In July 2024, QUOD teamed up with the Transplant Research Group at the University of Oxford to welcome students visiting as part of the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences Work Experience Programme. This annual programme offers school students aged ≥16 years a unique opportunity to gain valuable insight into careers in science and medicine, including time in the laboratory, shadowing clinicians and research nurses, a careers talk, and a feedback session.
It was a privilege to host the students for two afternoons. During their time with us, they learned about how QUOD samples are collected from organ donors at the 61 participating hospitals across the UK and then shipped to the QUOD hub in Oxford, where they are then processed and stored in the biobank. The students learned about the importance of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and were shown a video explaining the journey of a QUOD sample, from obtaining consent from the donor families to sample collection and storage in the biobank, as well as the types of research QUOD supports. They were then given a tour of our laboratory, where they watched a demonstration of how the samples that come to the Oxford hub are processed for long-term storage and how some of the tissue biopsies are processed as formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks and subsequently sectioned using a microtome to prepare slides that go on to be used for histological analysis. The students also spent time with Dr Letizia Lo Faro from the Transplant Research Group, who uses QUOD samples in her research. They were given the opportunity to look at slides containing samples from different tissues (such as kidney, heart, and liver) under the microscope, see the types of equipment used for organ perfusion experiments, and gain hands-on experience practising their pipetting skills.
We wish the students every success for the future, whatever they go on to do, and hope that this experience has inspired them.
