STEP-NUS BRAIN CAMP 2018

The STEP-NUS Brain Camp, an educational science program primarily centered around Neuroscience was organized by the National University of Singapore and was held between June 3-9, 2018.

This was attended by Nicole Heredia along with three students of the Bombay International School. They were accompanied by Ms. S. Vaidyan.

There were total of 150 students attending the camp, from the ASEAN countries as well as China, Japan and South Korea. Interacting with students from different countries across Asia helped us understand their cultures and foster long-lasting friendships.

Over the next three days, the students got the opportunity to meet and interact with world renowned scientists, all of whom are experts in their respective fields. The first two lectures were conducted by professors from NUS. They introduced the students to various neurological disorders and the functions of the brain.

The next session was conducted by Dr. Erika Sasaki, the first person to successfully modify the genome of pygmy marmosets. Since the theme of this year’s Brain Camp was animal models, she gave an insight into the research she conducted from the perspective of the marmoset model. This was followed by an interesting, interactive discussion with her.

The next lecture about Schizophrenia and was conducted by Dr. Charmaine Tang. Her creative presentation was insightful and helped the students truly understand the nuances of this complicated and intriguing disorder.

Professor Zhang Su-Chun, from the Duke-NUS Medical School conducted a stimulating session about Stem cells. Since he has been working with the leading scientists in this field, he gave an insight into the recent developments in Stem cell research.

Apart from the lectures, the participants visited the labs in NUS and participated in hands-on experiments and activities like racing cars using electromyography and modelling Parkinson’s disorder in fruit flies. This was followed by a visit to the Science Museum, which helped the participants imbibe everything they had learned during the lectures.

On the last day of the camp, all the teams had to present research papers on various topics. The team presented a research paper on migraines and won the first place for the presentation amongst the 16 teams that had participated.