At the IIBM, the Science and Technology Week 2023 (SCT2023) has been celebrated with great success. Seven activities were offered between November 2 and 17 including three visits to the IIBM, a scientific workshop and three conferences. As last year, all initiatives were fully booked and dozens of schools were placed on the waiting list.
The research community and the technical staff of the IIBM have devoted these 2 weeks to offer our scientific knowledge to the non-specialized public, both to young students and adults. Once again the IIBM has shown its commitment to scientific dissemination so that society acquires scientific culture and is better prepared to face the challenges of a world in continuous change.
The first of the scientific tours was carried out by the group Mitochondrial Function in Health and Disease. Dr. María Monsalve and pre-doctoral students Laura Doblado Bueno and Manuela Hidalgo López showed 25 students from the CEAC Instituto CEAC de Formación Profesional de Madrid (Higher Degree of Clinical and Biomedical Laboratory Technician) how the day-to-day life in a biomedical research laboratory is carried out; then, the laboratory and some rooms of the IIBM were visited.
The activity coordinated by Teresa Navarro from the Sebastián Cerdán Biomedical MRI Service and Mónica Martín Belinchón from the Optical and Confocal Microscopy Service called "Bioimaging techniques in biomedical research" was the most requested proposal. The center selected to attend was the Instituto de Formación Profesional MEDAC of Fuenlabrada (27 students of the second module of Pathological Anatomy and Cytodiagnosis). Alba Tornero, former pre-doctoral student of the IIBM in Dr. Ricardo Escalante's group, was the teacher in charge of this group of students. Nuria Arias Ramos and Raquel González Alday, from the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Imaging group, led by Dr. Pilar López-Larrubia, also participated in this scientific route.
Thirty students of the Higher Degree in Prosthetic Audiology of the European University attended the scientific route: "Researchers for a day in hearing and hearing loss", coordinated by Silvia Murillo-Cuesta from the Non Invasive Neurofunctional Evaluation Service. Sandra Franco-Caspueñas, Ángela García Mato and Elena Torres Campos from the Auditory Neuropathology and Myelinopathies Group, as well as Mónica Martín Belinchón also participated in this activity.
Ángela Martínez-Valverde and Patricia Rada from the Physiopathology and Molecular Mechanisms of Obesity and Co-Morbidities group gave a presentation entitled: "The exciting day-to-day research on obesity and its complications: the different stages of the research career". This activity was attended by about 80 students from three different centers that offer Grado Superior de Formación Profesional. These centers were: the IES Leonardo Da Vinci (Aluche), the Escuela Profesional Superior de Madrid and the MEDAC center (Alcorcón). After the lecture, the students had the opportunity to visit the IIBM (in groups of 10 to 12), thanks to the collaboration of Ángela Montes and Belén Peral. They also experienced a laboratory with Mercedes Mirasierra and Víctor Ruíz, who kindly offered to explain to the students "what happens in a laboratory”.
he scientific workshop: "The Dicty amoeba helps us to study rare diseases" was coordinated by Ricardo Escalante and Laura Antón from the group Enfermedades Asociadas a Autofagia. Numerous educational centers requested this workshop. The group of 13 students of 1st International Baccalaureate of Science from IES Atenea de San Sebastián de los Reyes were the lucky ones to participate in this activity.
Isabel Lastres-Becker, full professor at UAM and director of the group Parkinson, ALS and Tautopathies: New Perspectives gave two different lectures on different afternoons: "Does Alzheimer's disease have a cure?" and "Parkinson's disease, what do we know about it? new perspectives of therapies". These lectures were attended by both adult audiences and undergraduate and graduate students from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Complutense University of Madrid. Thirty-four students and two professors of the Technical Degree in Auxiliary Nursing Care from the María Inmaculada center in Madrid came to listen to the seminar on Parkinson's disease. This school visited us last year to listen to the presentation on Alzheimer's disease.
The IIBM thanks all IIBM members who have coordinated and participated in the seven activities of SCT2023 and congratulates them for the passion, enthusiasm and commitment they have demonstrated in the preparation of each and every one of the activities.