Isolating DNA and observing glowing molecules and active vorticellas
For this year’s Girls’ Day, 18 girls aged 11 to 16 spent a day at the Signalhaus in Freiburg to learn about signalling research at BIOSS
“Did you see that? It jumped!” In Prof. Dr. Michael Reth’s laboratory, six girls are looking at a computer screen, mesmerized. Sarah Keim is showing them what a vorticella in a hay infusion looks like under a microscope. The tiny organism extends its long stalk and contracts it slowly. They continue to watch the screen as it feeds. These single-cell organisms were not the only cells or animals that these girls encountered on Girls’ Day at BIOSS. The young participants also joined Dr. Nicole Gensch in the BIOSS Toolbox and visited the research group of Jun.-Prof. Dr. Max Ulbrich in addition to meeting with Dr. Marco Cavallari, who is also part of Prof. Dr. Michael Reth’s research group.
The goal of Girls’ Day is to inspire young women to explore technical training or studies in the fields of IT, trade, natural sciences, engineering, and technology. Many businesses, technical departments, and universities in all of Germany open their doors to girls in the fifth grade and up in the hopes of encouraging young women to think about a future in science. The BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies participated this year for the sixth time, offering different stations to be visited in turn by the three groups of girls who had come to learn about biological signalling.
Back in Prof. Dr. Reth’s lab, Marco Cavallari showed the girls another hay infusion along with human B cells, which are an important part of our immune system. The girls also got to see first-hand what typical laboratory work is like. For example, they tried their hands at pipetting, transferring human cells within a culture medium from a growing container into a little tube, and separating cells from fluid in a centrifuge. They also learned how to tell a dead cell from a living one.
In Max Ulbrich’s laboratory, amphibians were the stars of the show. “I love frogs!” exclaimed one future researcher, observing the animals in their terrariums. A few minutes later, the girls were looking at frogs’ eggs under the microscope. Then, they took an even deeper look at the molecular level, observing glowing molecules in a frog’s egg cell under the fluorescence microscope before Max Ulbrich showed them how fluorescence is created with laser beams.
In the next station, the BIOSS Toolbox, the girls learned how to isolate the DNA of strawberries and bacteria. They also tried out important working techniques and gained some hands-on experience. They minced the strawberries, dissolved the cell membranes with isolation buffers, then they heated and filtered the mixture, before finally adding alcohol to render the DNA visible. At the end of the session, the girls got to look at bacteria under UV light, amazed that the bacteria made the BIOSS logo glow.
So, what did the girls think? “Working in the lab was cool”, said Caroline, who is 16 years old. Although the girls may not know yet what they want to be when they grow up, this Girls’ Day could turn out to be the first day in a lab for one or two future signalling researchers.