Five students from local Oxfordshire and Warwickshire schools spent a week shadowing researchers at Ludwig Oxford to experience what life is like in a research laboratory.
They had the opportunity to look at fluorescent zebrafish embryos using a confocal microscope and learnt about the study of immune cells using protein detection techniques such as Western blotting and fluorescence-activated cell sorting.
The students also got to try their hands at fundamental molecular biology methods to amplify DNA by transforming DNA into bacteria, allowing the bacteria to grow and replicate the DNA, performing a DNA extraction and visualising the purified DNA on an agarose gel.
Zebrafish embryo with red and green fluorescently labelled white blood cells (illustrative only)
We really appreciate the time everyone has taken to accommodate us and to teach us more about their research. It has certainly helped us to understand more about what we would like to pursue in the future. - Work experience students 2019
Thank you to the Ludwig Oxford volunteers Joe Chadwick, Martin Cusack, Sarah De Val, Lucija Fleisinger, Sophie Kirschner, Richard Lisle, Stan Ng, Svanhild Nornes, Chan Phetsouphanh, Alex Royer and Mirvat Surakhy.