On the 13th of March 2018, a trial day for young students interested in doing research took once again place at the Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research (IMCAR), University Clinic Aachen. Students from grades 10-13 (age 15-18) were invited to the Institute under the motto: "Molecular biology research in medicine: sounds interesting, but what is it?" During a one-day visit to our laboratories, the students got to know different working methods that are used in the context of biomedical research. Therefore, the theoretical as well as the practical background of basic research was conveyed. After giving the students an insight into the basics of molecular biology, they isolated DNA, performed different histological stainings of tissue sections and had a look at several tissue specimens under the microscope - all under the guidance of PhD students and lab technicians. This gave the students the possibility to get an idea of how a job in the field of basic biomedical research can look like, which normally stays hidden behind closed doors.
This trial day was organized as a joint effort of the Consortium SFB/TRR219 funded by the German Research Foundation, and of the European ITN projects CaReSyAn and INTRICARE, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 764474 and 722609, respectively.