We’re thrilled to announce that preparations for the second Biomedical Science Research and Training Centre (BioRTC) Summer School are in full swing. The summer school, scheduled from August 17th to 30th, 2023, is focused on Bioimaging and Open Hardware principles.
This intensive course will run from Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 8 PM. Mornings are dedicated to lectures and discussions, afternoons and evenings to hands-on experiments, and each day concludes with a review of the day’s successes and challenges.
A highlight of the summer school is the UC2 workshop, where all students will participate in building a light sheet microscope. UC2 is a highly flexible, modular Open Hardware solution that allows for the assembly of a high-resolution microscope from basic low-cost building blocks.
In addition to the UC2 workshop, students will engage in separate projects with a strong focus on Open Hardware and Bioimaging. These will include conducting immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy experiments on tissue culture samples treated with amyloidogenic proteins, tracing the visual system in lizards, and studying Drosophila behaviour along with its cellular and molecular correlates. These activities will be facilitated by our local and international faculty from Nigeria, the UK, France, the USA, and Germany.
We received applications from scientists of diverse disciplines, career stages, and genders. From this pool, we selected 20 students from Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, and The Gambia. Approximately 66% of the applicants were male and 34% were female. To promote gender balance, we ensured our selection comprised approximately 60% male and 40% female participants.
Here’s what some of our past participants had to say about their experience:
“The selflessness and passion of the tutors is inspiring!”
“We had a group of patient, organized, professional and experienced tutors.”
“The organization and energy put in by all the team to ensure it was successful was impressive.”
The summer school is generously funded by the Yobe State Government, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the International Society of Neurochemistry, University of Sussex Neuroscience, and TReND in Africa.
We eagerly anticipate the summer school and the exchange of knowledge and collaboration it will foster among mentors and participants. We believe that this event will contribute significantly to the growth of scientific research in Africa, providing participants with valuable skills and knowledge in bioimaging and open hardware principles, and fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment.
Stay tuned for more updates as we approach the event!