnati March 15-18. The Lloyd joins with over venues all around the city in sharing ceramic exhibitions, and welcomes conference attendees and members of the public alike.

 

2023 Curtis Gates Lloyd Fellow, Elizabeth Yuko will focus on the history and evolution of the bedroom and sick room in American homes; specifically, how their presence, layout, decor, fixtures, furnishings, and upkeep promote rest, sleep, and health for not only the occupant(s) of the room, but the rest of the household as well. She will draw heavily from primary sources from the Lloyd’s Eclectic Medical Collection as well as works discussing hygiene, sanitation, and domesticity from the late 1800s.

Watch the recording on YouTube.