Golsana Haghdousti from the Tuschl Lab has been working with the Access and Widening team at UCL and has designed a 6-week course for Y12 students as part of UCL expand project. This page explains her topic: Fin-tastic Creatures - Exploring the Uses of Zebrafish in Human Research.
We had 10 fantastic students visit the Fish Floor for a week to learn about our research and the life of a scientist first hand. In addition to gaining insight into the theory behind our research and experimental methodologies, the students got to perform their own experiments. Over the course of the week they learned classic molecular biology methods, immunohistochemistry, RNA in situ hybridisation and confocal microscopy. They also had the chance to see our cutting-edge behaviour assays used in our research into sleep and visual hunting behaviours and talk to the experts about their application.
Despite the novelty and complexity of the theoretical concepts we covered, the students’ presentations at the end of their placement demonstrated their ability to not only understand these concepts but also to place their own findings into the greater context of our research questions. We always love hearing these presentations and find them very inspiring.
A key part of the Zebrafish Academy is our mentorship programme. Each student is paired with a researcher. This gives them the chance to engage one-to-one with a scientist, to discuss their career aspirations and get targetted advice on their future academic path.
We received excellent feedback from this years cohort. We wish them every success in their future studies.
A big thank you to all of the Fish Floor Researchers whose time and expertise make this placement possible. We love inspiring the scientists of the future and sharing our love of all things zebrafish!
Autumn Halfterm: 23th-27th October 10:00-16:00
The application window for the 2023 Zebrafish Academy work experience program is the 6 - 26th February.
You can read more about the Zebrafish Academy here.
Kate from the Wilson Lab visited Year 3 at St Mary’s CofE Primary School in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria. We watched lots of cool videos about zebrafish development and talked about why being a scientist is a fun job. The students were very enthusiastic and had tons of interesting questions.
This October the Zebrafish Labs were very happy to be able to restart the Zebrafish Academy, after being forced to postpone it during the pandemic. We invited eight excellent A-level students into the Zebrafish Lab to learn about the many different strands of research at UCL that use Danio rerio as an animal model.
The weeklong programme involved hands on practical work ranging from microinjections to gene detection expression methods such as in situ hybridisation. Along the way, the students learnt about developmental biology, genetics and transgenesis, and the biology around behaviours such as sleep, hunting and sociality. They liked experiencing a research lab environment and looked very comfortable in it, taking to using the microscopes and pipettes with confidence. They worked well as teams to successfully complete the practical protocols and analyse the results.
We also continued our mentoring programme that we launched in 2019. This programme gives the students an opportunity for a more in-depth discussion and greater insight into life as a scientist and the next steps after their A-levels.
Finally, the Academy members presented their work and their experiences during the week to members of the Zebrafish Lab in very inventive and entertaining ways, with excellent quizzes, drawings and surprise reveals!
We really enjoyed hosting our Zebrafish Academy and were glad to have an enthusiastic and inquisitive cohort this year. We wish them all the best in their exams and good luck for their future careers!To learn more about our Zebrafish Academy click on the button below.
In 2019 the Zebrafish Lab had the pleasure to host 8 A-Level students for a period of one week, from 21st until 25th October. For many of our students, this was their first time in a research lab, so we made sure students received enough training and felt confident before they started with some hands-on experience. Students picked up the basic laboratory techniques very quickly. Once they were confident, we started delving deeper into the science behind our research and started the actual lab experiments. We were really happy to see how quickly the students picked up difficult concepts and how confident they grew in the lab during the course of the week. The students had the opportunity to learn and get hands-on research experience using many different techniques, such as traditional Molecular Biology methods, RNA in situ hybridisation and confocal microscopy. They also had the chance to see our cutting-edge behaviour assays and talk with our experts about their research. Despite being familiar with some of the theoretical concepts we were teaching, the majority of the students said they lacked in-depth knowledge on the subjects discussed. Nevertheless, on the final day, their presentations demonstrated their ability to grasp even complicated concepts and to place their work in the greater context of our research questions.
In 2019, we also launched a new mentorship programme, where we paired each student with a researcher in a mentoring relationship for the course of the week. This offered the opportunity for the students to engage one-to-one with a scientist, to discuss their careers goals and gather advise on academic paths. This initiative was extraordinarily well received, by students and mentors alike, and is one part of the programme we will continue in the following years.
All in all, our 2019 cohort was enthusiastic and a pleasure to interact with and supervise, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves, too, and worked extremely well together. We wish them all the luck in their future endeavours!
Laura did a promo video for the Physiological Society to encourage early career researchers to present at academic conferences (twitter.com/ThePhySoc/status/1105810611525640192?s=01).
Paul did an outreach event with Year 8 students at the Archer Academy in London talking about cancer related zebrafish research.
The Wilson and Bianco labs hosted 10 A-level students for a week beginning 22nd October 2018. Following introductory talks, each student was given the opportunity to perform their own experiments. Using immunohistochemistry or in situ hybridisation, staining methods to visualise protein or messenger RNA respectively, they characterised the expression of specific genes key to left/right asymmetry in forebrain development. This was followed by guided confocal microscopy sessions to fully appreciate the results of their experiments. At the same time, students were also challenged with performing a molecular biology technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to assess changes to the DNA sequence of mutant zebrafish embryos. They were also exposed to behavioural neuroscience approaches in a short talk, thus completing a well-rounded programme that explores genes to behaviour of brain function.
On the final day, short presentations were given by the students on what they have learned. Needless to say, the teachers for the week were very impressed by the depth of knowledge acquired in a short space of time, given the large amount of information not covered in their studies.
We wish each and every student all the best on their next academic journey!
This summer the Zebrafish Lab at UCL, in collaboration with Native Scientist (http://www.nativescientist.com/), had the opportunity to host a unique workshop for young people from the BIGKID Foundation (https://www.bigkidfoundation.org/).
In our lab we are dedicated to promoting science and critical thinking through outreach and education of young people from the most diverse backgrounds. It seemed only natural that we would partner up with Native Scientist, an award-winning non-profit organisation aimed to empower immigrant communities through science outreach.
The BIGKID Foundation is a youth charity whose goal is to mentor, motivate and inspire young people at risk of social exclusion. The Portuguese-speaking community in Lambeth is notoriously isolated and as a result few young people go on to explore careers in the field of science. The UCL Zebrafish Lab, Native Scientist and BIGKID liaised to organize a unique summer workshop, where young people from Lambeth’s Portuguese-speaking community had the chance to get an insight on what a career in science might look like.
Ana, Pedro and Renato – our Portuguese-speaking lab members – where very happy to tell our guests all about our favourite model system and to explain the big scientific questions behind the experiments we do in the lab. Our guests also had the opportunity to get some hands-on experience working with zebrafish. We had a lot of fun together! We hope their visit not only gave them an appreciation of why we love science so much, but also inspired them to further their studies in STEM subjects.
To read more about this workshop, visit: https://www.facebook.com/nativescientist1/posts/1119567221477267
Thank you to André Pereira, the outreach officer from the BIGKID foundation, for his work and help. A big thank you to Joana Moscoso and Sara Marques, from the Native Scientist team, who worked so hard making this collaboration and workshop possible. Lastly, thank you to Inês Baptista and Rita Oliveira for their contribution during the workshop.
Since the in2scienceUK project was established in 2010 we’ve hosted students in the lab on a yearly basis.
Güliz was invited to discuss her research in sleep disturbances and their implications in Alzheimer’s patients at the Wellcome Trust free lunchtime event, Packed Lunch.
This summer, the Rihel lab hosted an AS level Student, Katrina Gadsby, for a week and a half.
Back to Zebrafish UCL outreach
Native Portuguese speakers Ana and Renato organised an exciting Portuguese science session at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School in London as part of the Native Scientist program
Back to Zebrafish UCL outreach
Whilst in the lab Kara Cerveny visited the mid and upper-level science classes at the ASL to introduce students to developmental biology, evolution, and zebrafish embryology. By coordinating with the ASL teachers who arranged her visit, Kara tailored each of her visits so that students not only gain hands-on experience with zebrafish embryos but also learnt how basic scientific research is linked to the topic they were studying.
Back to Zebrafish UCL outreach
Sorting through embryos showing asymmetry in CNS and Viscera using in situ hybridisation
The last two years the Wilson lab has been hosting OpenLab sessions organised by the UCL student initiative OpenLabs. The OpenLabs events are organised to give small groups of UCL students from diverse disciplines access to cutting edge research labs at UCL. Matina Tsalavouta hosted the events almost every other fortnight from December 2011 until April 25th 2012 and from October 2012 and they have been a great success!
In just over an hour, small groups of students from a broad range of disciplines within UCL are introduced to the research undertaken by the Wilson lab and why the use of zebrafish is favoured as a model organism for developmental biology studies. By organising the events, OpenLabs "hope to give students the food for thought to reflect where to take stock in their scientific career and gain appreciation for the broad research opportunities available at UCL". Feedback from an open lab participant has been published in the UCL student publication, Pi magazine..
London international youth science Forum
From 2004 onwards, we have hosted annual visits organised by the London International Youth Science Forum. During their visit, we present talks and lab demonstrations for visiting students from over 50 countries around the world. Visit the Forums website if you are interested in participating.
Next Generation Science Programme
In 2006, we hosted students on the Next Generation Science Programme sponsored by the British Council Netherlands. This visit explored the theme "From Molecules to Behaviour" and gave both students and their teachers an opportunity to take science out of the classroom and participate in a programme of science-based activities in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at UCL. A pamphlet describing the outcome of the Programme is available here.
