The Boston Stem Cell Education Symposium

This Veterans Day, HSCI, the Broad Institute and the Whitehead Institute joined forces to co-sponsor the Boston Stem Cell Education Symposium, an event that brought together nearly fifty local area high school teachers for a day of science talks, discussion panels, and lab tours designed to address strategies and provide information about teaching stem cell science at a high school level.

During the science portion of the day, Richard Young, PhD, from the Whitehead Institute presented an overview of stem cells and cellular reprogramming, and HSCI Affiliated Faculty member Debra Auguste, PhD, of Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences discussed the potential of tissue engineering with examples from projects in her lab. The teachers got to see up close a sample of an artificial scaffold used in tissue engineering. After Auguste spoke, Dr. Harvey Lodish from the Whitehead Institute gave a presentation on blood forming cells and their clinical applications.

The day also included teacher panel discussions and lab tours that allowed the attending teachers to see stem cell research in action. Other participating HSCI faculty included Chad Cowan, PhD, and M, William Lensch, PhD. The day concluded with a roundtable on the “Myths and misconceptions of stem cell science,” which explored some of the popular misconceptions and half-truths that exist around stem cell science and the ethical and policy debates it ignites