Royal Society Grant success for Colchester students

On 23rd February, 10 students from Year 12 and Year 13 from Colchester County High School for Girls were fortunate enough to attend the Royal Society Schools Partnership Grant Conference in London to share the work we have been doing. Their project, undertaken in conjunction with the Casanueva Lab at the Babraham Institute with a Royal Society Partnership Grant, is working with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans.

C. elegans is a transparent, nematode worm with a lifespan of three weeks and a life cycle of just three days – this along with the fact that they’re just 1mm long makes them an excellent model organism to work with.

While at the conference, we had the opportunity to present our work and explain exactly what we’re doing: 'heat-shocking' C. elegans to see if there is a decrease in the number of vulvae (egg-laying holes), and looking to see if there is evidence of epigenetic inheritance in the offspring. We spent around 15 minutes preparing a short video about our project - briefly outlining the work we have done and how this will be of benefit - the results of which you can see here!