Post by Parveen D.

Last month, I had the amazing opportunity to help the Chromadose team (https://lnkd.in/d6jC4BAD) with their stall at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition! As part of Great Ormond Street Hospital Young Persons' Advisory Group (GOSH YPAG), I was invited to help guide attendees of the Exhibition through various activities that were arranged on the day. The Chromadose team is conducting research into developing a blood testing device to personalise the amount of medicine (anthracyclines) children with cancer receive. This is due to the differences in exposure (the way we process medication differently) in our bodies.   The difference in exposures was demonstrated through a brussel sprouts test strip. A chemical called PTC which is present in brussel sprouts causes people to experience varying levels of bitterness according to their genetics. I am apparently a supertaster for PTC (which as amazing as it may sound, left an incredibly bitter taste in my mouth)! Throughout the day I was working at the ChromArt stall. This was an arts and crafts table inspired by the chromatographic separation technique used within blood testing devices. To represent the process that occurs within the device, exhibition attendees had the choice of making a flower, butterfly or keyring using chromatography paper and felt tip pens. Attendees could use colours of their own choice to decorate the filter paper (stationary phase) and place it in a shallow bowl of water (mobile phase). I was involved in helping to explain and answer questions about the stall and gave attendees tips on how to make the different filter paper objects. The stall was really busy at times and proved to be really popular with people of all ages! During my breaks, I had the opportunity to look around at the other stalls to see the other amazing research that was being presented at the festival such as detecting a volcano, genetically modified zebrafish and virtual ear modelling to create a 3d sound experience. Overall, I had such a great time with the chromadose team and I learned a lot from the experience! https://lnkd.in/dq2hBBhC