25 grade 10, 11 and 12 students from across the Winnipeg School Division (representing high schools Tec Voc, Argyle Alternative, Children of the Earth, Churchill, Daniel McIntyre, Elmwood, Gordon Bell, Grant Park, Kelvin, Sisler, and St. John’s) are receiving intensive medical research training in the Youth BIOLab over the month of May. Over 5 days, students run an adipogenesis (cell differentiation) experiment which relates to their studies on diabetes and its connections to heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
The ‘Student Leadership in Biomedical Science’ program is part of a new initiative between Winnipeg School Division and the St. Boniface Hospital Research Youth BIOlab. Students perform a wide variety of molecular and cellular biology techniques and are exposed to basic and clinical research at the Research Centre through their interactions with SBRC scientists.
The RBC Youth BIOlab Jeunesse teaching laboratory was built with support from Manitoba Education, RBC, and the St. Boniface Hospital Foundation and opened its doors to students in Spring 2013. The program is delivered in partnership with Manitoba school divisions and with the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to connect St. Boniface Hospital and Research Centre to classroom learning.