Genome Campus visit November 6 2024

After a very successful visit by the Science and Technology group to the Wellcome Genome Campus in June last year, the Computing and Digital group members wanted to go too! A group of 20 visited one afternoon in early November. As we could have a group up to 30, we also included some spouses and our Chair, Sue Raynor Jacobs. We travelled by car, with a nominated driver taking passengers.

It was a free visit organised by the Connecting Science team but the information and presentation by Sam was very interesting and engaging for all our group.  Ethics was a major part of the day.

Once we had registered at reception, we were taken to the Open Lab for refreshments before listening to an introduction to DNA science, gene sequencing and the site. This included some hands-on activities, followed by a film shown on a white wall about the history of genomic research and the Open Source Wellcome Sangar Institute and others on the site. As the film finished, there was a whirring noise, and the large wall started to move to the sides and we could see straight into one of the laboratories with scientists in action! This group of mature adults were very excited!

We then moved across the site and were shown various buildings and then taken to see the large computer servers. These have to be kept dust-free so we observed through a large window.

Then onto more refreshments in another classroom and our next activity. As our group was mainly those with an interest in computing, our visit had been geared towards this. We participated in a DNA sequencing activity using an open-source online database (https://www.uniprot.org/blast) to find out answers to protein sequence data to our ‘function finders’ worksheet https://www.yourgenome.org/theme/function-finders/.

From the DNA sequence, we were able to identify a protein name, the organism and the protein’s function. One fascinating one was a protein which was responsible for the green fluorescence in jellyfish.

Overall, a fascinating day was had by us all. Many thanks to Sam from Connecting Science, who was our host and presenter for the afternoon.

For more information, do check out the website for the Wellcome Genome Campus https://www.wellcomegenomecampus.org/

Maureen and the Computing and Digital Group