ISGlobal Shares Research and Knowledge with the General Public During the #OpenPRBB

[This post has been written by Aleix Cabrera and Raül Torán]

At least one day per year, science changes the lab coat for casual street clothes, and the pipettes, the test tubes and other instruments abandon the laboratories to reach curious onlookers and biomedical research fans. This is what happens every Open Day, when the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB in Spanish) opens its doors to visitors and lets them become scientists for a day.

Last October 1st, the Open Day reached its ninth edition and was the first in which ISGlobal took part, although some of the researchers had already participated in previous occasions with the former Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL in Spanish).

Would you like to relive the ISGlobal route at the #OpenPRBB?

328 volunteers to make everything flow

The 23 volunteers from ISGlobal joined 305 other volunteers to inform the visitors, guide them across the building that was designed by the architects Manel Brullet and Albert de Pineda, give a scientific talk adapted to the family audience, explain the most recent research results, or coordinate workshops for children.

Your mobile, key for doing research

“Can my mobile phone help to investigate the effects of the radiations?”. It is the question that many people asked at the ISGlobal stand near the main access of the PRBB. “Yes”, was the answer that the researchers Patricia de Llobet and Albert Dalmau gave them. They then told them about the European project XMobi-Survey and explained how to download a mobile application that allows them to collaborate with the scientists.

The scientists want to know how you move

In the same way, researchers of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative encouraged the citizens to take part in the PASTA project that studies the health benefits of an active mobility (walking, riding a bike or using public transport instead of motorised vehicles). In addition, David Rojas, Ariadna Curtó and Natalia Vilor showed images of the distribution of the main air pollutants in the city and how they affect us.

50 potential microbiologists!

“Some kids had learnt the lesson by heart”, comments the researcher Elisabet Guiral as she comments the workshop “Design your own bacterium”, organised by the team of the Antibiotic Resistance Initiative at ISGlobal. And many of them could not join in, regrets her colleague Clara Ballesté, who is already thinking in the next edition. The two of them agree that this kind of experience allows them to take a breath of fresh air, and value their work and its importance for the society.

Carcinoge… Well, it produces the cancer

Some of the ISGlobal experts in cancer –Xavier Basagaña, Ariadna García, Ana Espinosa and Beatriz Jurado– held a station along the PRBB route. They tested the 160 visitors and most of them knew the answer to the question: Why is there a higher prevalence of cancer in the rich countries? “They are extremely aware of the effects of pollution”, comments Basagaña. Instead, they were surprised that the shift work could be carcinogenic and hoped that coffee was not in the list”, explain Basagaña and García. “You can relax, it’s not”.

Speaking of occupational cancer

In the afternoon, Manolis Kogevinas, head of the Cancer Programme of ISGlobal, dispelled many doubts. “Shift work affects 136,000 workers and can cause cancer” he explained during the conference entitled "Job place and cancer". One month earlier, he shared some of these conclusions at EPICOH, the major meeting on occupational health.

Toxic substances in the swimming pool?

In the next room, Laia Font talked about her research: the chlorine in the water of swimming pools reacts with other substances, such as urine, and originates toxic compounds. However, she insisted that “the health benefits of swimming outweigh the effects of these potentially toxic substances”.

Prevention, everyone’s business

180 children now know that it is necessary to be careful and follow some preventive measures in a lab. Samuel Spinal, in representation of the Human Resources team of ISGlobal, took part in this workshop together with other IMIM and PRBB members. [Photo: © PRBB / Xavier Vila]

Science in communicating vessels

Besides ISGlobal, the PRBB is home to six other research centres that also programmed talks, workshops or open labs to approach science to citizens and… to other scientists of the building! It was a real system of communicating vessels, in which they all could learn a little more of the latest scientific advances in nanoengineering or genetics, understand the potential of stem cells, or contemplate the embryonic development of the zebra fishes.

Would you like more? Then mark October 7 on the 2017 calendar, because it is the date of the next PRBB Open Day.