Discovery Days 2017

This past Friday, October 13^th, we had the pleasure of hosting a parasite bioinformatics workshop as part of the University of Calgary’s Discovery Day for local high school students. The workshop started out with a short talk on different types of parasites and their lifecycles by Leah Hohman, followed by another talk about parasites that can be found locally here in Alberta by Bruna Meireles Palmeira. These talks highlighted the importance of understanding parasites, not just for humans in distant countries but also for us and our animals. The students were then able to view specimens brought down from some of the parasitology labs, including live specimens of Haemonchus contortus larvae and Caenorhabditis elegans! While viewing the specimens we answered their questions about parasites and what it is like to work with parasites, which was fun for them and us.

After the parasite-viewing, Sonja Dunemann led a practical bioinformatics activity session, where the students were able to identify DNA from different species in a simulated sequence sample and decide how or if to treat their cow. There were four different treatment options they had to choose from and most were able to choose correctly, a valuable skill in industry today. After the activities we were able to give more information on drug resistance and well-known but misunderstood diseases that affect our food supply, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease). The students were all very involved in each activity and had plenty of excellent questions that we were happy to answer. Working with them was a great experience for all involved.