In the scope of the Ciência Viva 2024 Summer Internships – Scientific occupation of young people during the holidays, the GHTM/IHMT/NOVA welcomed the high school students Iara André and Matilde Marques, from 29 July to 06 August.
The students took part in the various activities offered by the internship, which provided an immersion in the main aspects related to malaria, its parasites, main vectors, presentation and complications of the disease, as well as the main obstacles to its elimination and control, such as the emergence of parasites resistant to antimalarials.
During this internship, the students learnt not only to differentiate the morphological aspects of different parasite species under light microscopy, but also the molecular techniques for diagnosing infection and identifying parasites resistant to antifolates, as well as testing the sensitivity/resistance of parasites to a particular chemical compound using parasites cultivated in vitro.
In addition, the students gained an understanding of the importance of consulting Travel Medicine consultations to mitigate the risk of malaria infection among travelers to certain destinations.
According to the students “a brain treated with care tends to be more successful, so the recession we received from the GHTM/IHMT/NOVA allowed this internship to be not only incredibly fundamental in our future careers, but also instilled in us a great passion for something never thought of before, such as the malaria disease itself”.
Márcia Medeiros, researcher of UEI Clínica Tropical and member of IHC-GHTM Research Group, was the coordinator of this internship, which also counted with the participation of professors Pedro Cravo (Medical Parasitology Teaching, UEI PM and member of VBD-GHTM Research Group), Andréa Soares (Federal University of Pará, Brazil), researcher Gustavo Capatti Cassiano (UEI PM, VBD-GHTM) and the GHTM/IHMT/NOVA students Mariana Pinto (VBD-GHTM) and Maria Silva (DCB – PhD in Biomedical Sciences).
To learn more about this program, visit Ciência Viva’s website: CiênciaViva no Laboratório
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Ciência Viva no Laboratório 2024: Young students discover the world of helminths at GHTM-IHMT
«Ciência Viva» is the branded name of the Portuguese National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, meaning «Live Science».
[…] High school students were scientists in the field of malaria for one week […]