What it is like to be a researcher

FMI researchers were leading the practical activities with the students - Over 200 high school students visited the FMI last week to learn more about biomedical research and the everyday life of a researcher. The goal of the event was to help the student better understand what it really means to work in research so that they can take more informed decisions about their course of study and professional future. "Days of Genetic Research" ("Tage der Genforschung" in German) was an initiative launched in Switzerland in 1998 with the aim of giving the general public an insight into biomedical research, and gene technology in particular, and thus ensuring transparency. The official initiative has long gone, but the FMI still organizes its own "Days of Genetic Research" every year (but there were no events in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid pandemic): On two days, we invite several classes of high school students and their teachers - from Northwestern Switzerland and neighboring Germany - for half a day to the FMI. At our institute the students get to learn more about biomedical research, do scientific experiments themselves and have discussions with FMI PhD students and postdocs to obtain information about their everyday life as a researcher. The goal of our event is to provide young people who are about to finish high school and take a decision about their professional future with an insight into biomedical research, thereby hopefully encouraging them to study biology or a related topic.