Apr 2020 blog ABE Workshop for NIBRT Transition Year Programme Participants

We were delighted to work with our partners in the National Institute of Biotechnology Research & Training (NIBRT) to facilitate a visit to the ABE Ireland site in University College Dublin by 6 pupils on the 2020 NIBRT Transition Year programme. 

The 6 pupils who hailed from across Ireland dropped in the Kilty outreach suite in UCD O’Brien Centre for Science first where we delivered a condensed workshop (Lab 1 & 1a: micropipetting). With their micropipetting skills already en-pointe after a few days at NIBRT, they were quickly up for our new ‘picture in a 96 well plate’ challenge! And they thought that their classmates would love this activity. Thumbs up!

We then brought them across for a tour of the centre of ABE Ireland site operations; Ann-Marie’s laboratory bench in Systems Biology Ireland. Ann-Marie had prepared and ran samples from Lab 2 DNA profiling, Lab 3 DNA restriction, and Lab 4 DNA ligation and talked through the theory of the labs with the students. Earlier that week, the students had learned about the theory behind tissue culture and scale-up in NIBRT so this really resonated with them. The group were then given a tour of the tissue culture laboratory of Dr David Gomez (cancer biology, precision medicine) in Systems Biology Ireland.