The IiSGM ‘turns’ secondary school students into young researchers as part of the Científic@s en Prácticas programme

The Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM) has organised three placements for pupils from secondary schools. The young students became scientists for a week as part of the Científic@s en prácticas programme, in which the hospital’s biomedical research centre is participating for the second consecutive year.

This initiative was promoted by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the Asociación Española para el Avance de la Ciencia (AEAC), with the collaboration of the Healthcare Network for Social Responsibility and Sustainability.

For the occasion, training itineraries were created with activities for the participating pupils, who were able to gain first-hand knowledge of the work carried out by three research groups at Gregorio Marañón: Paediatric Cardiology and Heart Transplantation, Hospital Pharmacy and Pharmacogenomics, and Haematological Genetics and Genomics.

Pharmacy, Genetics and Cardiology

The pupils who worked alongside the Genetics group received training in the use of advanced molecular analysis techniques, which are essential for researching therapeutic targets for cancers affecting the blood. Specifically, they learnt how to perform quantitative PCR and prepare karyotypes, which is fundamental for diagnosing and studying these conditions.

Meanwhile, the young researchers from the Cardiology group visited the operating theatres at the children’s hospital and the cell therapy laboratories. They also visited the consultation rooms to see the equipment used in daily practice and  were able to learn how hereditary cardiovascular diseases are studied.

The students who carried out the activity alongside the IiSGM Pharmacy group learnt how to receive  samples, process them and interpret their results. In addition, the professionals at Marañón taught them how to formulate research questions and answer them rigorously, and they were even able to carry out DNA extractions.