LearningLabs
New frontiers in research on genetic diseases: from the lab to the classroom
Valladolid, 15 - 17 April 2009
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The course “New frontiers in research on genetic diseases: from the lab to the classroom” was held at the Instituto de Biología y Genética Molecular (IBGM) in Valladolid from April 15th to 17th 2009, as a result of the collaboration between Teresa Alonso (EMBL alumna and currently Professor at Valladolid University) and the ELLS team. The attendants were 24 highly motivated biology high-school teachers coming from the whole region of Castilla y Leon, and selected by their knowledge on informatics and English proficiency.
The course seminars were given in Spanish, and the practical activities in English. The course officially started with a welcome by the Council Education Representatives. The first session was opened by Alfredo Moreno, a Molecular Biology lecturer at the University of Valladolid, who gave an excellent overview on the current techniques used to approach genetic diseases. After the coffee break, ELLS education officer Rossana De Lorenzi presented the virtual microarray activity, an educational game developed by the former EMBL PhD Anastasios Koutsos, which was brought over especially for the course from Rome and presented by Rossana. The teachers were highly interested and the game inspired a discussion (in a mix of English and Spanish!) on genetic screening and personalized medicine.
After lunch we all moved to the computer room of the Faculty of Medicine, where Diego Sanchez, an IBGM group leader working in development of lipocalins, introduced the teachers to the use of bioinformatics. The frataxin gene, mutated in the Friedreich’s ataxia, was picked as a good example of a gene involved in a genetic disease and was the topic of one of the seminars on the following day.
On the second day, Juan Jose Tellería, a scientist who runs a facility for genetic screenings of newborn in the region and also does genetic counselling, gave a comprehensive talk on cystic fibrosis, including some interesting epidemiological and diagnostic aspects. Then, all the participants put their lab coats on and moved to the laboratory where they were instructed by Rossana a genetic analysis of a family affected by a genetic disease. Before lunch, we still had time for visiting the laboratories of the institute, including the genetic screening facilities and the GMP laboratory where stem cells are expanded before being transferred to the patients. In the afternoon, Filip Lim, a former EMBL postdoc, who now leads a group at the Autónoma University in Madrid, working on Friedreich’s ataxia, gave an excellent talk on the present and future of gene therapy approaches to this rare monogenic disease.
Felipe Mora, an ELLS collaborator in other ELLS activities, kindly accepted EMBL invitation to come from the Max Planck in Dresden, where he’s currently doing his post-doc, to give a wonderful talk on cellular division and chromosomal segregation on the third day. His seminar was the perfect example of how to bring the latest research results using cutting-edge technologies to a classical topic such as the mitosis included in the school biology curriculum. The seminars round ended by Professor Ana Sanchez’s very exciting seminar on cellular therapy and the use of stem cells to treat a number of clinical disorders such as heart failure. The day finished playing the DECIDE game on genetic screenings. The teachers lively debated about the scientific, ethical and legal aspects of genetic screenings.
Overall, this first experience of ELLS in Spain was a big success, according to the answers to the questionnaires by the participants and also considering the good atmosphere among the teachers, and also with the scientists. As a profit of the course, the teachers were committed to establish a working network which, in fact, is already set up and a virtual platform where to exchange useful ideas and teaching material is already running. This collaborative spirit was also facilitated by the outing to one of the better maintained medieval castles in Castilla, the Fuensaldaña’s one, followed by a delicious dinner watered by the appreciated Ribera del Duero wine at a typical surroundings bodega, where we all toasted future editions of the course.