Get ready for a night of science and storytelling inspired by HBO’s The Last of Us, where a fungal outbreak drives the plot—and the panic.

Our first speaker will explore the real-world microbes that can infect humans, and the growing risks they pose. Our second speaker will uncover the bizarre world of slime molds—single-celled organisms that move, solve puzzles, and defy expectations.

From terrifying spores to brainless brilliance, come explore the strange, spore-filled side of science that might just be stranger than fiction.

Doors open at 7:00PM. Event is 21+. Limited capacity - reserve your spot here! $5

Speakers:

Living in a world of fungi.

Tobias Hohl, MD, PhD
he/him
www.mskcc.org/research-areas/labs/tobias-hohl
BlueSky: @fungalspore

Humans inhale and ingest fungi every day on Earth. For the vast majority of us, these daily encounters are silent and innocuous. A small subset of fungi can cause life-threatening diseases in vulnerable populations, typically when the immune system sustains an injury. This talk focuses on the resilience of humans and their immune defenses against ubiquitous fungi. Tobias will explore how our immune defenses recognize and eliminate fungi when they pose an invasive threat.

Tobias Hohl is Chief of Infectious Disease Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a physician-scientist and who studies how fungi on Earth can cause life-threatening diseases in humans.

Myxomycetes: Slime-tastic fun-guys of the microbial world!

Elan Trybuch
he/him
elan.trybuch.com
Instagram: @elaniobro
BlueSky: @trybuch.com / @newyorkmyc

Elan Trybuch will explore slimemold lifecycle, classification, and their biodiversity in the five boroughs.

Elan is the current acting Secretary of the New York Mycological Society and a Myxomycete specialist, helping to identify species and document the biodiversity of Fungi and Myxomycetes in NYC. He currently lives in Redhook, Brooklyn with his partner and works at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as an Integration Engineering Manager.