On the weekend of 14–15 September, Oxford opened its doors to allow access to many places not usually open to the public for the annual Oxford Open Doors event across the city. QUOD was delighted to get involved in the event on Saturday 14th September at the Old Road Campus Research Building, University of Oxford, which showcased various aspects of the research carried out within the Medical Sciences Division at the University.
Over the course of the afternoon, the QUOD team welcomed many people of all ages and invited them to our stand to learn about how the national QUOD team collects samples from organ donors across the UK using the QUOD boxes, which are then processed at the regional QUOD centres and shipped back to the Oxford hub for long-term storage in the biobank and supplied to researchers across the world. Our visitors enjoyed learning about the function and position of the different organs in the body and they enthusiastically engaged with a range of hands-on activities, including removing and replacing the organs from Paul, our life-sized, 3D, interactive torso, and took biopsies from apples then carefully placed the biopsies into QUOD collection tubes using forceps (just as the surgeon would do during the organ retrieval operation). There was also the opportunity to have a look at some of the manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals from studies that used QUOD samples, highlighting the impact of the QUOD biobank on research into transplantation as well as other areas. We even had a tombola and everyone went off with a QUOD-related prize – the chocolates and pens were very popular!
It was fantastic to meet everyone and we were very impressed by how knowledgeable and keen to learn the children were. We hope that the visitors to the Old Road Campus Research Building enjoyed meeting the team and learning about the research that QUOD supports. We are grateful to Louise King, Hannah Mackie, and Medical Sciences Division team, who organised this hugely successful event.
