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British Science Festival 2019

From 10 -13 September 2019 the University of Warwick was host to the British Science Festival, with over 100 talks, activities and performances. 50 of our own staff took part, including QBP’s very own Professor Andrew McAinsh who channelled his inner Tolkien with his talk “One Cell to Rule Them All”. Visitors left with a greater understanding of how the complexities involved in how cells replicate and divide could be the crux in understanding a multitude of diseases and genetic disorders.

Professor Lawrence Young took part in a panel discussion about breast cancer breakthroughs and the important research and progress that is being made in this area.

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periodic table 2

Other academics whose projects the QBP helped fund were also presenting at the festival. Dr Cinzia Imberti, along with Prof. Peter Sadler from the department of Chemistry and Sir Martyn Poliakoff from the University of Nottingham, gave a talk on the rich and varied history of the periodic table of elements to celebrate its 150th year.

Dr Helena Tuomainen alongside Prof. Swaran Singh, both from WMS, discussed how they are working with young people, carers and health professionals across Europe to help manage the transition from child to adult mental healthcare. They present the results from their 5 year research project, milestone. Find out more about their project here.

Dr Deepak Paraswar and Prof. Siobhan Quenby talked about “the Maths of Personalised Medicine” and how combining maths, artificial intelligence and results of clinical trials can help to find novel solutions for personalised treatments for those who have suffered from miscarriage or from cancer.

Family Day - 14th September 2019

Children looking down microscope close up of a LEGO DNA group at the DNA stand boy watching DNA extraction

Warwick hosted an extra-special Family Day to celebrate the end of the British Science Festival week. QBP researchers were in the Occulus with a variety of interactive and engaging activities for visitors. Dr Claire Garcin organised a, extremely popular, stand where visitors could build DNA out of LEGO whilst learning about the structure and function of DNA.

Fruit flies proved to be a big hit as children and adults alike were fascinated to look down the microscopes and, guided by Aparna Ratheesh, try to spot the different genetic mutations the flies were displaying.

Visitors also got the chance to extract their own DNA from their saliva. Filipe Fernandes Duarte and Laura Usselmann performed over 120 DNA extractions in the one day. Visitors loved being able to take their DNA home, with several children apparently planning on cloning themselves!