From the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the nuclear power plant disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear radiation has been the Big Bad for the last century. An invisible danger that can invoke the dreaded C word: Cancer. But what if radiation isn’t quite as bad as it seems… what if radiation can be used to cure cancer? What if we could inject, ingest and breathe in radiation safely?

This presentation is about the world of nuclear medicine where we use radiation to find, treat and cure disease. You’ll hear about Jessica Van Zuylekom's research in the pre-clinical space where she trials new radioactive tracers to find rare cancers and test radionuclide therapies to help patients resistant to other treatments. Jessica might even be able to tell you just exactly what happens to a person who’s been bitten by a radioactive mouse…

Jessica is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist and Research Assistant at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. This means she works both clinically with radioactive human patients, and undertakes research with much smaller radioactive non-human patients (who perhaps might get a little nippy at times). Her research revolves around cancer imaging and using radioactive tracers to find and treat cancer and, hopefully, help the world move towards personalized medicine. She loves anything radiation (yes, she watched Chernobyl, and yes, she loved it) but also has other nerdy hobbies like board games, reading sci-fi/fantasy and ballet. She hopes Nerd Nite will help her show some people that radiation isn’t always the villain.

Nerd Nite is a monthly presentation series held in nearly 100 cities globally during which several folks give fun-yet-informative presentations across all disciplines... while the audience drinks beer!

This presentation comes from Nerd Nite Melbourne: https://melbourne.nerdnite.com/
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