IGMM welcomes the public inside for Doors Open Day

The MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine opened its doors to the public for its fourth Doors Open Day last month, hosting almost 200 visitors: October 2019

Taking place on Saturday 28 September 2019, this year’s event was a great success thanks to the dozens of engaging and enthusiastic volunteers from across the Institute and its strategic partners - the MRC Human Genetics Unit, the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre and the Centre for Genomic & Experimental Medicine.

Visitors of all ages enjoyed building tours and found themselves crawling inside a giant cell, targeting a lung with handmade gene therapies, diving into an immunology ball pool, and becoming ‘Big Data Detectives’.

Researchers presented to visitors, giving an insight into the lives of scientists at various stages of their careers. As well as listening to ‘Ten Minute Talks’, members of the public attended panel sessions about the big data revolution in healthcare and the use of animals in research which stimulated keen questions and discussions.

Visitors also observed video presentations under the themes of Generation Scotland Biobanks, PhD students, cancer research, diabetes research, patient engagement and secondary school engagement.

Comments and feedback from visitors showed that they left inspired by biomedical research.

The work the researchers are doing is amazing! Please tell them a big thank you from me for everything they are doing! They are superstars!

Very informative, everyone was very helpful. This has helped me with planning my career path.

Doors Open Days is coordinated nationally by the Scottish Civic Trust and in Edinburgh by the Cockburn Association. It runs throughout Scotland every September as part of European Heritage Days. For more information visit www.doorsopendays.org.uk

I think it was a good day because there was literally something for everyone, from all ages and all academic backgrounds. It was especially lovely to see how many small children visited to find out more about science and research. It’s such a great idea for IGMM to be part of Doors Open Day. It gave the public a chance to see what goes on in the ‘big glass building at the hospital’.