Outreach Events

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This year's workshop was organised by EMBO in collaboration with ELLS and Explo-Heidelberg.

One of the main conclusions drawn from the 2006 workshop "From School to University" was that science teaching should reflect the interdisciplinarity that already exists in life sciences research.

The organisers decided to use this year's workshop as a platform where scientists, high school teachers and educators could debate on how to bring frontier areas of research in life sciences areas - where biology meets other fields of knowledge (mathematics, chemistry, physics and engineering) - to the classroom, through interdisciplinary activities.

During the first day and a half of the workshop, sessions were organised around three rapidly expanding frontier areas of research: molecular evolution, molecular medicine and systems biology. Two specialists from each area were invited to give seminars, followed by a panel discussion led by scientists and education experts, which extended to the whole assembly of participants.

On the last day, the participants split into three teams and performed experimental activities planed by ELLS and by Explo-Heidelberg, covering the above mentioned thematic areas.

ELLS science education officers, Alexandra Manaia and Rossana de Lorenzi, organised the experimental activities for the two teams staying at the EMBL (Practicals 1 and 2).

Practical 1: Hidden treasures from glass slides: the power of DNA microarrays
This activity, devised and conducted by Anastasios Koutsos (post-doctoral fellow, Imperial College, London), is an experiment simulation in which the participants use a "virtual microarray" to explore the differences between healthy and cancer cells. The participants also became familiar with other approaches to the teaching of microarrays, namely with a wet-lab kit from Genisphere.

Practical 2: Malaria, Mosquitoes and Mankind
The participants learned about the global incidence of malaria, about the infection cycle involving Plasmodium, mosquitoes and humans, and were introduced to the different strategies used to fight the disease and to their limitations. During a practical activity conducted by Martine Thoma (PhD student, IBMC, Strasbourg, France), they screened mosquito genomic DNA using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to identify mutant mosquitoes that are resistant to pyrethroid insecticides. Resistant mosquitoes bear a single nucleotide mutation in a gene coding for a sodium channel. This mutation renders the sodium channel insensitive to pyrethroids. The PCR protocol was devised by Stephanie Blandin (post-doctoral fellow, IBMC, Strasbourg, France; visitor in Steinmetz Group, EMBL).

Through a computer-based activity, developed and instructed by EMBL PhD students Eoghan Harrington, Lukas Neidhart and Mikael Diepholz, the participants learned about how mutations conferring resistance to drugs can arise and how they spread within a particular population exposed to selective pressures.

Practical 3: Tropical disease meets modern diagnosis: ELISA
This practical activity was organised by Thomas Wendt at the Explo-Heidelberg.

Schistosoma species commonly known as bilharzia, cause one of the most important infections (schistosomiasis or snail fever) in developing countries. A lot of efforts have been undertaken in order to develop a vaccine that will prevent the parasite from completing its life cycle in humans.

The Schistosoma GST (gluathion S-transferase) has been identified as a central molecule in the infection cycle. Immunisation with a recombinant Schistosoma GST has proven to be a tool for vaccination against the parasite infection. In the practical activity, the participants determined the antibody titre of patients who had been vaccinated against schistosomiasis.

One representative from each practical session joined for a final panel to present the different activities performed and discuss with the whole assembly of participants.

A report summarising the main conclusions and recommendation drawn from the meeting will be soon available on the EMBO Science and Society Programme website.