Head's Newsletter 3 March 2017

VISIT TO ROYAL HOLLOWAY UNIVERSITY

On 24 th February, 13 Year 12 students attended an immersion day at Royal Holloway University of London in celebration of Rare Disease Day. The day is used to bring awareness to the number of rare genetic diseases that have been discovered to date, but also to those that have not yet been discovered. Many charities use the day to raise awareness, but to also fundraise for research, which is vital for the progression of knowledge and understanding of these diseases, as well as medical advances.

inheritance and some lab techniques to determine the genotype of offspring from parents with specific rare diseases.

After lunch, the students went round a carousel of university life information, specifically about Royal Holloway, but there was also information about Biology based degrees. The final task of the day was aptly named “DNA Detectives”. The students were given fact files about certain diseases and patient symptoms, and then had to match the patient to fact file. The Tiffin students worked very well in their groups, and both groups scored 10/10. They all thoroughly enjoyed their prize of a bag of Haribo on the minibus drive back to school!

The day started with a series of lectures from Dr Rafael Yàñez-Muñoz (Reader in Advanced Therapy), and Dr Alberto Malerba (Project manager for Ocularpharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy), as well as talks from both the SWAN UK and Action for A-T foundations. These not only informed the students of the research that is currently happening, but also enlightened them to the symptoms and prognosis for some of the diseases that are known. We then moved onto a practical session in one of Royal Holloway's biomedical labs, where the students used their knowledge of X-linked disease