Highlights from the BAD-BSID Research Techniques Course 2024
2024
The BAD-BSID Research Techniques Course 2024 took place at St. John’s institute of Dermatology, Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London on November 11th and 12th. Fifteen out of 31 applicants had secured their spot after a competitive process which took place in late Summer, overseen by the Course Director and BSID Communication Officer Dr Paola Di Meglio and the BSID Committee Member Dr Catherine Wright, with the support of the BAD Research Team. Participants were at various stages of their medical training, from FY2 and IM trainee doctors with an interest in dermatology, to dermatology registrars, all keen to learn about cutting-edge technologies applied to skin research and acquire some basic laboratory skills and hands-on-experience.
The program, delivered by KCL academic and research staff as well as graduate students, included 3 practical sessions on PCR, skin immunofluorescence staining and intracellular cytokine staining for flow cytometry, intermingled with 9 short lectures on Gene editing, GWAS, Mendelian randomization, Transcriptomic by RNA-Seq and Sc-RNA-Seq, Biomarkers, Skin organotypic models, Flow cytometry, Imaging mass cytometry, Unsupervised data analysis.
Participants had the also opportunity to hear from Dr Ravi Ramessur, Consultant Dermatologist and Visiting Lecturer, who spoke about how he found his research spark and presented his PhD work on psoriasis and cardiovascular risk, aiming to inspire the participants to get involved in research. Another captivating talk by St. John’s Academic Head Professor John McGrath preceded the course dinner in a nearby restaurant. He gave an inspirational account of his research journey in dermatology and did not fail to include one or two of his famed jokes to the delight of course participants and staff.
One of the highlights of the second day was the visit to the R&D Advanced Cytometry Platform at Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, led by the Head of Platform Dr Richard Ellis, who took the participants on a tour of the facility after the tutors had demonstrated how flow cytometry is performed on the samples stained earlier by the participants. The course ended after lunch with the participants receiving print outs of their handy work and filling the feedback forms with enthusiastic and appreciative comments on the course.