MBI welcomes NUS High School for a Learning Journey into Mechanobiology

During the March school holidays, MBI welcomed 14 Year 4 to 6 students from the NUS High School of Mathematics and Science for a half-day visit around the institute. This visit is part of a Learning Journey where the students get to go beyond the classroom to see real-world investigation and applications of science.

The students arrived and checked in at the T-Lab in the morning of 11^th March, supervised by their two teachers-in-charge. They were welcomed by MBI Deputy Director Assoc. Prof. Yusuke Toyama, who gave the students a brief introduction to the world of research and mechanobiology. Assoc. Prof. Toyama demonstrated how biological systems have mechanical properties, which can be utilized for real-life applications. He showed how rigid cancer cells can be filtered from flexible normal cells using a special sieve developed at MBI, an example of how mechanobiology can lead to advances in medicine. He also emphasised on the multidisciplinarity and inclusivity of research at MBI, explaining how the future of biology extends beyond biology, and that MBI researchers come from a multitude of STEM backgrounds.

After the talk, the students donned their lab coats and safety goggles before proceeding in groups to tour the four lab stations around MBI, to see some of the core research tools and technologies used in mechanobiology research. They were accompanied by PhD student volunteers from the MBI Graduate Programme, who were on hand to guide them and answer any questions about their university experience and graduate student life.

Dr Jin Zhu from the High-Throughput Molecular Genetics (HMG) Core showed off the new ‘robot’ centrepiece of the HMG Core – the Biomek i7 automated workstation, which can run multiple liquid-handling experiments simultaneously. Mona Suryana and Nisha Raffi from the Nano and Microfabrication Core gave the students a glimpse of microfabricated chips, and taught them the techniques behind their development. From MBI’s SiMBA-Microscopy Core, Jasmine Chin and Liu Jun demonstrated some of MBI’s suite of confocal microscopes, namely the FV3000NIR Confocal and LSM980 Microscopes, which enable super-resolution imaging to observe cell or tissue mechanics at the nanometre level or for long-term live-imaging. Finally, the students visited Asst. Prof. Chii Jou Chan’s lab to learn about development and tissue hydraulics, where they got to examine samples of mammalian ovarian cells under a stereomicroscope.

After the tour of the various lab stations, the students met with NUS High School alumni and current MBI intern Belle Sow, who spoke to the students about her academic journey from NUS High School to Stanford University, USA, where she obtained her undergraduate degree in material science and engineering. She also shared about her broad experiences as a student researcher and gladly answered any questions the students have about her time in academia.

Overall, the Learning Journey had been an intriguing and fruitful one for the students of NUH High School, who expressed their newfound fascination and appreciation for mechanobiology. MBI would like to thank all students and staff who volunteered their time and expertise to host this NUS High School Learning Journey, and in particular Lee Qiao Jing for organisation of this outreach event, and we look forward to welcoming future school or educational visits.