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Pint of Science - Sheffield 2017

27/6/2017

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Pint of Science returned to Sheffield for its second year and some of our Florey students volunteered to help run the Festival. They write here to describe and reflect upon their experiences of the festival.

What is Pint of Science (PoS)?
A non-profit organisation that hosts a three-day festival in 150 cities across the world, aiming to bring scientists and their incredible research to a pub near you!

What did we do in Sheffield?
After the inaugural appearance of it in Sheffield in 2016, PoS returned to the Steel City - but this time with more themes and speakers than before. The six themes covered a huge range of science topics, from physics to geography, computer science to sociology. More than 50 speakers shared their research and expertise, supported by many, many volunteers over three nights. Three of these volunteers were Florey students, Emily, Laia and Sophie!

​Student experiences and reflections
Emily Fisk
In 2016, I volunteered as an Event Manager for Pint of Science Sheffield, to organise one night under the theme ‘Beautiful Mind’; however this year I was one of just six Event Managers, each allocated to a different theme, which meant I was solely responsible for organising all three nights in the theme instead! This time, however, I had the joy of managing the new theme ‘Our Body’. In this role, I had a lot of organising to do, including speaker selection, volunteer management, activity designing and general event management, both ahead of and during the nights. The three events I produced were ‘Kidney Night: Urine for a Treat (sponsored by Kidney Research UK)’, which looked at the role of the kidneys and how researchers are looking for early diagnoses and alternatives to late-stage transplantations; ‘Building and Breaking Our Bodies’, which looked at protein folding, stem cells and the effects of modern living on our bodies, and how they can either cause or treat disease; and lastly ‘Alternatives to Research Requiring Rodents (sponsored by the NC3Rs)’, which described ways in which researchers are looking to reduce their use of animals, using computer modelling, organ-on-chip technologies and alternative models. We had a mix of PhD students, Professors and clinicians, giving a truly diverse range of talks and research from within Sheffield. I also hosted Florey PI Prof. Steve Renshaw, who spoke on his research using zebrafish as alternatives to mammalian models of infection - which really was a treat!
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Speakers from 'Alternatives to Research Requiring Rodents' - (left to right) Miss Kinga Kosim, Miss Sindhu Naik, Dr Enrico Dall'Ara, Prof. Steve Renshaw
My experience of the PoS Festival was pretty full-on, but it has been extremely valuable, further opening by eyes into the world of Science Communication and Event Management - potentially as something I would like to pursue in my future prospects! It has also helped me to utilise social media better for research dissemination, as I had to live tweet each night, and has introduced to me new management tools and apps which might be useful in future projects.
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Florey student, Emily (fifth from left), with her volunteers and sponsors, Kidney Research UK, from 'Kidney Night: Urine for a Treat'

Laia Pasquina
I volunteered as Event Support for all three nights of the theme Atoms to Galaxies. Each night was focused on different aspects of Physical sciences. For example, the event ‘I Ain't Afraid of no Cosmic Ghosts’ was focused on invisible astrophysics phenomenon. Prof.Ed Daw explained what Gravitational waves are and how complex it is to detect them, Prof. Matthew Malek spoke about natural universe ghosts, the neutrinos which are the lightest known particle in the universe. Between the talks some science busking was done by encouraging the public to take part in games and competitions. Plus, a 3D printer telescope was presented - you can even build it at home (via Pikon Telescope)! The second night ‘Building life’ was aimed to approach the basic components of life and chemistry to the public. The session was opened by Prof. Jim Thomas who reveal us the mysteries of chemistry and how we can differentiate left and right handed molecules, just by smelling them. By going from smelling sense to tasting, Dr. Joanna Buckley gave a very interactive talk about food chemistry and why different people taste different, we all did a group testing experiment to see what kind of tasters we were. Closing with an interesting talk from Prof. Simon Goodwin about extraterrestrial live from the probability point of view, concluding that probable we are not alone in the universe! In between the talks, the public had to craft their own Alien and they could observe some of their own skin cells using an optical microscope in real time. As my PhD is focused in microscopy techniques, I offered to run this section and it was a great experience explaining to people how a microscope works and what can we see with it. The last night ‘Death of Stars: A Dark Matter’ was focused on powerful energy sources from the universe such as Solar wind, the death of stars and Dark matter. Starting the night with Dr. Susan Cartwright, who explained to the public why a whole Galaxy is needed to create the materials (stardust) that compose this planet and ourselves. After this exciting talk, the PhD student Matthew Allcock impressed the audience by explaining that our Sun also has a weather and how a big storm of energy such as Solar wind could affect our everyday life. The event was finished with a talk from another PhD student Evangelos Kourlitis who amazed the public talking about Dark matter and how they use the Large Hadron collider to detect this mysterious of the universe. During the event a simulator of dark matter was set up for people to interact with it. As the main theme of Atoms to Galaxies was physics, we designed an Egg dropping competition. The audience had to build a protection platform to put an Egg on, and the winner was the person whose egg was not broken - or less broken than the rest! The competition was a total success involving all the audience and showing very original and well designed Egg protections. In general the experience was awesome, I think this way of approaching science to non-expert audience is effective and amusing. I would definitely recommend the experience either as a volunteer or as part of the audience.
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Microscope set-up with cells shown extracted from the audience members!
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Florey student, Laia (far right), with the rest of the Atoms to Galaxies team

​Sophie Irving

I volunteered for the ‘It’s Alive!’ night under the theme ‘Tech Me Out’, which discussed the potential robotic revolution and the challenges and opportunities this presents. First up, Prof. Tony Prescott discussed the psychology of robot friends and how they are being used to tackle the modern health issue of loneliness. Prof. James Marshall explained his work on modelling decision making by bee swarms and how his group are trying to use this to program robots to share information to reach a group conclusion. Finally, Dr Iveta Eimontaite’s talk focused on how workers interact with robots in their workplaces (also known as ‘cobots’). She reviewed how graphical signage can increase human-robot cooperation and methods to improve ‘cobot’ acceptance amongst workers.
As a ‘Science Busker’ my job was to engage the audience in little science practicals between speakers. I challenged the crowd to read out the colour of printed words but not the word itself. This proved very difficult for most, as our brains experience something called The Stroop Effect with competing information. This experiment highlighted that, whilst humans are immeasurably more advanced than current robots, for certain tasks a robot can perform much better.
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Florey student, Sophie, live-tweeting during the 'It's Alive!' event.
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Florey at KrebsFest

16/11/2015

 
Author: Roxanne Lau
 
At the beginning of the year, most of the Florey students signed up to take part in a new outreach programme as part of the exciting Krebs Festival at the University of Sheffield; a festival combining science and art to honour the life and work of Sir Hans Krebs. Our task was hopefully to inspire 11-14 year olds from various secondary schools around Sheffield and Rotherham to become the next generation of young scientists.

Based on the topic of “Hidden Warfare”, Furaha and I delivered a presentation at Maltby Academy, Rotherham, illustrating how some of our largest battles take place on a microscopic scale: firstly between microbes and the human immune system, and secondly in terms of the constant arms race that takes place between new antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We then explained how the work we do as scientific researchers could help us in the fight against our microbial enemies.
 
Taking on board everything we said, the students looked enthusiastic as they set out to create a mini film over the next six months in collaboration with local artist, Steve Pool.
 
The culmination of all their hard work was finally displayed on the evening of the 10th November in Firth Court, during the Krebs Festival Schools Night. It was exhilarating to see all the films made by the participating schools projected on a huge scale outdoors in Firth Court Quad. Also, each school gave a short presentation about their film to a panel of judges as part of a competition.
 
Meanwhile, we also had a chance to look around at the fantastic public engagement that took place in Firth Hall.
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​Ice cream was instantly frozen using liquid nitrogen and served up.
Watch our very own Simon Johnston and Simon Foster attempt the precarious walk on custard, a non-Newtonian fluid.
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​The giant inflatable structure of E. coli, designed by artist Luke Jerram, can be seen suspended over Firth Hall. At 28 metres long, it is over 10 million times the size of real E. coli bacteria.
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​Equally spectacular was the massive origami model of Green Fluorescent Protein, taking an impressive 7 weeks in total to build. Artist, Seiko Kinoshita, was on hand that night to show us how she made each building block by precisely folding pieces of paper into 3D shapes.
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​The night ended with the announcement of the awards and Furaha and I were extremely delighted and proud to hear that our school, Maltby Academy, won the prize for the best presentation.
 
All in all, KrebsFest was definitely a success!
​
The other outreach projects by Florey students at KrebsFest
"Horizontal gene transfer" by Daria (and Rebecca Hodges) : Hope Valley College
"Anyfin is possible" by Ben and Kyle : Meadowhead School
"Bacteria: Friend or Foe?"
​ by Chloe and Emily : St Mary's Catholic High School

Our Florey Symposium 2015

9/10/2015

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Author: Emily Fisk
​
This time last month, the Florey student cohort were still on a high after organising a second successful symposium; but an event like that doesn’t spontaneously occur and we had been planning for months ahead!
Here is a brief account of the run-up to the day, the skills we required and a reflection of the experience (including photos of the day).

6 months to go…(Apr 2015)
Working in a multidisciplinary team can often throw its challenges in your path and one of the first hurdles we faced was finding a date. This had to suit not only the students, but our supervisors and scientific community we hoped to target. We quickly learnt to appreciate the commitments of everyone involved, from clinicians, to research technicians, to family and friends wanting to see our work. We also found that July-September was peak conference season, so we needed to avoid any major clashes; our original date was the same as the Staph-GBI conference – not ideal! We eventually accepted that it’s often hard to accommodate for everyone, so opted for our most popular date and booked the venue.

4 months to go…(June 2015)
With nine Florey students organising the day, and a multitude of names thrown at us from our supervisors, picking our invited speakers was tough. There were just so many researchers we wanted to invite! It was also important to us that we balanced the day with early career researcher presentations; as a student-led event, we wanted to hear about the work of other students and post-docs, with a view to sharing ideas, techniques and promoting collaborations. We contacted our top four invited speakers, ensuring we had a balance of topics, and got to work with publicity and advertising our event; we branded the symposium, created suitable advertisements and sent out the call for abstracts. At this point, we also created our Twitter account (@floreyinstitute), in order to reach out to audiences not typically associated with our targeted academic institutions. This was a whole new area for many of us, as we had not been involved in UoS publicity or external communications before.
The student cohort also had to form a budget. We were funded £1000 from the University of Sheffield, with any other financial requirements having to be sorted by us. It was at this point that we reached out to scientific companies and representatives for sponsorship of the event. Luckily, a few of us had attend sponsored coffee mornings in our departments in preparation for this, so already had a couple of contacts and networks to hand.

1 month to go…(Aug 2015)
The abstract deadline had now passed and we were collectively faced with another decision: who should we chose to present from the submitted abstracts? We wanted to focus our event on host-pathogen interactions and the techniques used to study them, not just on Streptococcal or Staphylococcal studies. Therefore we looked for a balance of topics, to promote a wider range of research, and contacted everyone who had submitted to allocate either a oral or poster presentation.
This was also the time to sort out all the odds and ends, like name badges, poster boards, food requirements, prizes and so on, which required a lot of team communication, regular meetings and a push from all members to get us through the final stretch.

1 week to go….
This was a time for minor panic and building of nerves: with a week to go, everything had to be finalised and ready for the day. Once more, this required a network of people to help bring everything together: we worked together as a team on our opening presentation, with the caterers to discuss dietary requirements, with sponsors to arrange their input and access to the day (including Sponsor Bingo!) and also with the University porters who were to help us arrange the hall and equipment.
 
1 day to go….
Nerves had truly set in by this point as all the hard work from the past 6 months were culminating in this day. But with plenty of preparation and hard work, we were ready to take it on!
​Here are some photos from during the event:
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Clockwise from top left: Our venue Firth Hall, the sponsors setting up before registration begins, Chloe sitting ready at the registration desk, a final run-through of the Florey student welcome presentation.
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Our invited speakers (clockwise from top left): Dr. Joan Geoghegan, Prof. Stephen Curry, Prof. Tim Mitchell and Dr. András Spaan.
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Clockwise from top: Attendees enjoying coffee and posters during our morning break, attendees chatting to our sponsors and playing Sponsor Bingo during lunch, our sponsors grabbing an early lunch before the break!
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Our sponsors (clockwise from top left): Paul from Promega, Chris from New England Biolabs, Mark from Stratech and Steve from Sarstedt.
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The Florey student cohort with our invited speakers. Left to right: Kyle, Furaha, Roxanne, Chloe, Prof Stephen Curry, Emily, April, Prof Tim Mitchell, Ben, Dr Joan Geoghegan, Dr András Spaan.
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Clockwise from top left: Apoorva and Magdalena with their 1st Prize vouchers, Florey student Emily handing Ewan his Prize for Sponsor Bingo, Florey student Chloe awarding Claudia 2nd Prize for Oral presentation, Florey student Emily handing Khondoker 2nd Prize for Poster Competition.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the day, and would also like to say a massive well done to all our prize winners.
People's Choice Poster Prize​:
1st Place - Magdalena Widziolek (Jagiellonian University)
2nd Place -  Dr. Khondoker Akram (University of Sheffield)

Oral Presentation Prize:
1st Place - Apoorva Mulay (University of Sheffield)
2nd Place - Claudia Lindemann (University of Sheffield)

Sponsor Bingo:
​Dr Ewan Murray (University of Nottingham)
​Reflection and Thank You!
Organising this symposium was often very challenging, as it required us all to put aside time between our lab work and other commitments, to bring together different aspects of the event, from contacting speakers and sponsors, to designing publicity materials, to sending out calls for abstracts and registration forms. Communication was fundamental. However, with any struggles and problems we faced now far in the back of mind, it all felt totally worth it and I will look forward to hosting another event next year! 

One of my personal highlights actually came the week after our symposium, when I attended the M4 Midlands Microbiology conference; a couple of conference attendees recognised me as one of the Florey symposium organisers, so came to discuss the work we carry out in the Institute and congratulated us on a successful day - they emphasised how much they wanted to return next year which felt great! It was definitely a worthwhile experience and hopefully it will open doors for future collaborations too! 

Finally, we couldn't have pulled off this event on our own or without the help of our networks. We would  like to say a massive THANK YOU to Chrissy, our Florey administrator, who was our organisational core - we couldn't have done it without you! The porters and administrative staff in the Florey Institute and UoS also do a huge amount of work behind the scenes, so another big thank you goes to all those members of staff who helped throughout. Lastly, we would like to thank all who attended our event and made it possible - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! 

We look forward to seeing you all the same time next year!

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Getting to know the Florey Students - Emily

14/7/2015

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Name: Emily Fisk

Age: 23

Hometown: Oxford, UK

Florey Studentship:
I joined Prof. David Dockrell’s research group in October 2014.
I currently work in the Department of Infection and Immunity, on a project that aims to look at the importance of Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) during respiratory S.pneumoniae infection, specifically focusing on macrophages and their metabolic and apoptotic responses.

Previous Experience
I studied for my MBiolSci in Biochemistry and Microbiology within the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (MBB) at the University of Sheffield. During this time I was also President of MBBSoc.
I obtained basic lab skills during my undergraduate, but it wasn’t until my Level 4 that I had to work independently on a Lab Project, also within the Dockrell group. Before this, I had chosen to do a Teaching Project during Level 3 and worked in a retail shop during my summer and Christmas vacations, in order to fund my studies.

Achievements
I’m currently in the first year of my PhD, and have not had the chance to publish or go to conferences yet – but I’m excited to get going!

Current Interests and Activities
I am currently Co-Chair of the Medical Postgraduate Society (MPGS), which aims to work with UoS Postgraduate leads, listening to student views and improving the learning, teaching and overall postgraduate experience. In this role, I work with the School Graduate Research Committee and Co-Chair the Staff-Student Liaison Committee. Additionally, I am co-Founder and Chair of the Postgraduate Representative Committee at the UoS Students Union.
I enjoy getting involved with teaching and outreach. The two most recent projects I have been involved in are the MDH Level One Health Challenge during which I act as a group Facilitator for undergraduates, and also the Krebs Art and Science Festival, which introduces scientific concepts to secondary school children, and helps them produce art and animations which will be presented during the final festival week.
Outside of my studies, I love to play sports and keep fit. I am currently Ladies Captain at Broomgrove Badminton Club in Sheffield. I also thoroughly enjoy baking and trialling new recipes on my housemates and colleagues the office! =P My boyfriend and I have recently started a small food blog too – although we both do PhDs, so its been hard finding the time to write together lately!

Favourite aspect about being a Florey Student?
I get to work with people across different Departments and Universities!
As part of the second student cohort to join the Florey, I have been selected to work with a partner University in a different country, which I cannot wait to get started on =D

Top tips for PhD students
Although it may feel like your PhD takes over your life, do not let it! You’re still a human being, so make the effort to make friends, join clubs or do activities you enjoy, and make sure you have a healthy work-life balance! It will all count towards your CV, helping both your personal AND professional developments =)
Also, if you have a problem, don't suffer in silence! Talk to people, as you will often find others in similar situations or end up chatting to someone who can help you through it.

Relevant Links
Emily Fisk - LinkedIn
http://www.floreyinstitute.com/research-projects.html
MPGS Twitter
MPGS Facebook
The Thrifty Foodies Blog

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Getting to know the Florey Students - Chloë

19/6/2015

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Name: Chloe Marshall
         
Age: 23

Hometown: Rotherham

Florey Studentship:
Started my PhD in Oct 2013 working Dr Colin Bingle and Dr Lynne Bingle in the Department of Infection and Immunity. The main focus of my PhD project is to study the potential interactions between the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and proteins secreted epithelial cells present in the respiratory tract.

Previous Experience
I completed my undergraduate degree at Newcastle University achieving a First Class Honours BSc in Medical Microbiology and Immunology. For my undergraduate research project in third year I worked with Professor Brendan Kenny looking at the effect of certain components of the E. coli secretion system on phagocytosis by macrophages. During my second year of undergraduate degree I worked as a laboratory assistant. This gave me valuable experience about the running and coordination of a lab and the management of resources available. Having not completed a Masters qualification I transitioned straight from undergraduate to PhD. My degree from Newcastle had allowed me to develop the necessary skills and experience to be able to begin my PhD.

Achievements
I was awarded the Award for Microbiology from Newcastle University in both my second and third years as an undergraduate student. I was fortunate enough to be selected to give the Orator speech during my graduation which was a very emotional and proud experience.
I have completed the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and I would like to complete my Gold Award soon.
I feel a huge achievement of my PhD was the successful organisation and running of the Florey Institute Symposium which was an event organised for PhD students by PhD students. It was a new experience for all the Florey students but we worked very efficiently as a team to organise a very successful symposium. So successful we decided to make it an annual event!
I have presented my work at several Departmental and University Research days but look forward to presenting at external conferences as my PhD progresses.

Current Interests and Activities
As part of my extra-curricular work alongside my PhD I am involved in several outreach and teaching projects. I am an active member of the Medical Postgraduate Society and my role is to represent the students within the Department of Infection and Immunity to voice any problems and work to solve any issues which may arise.
I am also involved in the ‘Realising Opportunities’ scheme University of Sheffield to tutor two A Level students through a research report.
Outside of my studies I enjoy baking (and eating cake), watching TV and films, running and fitness and reading - amongst other things. I make time to socialise with family and friends and generally relax and unwind.

Favourite aspect about being a Florey Student?
When I started my PhD it was nice to have a close association with 5 other PhD students and their supervisors. We can help each other with resources and techniques and general advice throughout our projects,

Top tips for PhD students
My top tip number one is to socialise with your department and faculty as much as possible to stop your PhD becoming quite isolating.
Top tip number two is to get involved with extra-curricular and development opportunities during your first year, you will have more time and it can be a nice break from lab work to do something different every now and then.
My last tip would be - make lists and lots of them to keep on top of what needs doing in the short term and the long term.

Relevant Links
LinkedIn – Chloe Marshall
http://www.floreyinstitute.com/research-projects.html
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/infectionandimmunity

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