MARION — As flu season takes hold, come out and learn something to stay healthy this winter from Tabor Academy’s upcoming Science@Work speaker, a nutritional biochemist whose research focuses on boosting the immune systems of U.S. combat soldiers. His Dec. 10 talk is called “The Ubiquitous Role of Zinc in Health and Disease.”

Angus Scrimgeour, Ph.D., is a nutritional biochemist in the Military Nutrition Division at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick. Scrimgeour will discuss what 17 years of experience developing animal models of human disease has taught him about the immune systems of U.S. combat soldiers. 

Scrimgeour will discuss two very different research projects as examples of his work. The first, in Kenya where he studied the role of zinc in reducing infectious diarrhea, one of the world’s most deadly diseases. 

The second was in The Netherlands where he worked side-by-side with the Royal Dutch Military explosives experts. Mild traumatic brain injury has become the signature injury in modern warfare. To address it, Dr. Scrimgeour has developed nutritional combinations that make animals more resilient to neurotrauma. 

In 2017, this work effort was expanded to use similar diets in treating post–traumatic stress disorder.

The lecture is free and open to the public at 6:30 PM in the Stroud Academic Center’s Lyndon South Auditorium.