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 On Sunday 23rd November 2008 the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine – in collaboration with SCI-FUN and the new Fusion team – hosted a Stem Cells Family Day event at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, as a prelude to the MRC CRM's Launch Symposium, held on 24th November (also at ODE).
This free event – held in the Ozone function space in the ODE entry hall – was open to the public (of all ages), and was an introduction to some of the current work being undertaken in stem cell research.
Events and exhibits included the following:
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stem cell and life science hands-on exhibits and presentations were on display (photographs of some of the exhibits are shown below);
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a "meet the scientist" session, in which Dr Ron McKay – from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Bethesda, USA – discussed his work and took questions from the audience;
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the announcement of the winners of the Stem Cell poster competition, and the display of all of the finalists' posters;
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screening of the award-winning 19 minute film, "A Stem Cell Story" (the film is available online here);
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a mini-lab, giving visitors a chance to try out some of their laboratory skills, with the following tasks:
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using an ultrasound scanner to identify the contents of pre-loaded boxes (a variety of shapes and figures were embedded in opaque gel);
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a microscope and flasks of stem cells – embryoid bodies, cardiomyocytes and undifferentiated stem cells – giving the lab "assistants" an opportunity to see stem cells "in the flesh";
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a simulated drug screening exercise (adding weak acid to phenol red solution, which changed colour);
- loading agarose gel wells with coloured dye using real lab pipettes: this was a representation of how DNA and RNA are actually analysed in the lab.
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