IMBB participated in this year’s European Researchers’ Night at FORTH on September 27. This is the largest European Initiative that aims to make the general public acquainted with the research that is taking place in Europe, and especially showing children the excitement of science. Universities and research institutes such as FORTH across 25 cities in Europe open their doors and share their work through presentations, experiments, games, discussions and other interactive formats.

IMBB participated with activities from twelve research groups. The exhibits and activities covered a broad range of subjects. Visitors had the opportunities to learn about how our brain develops and how we can navigate it using vine robots or how we can use computational models of brain cells and networks to understand who we learn and how we form memories They learned about how our DNA is organized in the cell and how RNA is involved in communicating between different species (e.g. between hosts and their pathogens). They could also acquaint themselves with glowing worms (nematodes) and insects, both agricultural pests and mosquitoes; and they could also view the development of tiny shrimp (arthropod) embryo in four dimensions in virtual reality. Other activities centered on plants and how they can defend themselves against pathogens but also how they can sense where the earth is. The Ancient DNA laboratory demonstrated extraction of DNA from ancient bones. Finally, the DIGENIA unit presented how Precision Medicine and Bioinformatics assist in human health via personalized medicine.