UniStem Day 2023

Since 2009, the "UniStem Day", an international action day on stem cell research, is held annually in March. The aim of the event is to familiarize interested young people with the subject of stem cell research and to deepen the knowledge about stem cell research taught at schools.

87 research institutions in 14 countries on two continents opened their doors for this year's action day. Almost three quarters of all offerings from Germany took place in North Rhine-Westphalia and were hosted by members of the Stem Cell Network NRW. "Since 2016, we have been taking part in this event to give schoolchildren an insight into this exciting field of research, which plays a prominent role in the development of modern cell therapies, for drug development and for understanding disease development. In addition, we would like to use this framework to bring our professional field closer to the adolescents," explains Prof. Brüstle from the Institute of Reconstructive Neurobiology (University Hospital Bonn).

The record participation of the last UniStem Day was even exceeded this year: 17 different stem cell institutes from Aachen to Bielefeld offered the more than 400 participants exciting and interactive offers from the field of biomedicine as well as on the ethics of stem cell research.

For the first time since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, all contributions could again take place as face-to-face events. The registered students experienced scientific lectures, stem cell quiz formats as well as laboratory tours and were able to discuss questions about studies, doctorates or working in science with the researchers. They were also given the opportunity to get to work themselves and perform experiments such as a polymerase chain reaction for special stem cell markers or analyze different stem cell types under the microscope and provide them with nutrients.

The contribution of the Institute for Science and Ethics focused on research with stem cells as an ethical challenge. The philosopher Prof. Dr. Bert Heinrichs first worked out some basics of applied ethics with the participating students and then used these philosophical tools to analyze ethical questions in the context of research with human embryonic stem cells. This resulted in lively discussions.

Thanks to the commitment of the scientists at the various institutes, the Europe-wide Stem Cell Day in NRW was once again a great success in 2023 and was able to arouse the interest of many curious students in stem cell research.