NEW: Bacteria vs. Viruses: The Invisible Arms Race

On April 28th, we present : "Bacteria vs. Viruses: The Invisible Arms Race" by Prof. Sidhartha Goyal, PhD.

All around us, an invisible arms race is unfolding between bacteria and the viruses that hunt them. This evolutionary battle has produced some of the most powerful tools in modern biotechnology—including CRISPR.

Beneath our feet, in the oceans, and inside nearly every environment on Earth, bacteria and the viruses that infect them are locked in a constant evolutionary battle.

In this lecture, we’ll explore how bacteria continuously evolve strategies to defend themselves, while viruses develop new ways to break through those defenses. One remarkable solution bacteria evolved is a kind of immune memory — recording past infections and using that information to recognize future threats, not unlike how vaccines work in humans.

Using physics-inspired models, this research reveals something even more surprising: individual bacteria remember only a few past infections, but together they can coordinate as a population to defend against an incredibly diverse and rapidly evolving viral world. Along the way, we’ll see how discoveries from this microscopic arms race have led to revolutionary technologies—most famously CRISPR, one of the most powerful tools in modern biotechnology.

Expect an accessible lecture about how seemingly simple organisms collaborate, innovate, and adapt, and why understanding these microbial battles matters for medicine, technology, and even our own survival.

💡 About the incredible Professor Sidhartha Goyal

Prof. Sidhartha Goyal, PhD, is a faculty member in the Departments of Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto and a CIFAR Fellow. His research develops mathematical and computational frameworks to understand how large populations of cells behave and evolve—from microbial communities to stem cells, tissue regeneration, and tumor progression.

He completed his PhD in Physics at Princeton University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara. He earned his first degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay.

📅 Date: April 28, 2026
🕡 Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
📍 Location: Leslieville. The exact location will be emailed to you via the email you use while purchasing the ticket.
🎤 Speaker: Professor Sidhartha Goyal, PhD.

🎟 Seats are limited!

❗️Please note: the location in this eventbrite page is NOT the exact location, only indicates the general area. The exact location will be emailed to you via the email you use while purchasing the ticket. Keep an eye out in your inbox or spam folder a couple weeks before the event as well.

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