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6th form students become confocal microscopists for the day

Published: 31 July 2012
students visit confocal lab

Four enthusiastic students from Peter Symonds 6th form college and their teacher Julian Foster visited the research laboratory of Dr Jessica Teeling and the Imaging Suite run by Dr Hans Schuppe at the University of Southampton on July 11th.

The students are taking part in a new project to build collaborations in life sciences research between the University and the local college. They had the opportunity to learn about research at the University on the role of inflammation in degenerative diseases and in particular about diseases of the eye. They carried out their own experiments at Peter Symonds College with guidance from Jessica and PhD student Salome Murinello. They used the technique of immunocytochemistry to label specific cell types in the retina and had the additional excitement of collecting their own images of the tissue samples they had prepared using the confocal laser scanning microscope when they visited the University.

The project is part of a larger on-going initiative to introduce new ways of exciting college students about the life sciences (ExSite; Experimental Science in the classroom) coordinated by academics in the Centre for Biological Sciences at the University at Southampton, funded in part through a Wellcome Trust Society Award (Authentic Biology).

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