Dortmund, 8th May 2024
For half a day at Girls' Day 2024, twelve schoolgirls were able to find out in their own experiments how bacteria can be hunted down and kept in check, why organs become transparent with the help of cinnamic acid ethyl ester, and what can be seen under the microscope during a heart attack.
Together with PhD students Antonia Fecke and Luisa Speicher, who accompanied the event as scientific guides, the seventh to ninth graders gained practical insights into the immune system – and learned a lot about bacterial and sterile inflammation. Under the guidance of Dr Christina Sengstock and Dr Christiane Stiller, the pupils learned how to multiply bacterial cultures in the laboratory. They also investigated the effect of silver acetate on Escherichia coli. With Prof. Dr Anika Grüneboom and Luisa Röbisch, everything revolved around the light sheet fluorescence microscope. Before they treated organs with cinnamic acid ethyl ester – a component of cinnamon flavour – and analysed pre-treated samples, the participants had conducted an experiment with glass beads to gain a better understanding of the procedure for optical clearing.
The Communications team coordinated the Girls' Day project at ISAS in 2024, and this time received active support with the organisation and implementation from intern Clara Manthey (student at TU Dortmund University). In the run-up to the event, Luisa Becher, also a student at TU Dortmund University, had already played a key role in the conception and preparation.