Submitted by D.P. Juan on Fri, 05/04/2024 - 09:31
Last week, we hosted the last event for the 2024 Young Pharmas cohort. We hosted 16 sixth-form students from the following local colleges:
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Hills Road Sixth Form College
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Long Road Sixth Form College
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The Oaks/Netherhall
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Comberton Village College
The Young Pharmas programme aims to introduce A-level pupils to University-led scientific research. Students engaged in four events hosted at the Department and Corpus Christi College. We thank our volunteers: Paul Miller, Ollie King, Sulin Liu, Caroline Wyatt, Stephanie Nestorow, Andrzej Harris, Melissa Irvine, Vasiliki Mavridou, Janet Kumia, and Jose Gonzalez-Prada.
At the Department, we ran two rotations and a masterclass.
Rotation 1 covered Precision and Accuracy. This rotation taught students the important lesson of quantitative and reliable measurements. This involved measuring the reliability of pipettes and related equipment. Students recorded this information in a lab notebook, emphasising the importance of recordkeeping.
Rotation 2 covered protein assays, in the context of measuring how many proteins are in a cell. Students counted the number of HEK 293, collected cell lysates via freeze-thaw lysis and counted proteins via Qubit quantification. Students calculated the number of cells per ml, protein concentration in micrograms/ml, total protein in a cell, average mass of a protein, calculated average mass of a typical protein molecule, and the number of proteins in a cell.
In the Masterclass, students learnt techniques Pharmacologists use to understand the mechanism of drug actions. The masterclass aimed to highlight how understanding drug actions can lead to the development of better drugs. During the Masterclass, students performed two practicals: A virus-infection practical, where antibody-type drugs are used to show how blocking interactions can be used as a treatment, and a heart practical, where small molecule drugs are demonstrated and their mechanism of action is illustrated.
Finally, to conclude the programme, students were invited to a poster and talk session at Corpus Christi. This session aimed to give students a taste of poster presentations - an aspect of research that is crucial for communicating the work done in academic laboratories. We also hosted Dr. Della David from the Babraham Institute, who gave an in-depth talk on "Research into Healthy Ageing".
All students were given a certificate to commemorate their work, plus a gift card was awarded to the poster presentation winner.
