At the cutting edge . . .

Five Year 12 biologists had the opportunity to visit the Babraham Institute earlier this term They participated in some lab work, spoke to research scientists and listened to a careers talk Below, Layan (12WG) has written about the project in which she participated

“Our group was involved in imaging using an advanced scanning electron microscope (SEM) to obtain highly magnified and resolved images of our various samples, in order to contrast the different structures and characteristics of each one of them

“Our first experiment revolved around dehydrating our eyebrow hair sample and placing it in a vial filled with acetone for 10 minutes to get rid of water and volatile greases

“During that time, we began preparing our samples for our second experiment, which focused on comparing three different types of masks (fabric, surgical, and FFP2) to assess their effectiveness in protecting us from microscopic viruses similar in size to Covid-19

“After the hair samples were dehydrated, we began gathering both our samples and mounting them on a carbon dot on an aluminium sample pin (this makes the sample electrically conductive) to be transferred to the sputter coater where we were talked through how it works

“After a couple of minutes, it was ensured that the samples were ready to be transferred to the SEM for imaging when seeing a layer of platinum deposited at the top of our samples

“We had a great opportunity to capture images under an SEM ourselves and to adjust the magnification, brightness, and contrast of the images using these highly advanced technologies ”

Alan (12RA) worked on a different project and said:

“The trip was very interesting and beneficial as it added provided a lot of information and an insight in the type of work being undertaken in a branch of life sciences that may be of interest as a future career

“We also got valuable information about the necessary requirements and challenges faced during the work

“We undertook the task of molecular cloning, which also included the cutting and pasting of DNA

“We were familiar with the concepts of DNA and the genome, therefore this activity was greatly inspiring “The gene that was studied was called Bim, which is thought to be involved in cell signalling and instructing cell death

“Cell signalling was another familiar area as it plays a key role in the study of biological membranes, which we were learning about ”

THE FINAL CHALLENGE: Students created posters to present their findings to expert scientists