In touch with science
Girls’ Day at the Max Planck Institute in Münster
On March 28th 2019, six girls aged 10 to 14 visited the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster. Employees from different working areas gave them an impression of the varied activities in an internationally oriented scientific research institute.
After a safety instruction, the girls took part in a guided tour through the laboratory building. Subsequently, they spent the rest of the day in different departments and research groups.
There, the girls learned how to handle micropipettes and how to use a light microscope. The older girls practised different molecular biological techniques, such as DNA extraction and Polymerase Chain Reaction, to amplify specific regions of the DNA and to analyse these in an agarose gel.
To analyse the function of certain genes, for example in hereditary disorders or in dissecting regeneration processes, also in living organisms, the employees of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine not only use cell cultures but also animal models. Therefore, the girls also got to see how to work with mice, they visited the zebra fish facility and they experimented with flatworms.