In the week beginning 9 July staff and students at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the IDRM enjoyed hosting a group of year 12 students from in and around Oxfordshire who spent the week learning about various careers in biomedical research through talks, tours and hands-on lab experiences. Students were able to learn about and use equipment and techniques they don’t have access to at school, and were able to talk to research scientists about how they chose research as a career and what they do on a daily basis.
All who took part, both Oxford participants and visiting students enjoyed the week, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. One student commented, ‘I found the lab experience interesting and valuable, because it was a new experience and I learnt more about what roles different people have. I also liked the opportunity to listen to what people enjoyed about their work and how they got to that point in life.’ Another student said, ‘Being able to actually partake in lab practicals has been really great and something I didn't expect yet - being able to use equipment including centrifuges, nanodrops and even aspirators which we don't get to use in school has bene interesting and valuable as it gives an insight into what we might be doing in the future. Furthermore, being able to talk to people at different levels of academia, from undergrad to lab leaders and professors has been insightful.’
Tomoko Watanabe comments, ‘I think the people at both institutes came together and gave the students a really good overview of biomedical research. The fact the students gave really long and well thought out responses speaks volumes of how much positive impact the volunteers had on them. It really was a fun week for both sides.’
The full list of people involved is as followed:
Participants from Ludwig Institute:
Mehdipoor group: Alice Daddi and Mengjie Li
Shi group: Damayanti Chakraborty
Van den Eynde group: Vinny Pereira Almeida and Amanda Wicki
White group: Richard White, Vicky Tan and Hannah Pook
also
Richard Lisle, Sungyong Kim, Kate Dunning, Charlotte Farrow, Alina Mihalovits and Alex Royer
Participants from Paediatrics
Berrens group: Lauryn Deaville and David Michaels
Sanders group: Izzy Barraclough, Mike Griffiths and Sam Scott
Stathopoulou group: Nancy Stathopoulou, Xicen Zhang, and Catarina Ferreira
Wood group: Nina Ahlskog, Amarjit Bhomra, Yahya Jad, Christina Dongan Yan and Chelsea Larabie
Oxford Vaccine Group: Jesús Reiné
Zeiss Centre for Excellence: Kseniya Korobchevskaya
IDRM:
Facilities team: Andy Brogden, Andy Darley, Mandy Nicolle and the team
DPAG:
De Val group: Sara De Val, Svanhild Norris, Sophie Payne, Mary Stevens and Dorota Szumska-Bilska
Riley group: Paul Riley, Emma Haberman, Amie Flory, Christophe Ravaud, Sarah Sigal and Xin Sun
Simoes group: Filipa Simoes, Trishalee Gungoosingh and Tim Byatt
Also Nicola Smart
Srinivas group: Shankar Srinivas, Jonathan Godwin, Matthew Stower, Tomoko Watanabe and Karina Lo
Stone group: Oliver Stone, David Grainger and Erica Zhao
Also staff and NVS from BSU and BMS
Sustainability office: Charlotte Houghton