The Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona inaugurates the Teaching & Training Lab
The new space will serve to bring CRG research closer to society encourage careers in science and training in the latest research techniques.
By Biocat
The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) opened yesterday its Teaching & Training Lab in Barcelona and occupies more than 100m2 and its objective is to train new researchers, recycle science teachers and spark an interest in science among young people. According to the CRG director, Luis Serrano "it is a decisive step we had to take. We had to share with society our findings and our passion for research."
It started with a meeting between CRG researchers and a group of high school students who were able to participate actively in the study of p63 protein, associated with cellular aging and cancer, and a talk with research leaders Fàtima Gebauer and Matthieu Louis. These students had the opportunity to ask them all kinds of questions: Why do they study flies? What led them to research? Did they find it hard to get here? Matthieu Louis confessed that "the best thing about being scientist is to find answers to these questions. Science generates ideas and knowledge, and creativity plays a very important role. You feel almost like an artist.”
Fátima Gebauer did not hesitate to insist on "the importance of making science accessible to everyone to break the stereotype of the mad scientist isolated in a laboratory." In this sense, Jana Peña, one of the students who participated in the inauguration, said that "the idea that I had of a laboratory has changed know. I imagined something more closed, smaller and older."
Much of the equipment for the new Teaching & Training Lab has been donated selflessly by companies related to research as Eppendorf, Life Technologies, BIO-RAD, Werfen Group, Grup Taper, Gilson, Nirco and Biogen Científica.
Dissemination activities at the CRG
The programme Science and Society brings together all of the science outreach activities organized by the CRG. All these activities are free and designed for students, teachers and the general public. The new Teaching & Training Lab will increase the offer of workshops for schools.
Training activities for scientists
The series Courses@CRG is a training initiative in new research techniques to complement the centre’s educational offer The main beneficiaries are doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and laboratory technicians. Most of these courses are also available to people from outside the company. The courses are taught by both heads of technical services unit of the CRG as by international specialists.