Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology

Public Engagement -The Fabric of Life

Edinburgh College students visit WCB.

Group photo of the visiting students and their tutors at the Centre

15 students from the Fashion and Textiles course at Edinburgh College and 2 of their tutors visited our Centre as part of the ScotPEN Wellcome Engagement Award (SWEA) funded project, ‘The Fabric of Life’. Atlanta (Cook lab), Julie (Welburn Lab), Alison Pidoux (Allshire lab), as well as Dave Kelly and Toni McHugh (COIL) joined Sarah-Jane Judge and Maria Fanourgiaki (PE team) to welcome them and take them on an engaging tour of the Centre. The students and their tutors visited the Cook Lab, EPPF, and COIL where they had the opportunity to look through a fluorescent microscope and try the VR goggles. They looked at yeast colonies and found out more about Alison’s work. They also talked to Julie about her research and were shown the glass art made by researchers in the Centre. We then all had lovely informal conversations over lunch. Everyone involved said they really enjoyed the visit, and most of the students left with transfer cell biology tattoos on their arms!

We have been working with those students to take inspiration from cell biology research images to create innovative and engaging textile designs. We hope the Centre visit was inspirational and look forward to seeing their final designs.

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Public engagement