Glasgow Science Festival
Published: 22 June 2018
Researchers, students and technicians from the Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation were involved in a wide range of events at Glasgow Science Festival, which ran from 7-17 June this year.
Researchers, students and technicians from the Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation were involved in a wide range of events at Glasgow Science Festival, which ran from 7-17 June this year:
Microbiology Disease Detectives
Dr Tansy Hammarton, with assistance from students, researchers and technicians from across the MVLS, hosted pupils from Larbert High, Stewarton Academy, Dollar Academy St Benedict’s High School for a hands-on diagnostics lab exploring bacterial and parasitic infectious diseases.
Pupils had to diagnose a 'patient' by analysing their medical history and performing microscopic and biochemical tests on mock blood or stool samples.
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The Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology (WCMP) ran two events at ‘Science Sunday’ at this year’s Science Festival.
Visitors could have their very own (temporary) parasite tattoo based on images from the range of WCMP comics, or could ‘make their own microbe’ with colleagues from 3Is and from the parasitology diagnostic lab based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
The group were able to engage with children of all ages about the global importance of parasitic diseases, and the tattoos proved to be especially popular with children and adults alike.
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Researchers from the Centre for Virus Research (CVR) were also busy at Science Sunday, with a range activities for all ages, including a Zika snakes & ladders game and a Lego bioinformatics activity where participants had to try and align sequencing reads for the influenza virus.
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Family events at Kinning Park Complex
Caitlin McManus from the Maizels Lab and Alice Lacombe from the Sheiner Lab, along with students from across the MVLS and Science and Engineering, organised a family fun day at Kinning Park Complex.
Super-humans Vs Super-invaders asked what happens when baddies and beasties invade your body? Visitors discovered the superheroes in your blood that keep you healthy, got sticky with snot-tastic science and made their own germs to take home.
First published: 22 June 2018