Cupid’s Chemicals: The Biochemistry of Love

Date: Nov 2, 2015 | Faculties, Faculty of Science, News

The Faculty of Science in partnership with the UJ Library invites you to a Public Lecture where Dr Gerrit Koorsen talks about Cupid’s Chemicals:The Biochemistry of Love

13 October 2015 at 13:00 – 14:00
APK LIBRARY AUDITORIUM (Level 6)

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare writes, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind”. We have all felt the seemingly irrational sting of Cupid’s arrow, but romantic love makes complete sense from a biological perspective. What are the chemicals that steer Cupid’s arrows? Dr Koorsen will take us on a journey to explore the biochemical nature of love and the molecules that drive our romantic sides.

Learn more about:

• The stages of romantic love and the chemicals that govern each stage
• Do human pheromones exist?
• The surprising similarities between being in love and mental illness
• A recipe for falling in love

Dr Gerrit Koorsen obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge in 2006 under the supervision of Dame Jean Thomas having been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Upon his return to South Africa he worked at the CSIR (Pretoria) after which he joined the University of Johannesburg in 2008. He is currently an NRF Thuthuka grantholder. His research focuses on the structure and function of human linker histones, the proteins that facilitate the compaction of DNA in the nucleus. Dr Koorsen is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry.