High school students discover the world of stem cell research

Researcher looking through microscope with image of stem cells on computer screen

High school students specializing in biology attended reNEW’s Stem Cell Day, where they got an insight into the daily life a researcher in our Copenhagen lab. They even got to handle organoids, also known as mini organs.

Around 100 high school students from three different schools were welcomed to reNEW Copenhagen on Nov 18, 2022, as part of the Stem Cell Day. This special day started off with an introductory lecture about stem cells in health and disease held by Professor Kim B. Jensen, who also is reNEW Copenhagen’s node director.

A group of high school students working in a laboratory setting with equipment used in stem cell research.The next point on the agenda was different workshops in our wet labs. There a group of reNEW postdocs, PhD fellows and master’s students, a lab technician and a sequencing and bioinformatics specialist, showed the students how to handle stem cells in a dish.

The eager to learn students were not only taught what we can do with embryonic stem cells in the lab, about the stem cells present in the body and their relevance for disease modelling and future treatments. They were also allowed to try to handle organoids and blastoids – stem cell-based embryo models – generated in our labs.

Ethical questions related to stem cells ended the day, with Professor Klaus Hoeyer holding a though-provoking lecture entitled “Stem cells, what do you do as a patient?” Professor Hoeyer is part of reNEW’s PREPARE theme, which focuses on bridging the gap between research, the clinical, regulatory and commercial sectors, and the general public.

reNEW plans to hold a Stem Cell Day every year.

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