Members of the MFICM participate in a range of activities and events
Ines, Josh and Maria gave two demonstrations and explained the ICM concept
Through our partner institutes, UCAM departments and CRUK CC, the MFICM team takes part in and organises a range of public engagement activities and events. To see more information on the CRUK Cambridge Centre events click here.
A number of these are coordinated through the University’s Public Engagement team. Including the Cambridge Festival Also some of our partner institutes and departments organise Open Days and their researchers give talks at local schools. Some also host school visits and have a range of teaching resources and materials available to download from their websites.
Public engagement at the MFICM’s partner institutes and departments…
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Members of the CRUK Cambridge Centre were present at the 2023 Cambridge Festival, with a whole spectrum of demonstrations, the interactive exhibits included hands-on experiments, informative demonstrations and plenty of fun activities for children and adults of all ages, such as:
Science in the Kitchen: In our exciting twist on the traditional ‘DNA extraction from strawberries’ activity, we demonstrated how to prepare DNA using nothing but standard kitchen equipment and household materials.
Show me the Kidneys! Participants took a look inside the human body and tried to find the kidneys, they also got to try to spot the tumour on real kidney scans and met the researchers using video games software to help doctors find kidney tumours in real life.
Keyhole Surgery Simulator: Participants tried out a keyhole surgery simulator, used by real surgeons to practice their key skills.
Jellybean Endoscopy: participants got to have a go at being an endoscopist! They had to try to find the differently coloured (possibly pre-cancerous) jellybean amongst the red ones representing normal tissue.
Jelly Brain Surgery: Using ‘brains’ made out of jelly, participants were able to experience life as a specialist surgeon and see how well they could remove and treat a brain ‘tumour’ (a chocolate covered marshmallow!).
The Virtual Child: is the first ever-learning and data-driven computer model of normal and cancerous nervous system development. This international project will lead to discovery of new therapeutics, transforming treatments for children with cancer.
Virtual Reality Tumours: Participants got to step inside a virtual reality tumour and see how the IMAXT Team have developed an entirely new way to study cancer.
It was a fantastic day!
Photo credits: Irena Rao, Katie Edwards and Ellie Wolmark
The Mark Foundation Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine (MFICM) at the University of Cambridge aims to revolutionise cancer care by affecting patients along their treatment pathway.