From January to June 2025, the National Institute for Cancer Research (NICR) organized 28 interactive workshops for high school students. Approximately 250 students from grammar schools and secondary vocational schools across the Czech Republic participated in the program, specifically from Prague, Kutná Hora, Příbram, Brno, Hradec Králové, Havířov, Most, Beroun, and Litoměřice.
“The interactive workshop project for high schools is part of the NICR’s broader effort to bring cancer research closer not only to the professional public, but also to future generations of scientists, doctors, and biomedical experts. Our institute does not want to be a closed institution. On the contrary, it wants to be a place that inspires, connects, and passes on experience. This applies to students, teachers, and the public alike. I am therefore very pleased that we are continuing to achieve this goal this year and that there is great demand for these activities among secondary school students,” says Aleksi Šedo, director of the NICR.
Under the guidance of Martin Sztacho (Laboratory of cancer cell architecture, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University), Petr Výmola (Laboratory of cancer cell biology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University), Michal Kolář (Laboratory of genomics and bioinformatics, IMG, CAS) and their colleagues, students got to try out lab work for themselves—from pipetting and tumor cell cultivation to DNA sequencing using Oxford Nanopore MinION technology. “I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the interest shown by secondary school teachers and their students in cancer research. Meeting enthusiastic teachers and talented and motivated secondary school students is very refreshing, so I am glad that we were able to leave a positive impression. As we learned, a large proportion of the participants are planning to study biology or medicine, and many of them are considering a career in science and research,“ adds A. Šedo.
”I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues from NICR who participated in the workshops. It was great to see the dedication and enthusiasm with which they worked with the high school students. I really appreciate it and am delighted that they put so much energy into it. I am already looking forward to the next series of workshops, which we are planning for after the summer holidays,” says A. Šedo. The high rating of all workshops, with an average score of 9.1 out of 10, is a great reward for the lecturers! High school students often mentioned the clarity of the explanations, the friendly approach of the lecturers, the opportunity to ask “anything” and to try out some laboratory methods in practice. The great news is that two-thirds of the approximately 110 students who completed an anonymous questionnaire are now considering a career in biomedical research.
For selected high school students who are highly motivated and nominated by their teachers, we have prepared the NICR Summer School, which will take place during the last week of August at the Institute of Biochemistry and Experimental Oncology of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The Summer School will offer a deeper insight into the work of research teams and the opportunity to try out independent work in the laboratory. In small groups, students will solve model research tasks and discuss their results.
Photo gallery from workshops is here.
