Research Showcase
In April 2016, Rebecca Babb was awarded a King’s College small public engagement grant of £750 to help her produce a Dental Institute Research Showcase, in collaboration with Prof. Abigail Tucker.
Rebecca is a Post-Doctorial scientist in the Division of Craniofacial Development and Stem Cell Biology at the Dental Institute. She has represented her Division at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, Brighton Science festival and Cheltenham Science Festival, where she helped to explain the science behind tooth replacement to the public. Rebecca wanted to create a public engagement event that showcased the research from other divisions in the Dental Institute to inspire, enthuse and excite young people.
Rebecca worked with a team of 12 scientists to develop four stalls that highlight the main areas of research in the Dental Institute: The Science of Tooth Replacement, Host-Microbe Interactions, Developmental Biology and Tissue Bioengineering. The Research Showcase was launched as part of the Dentistry K+ scheme in collaboration with the Dentistry Outreach Manager, Billy Reed on the 23rd June. The event was lots of fun and the scientists were kept busy with a constant stream of questions from the K+ pupils.
Developmental Biology Stall Exhibits: Live imaging videos of tadpole, fly and chick development, a microscope for viewing tadpole development and interactive models to demonstrate cell bending. Stall facilitators: Dr Mark Hintze, Dr Esther Pearl and Dr Jingjing.
Host-Microbe Interaction Stall Exhibits: a selection of oral microbe culture plates, a microscope for viewing patient oral pathology slides, microbe smears, tissue culture cells and an anatomy model highlighting dental disease. Stall facilitators: Dr Jonathan Richardson, Dr Elizabeth Witherden and Simona Iancu (PhD student).
Tissue Bioengineering Stall Exhibits: maxillofacial prosthetics, biomaterials, high magnification images of cells growing in biomaterials, a video of tissue perfusion device. Stall facilitators: Dr Silvia Ferreira, Dr Lorenzo Veschini and Cristian Parisi (PhD student).
The Science of Tooth Replacement Exhibits: a selection of skulls to demonstrate the different ways animals replace their teeth, dental implant models, an anatomy model of tooth decay, a video showing the growth of a biotooth. Stall facilitators: Dr Rebecca Babb, Dr Neal Anthwal, Pamela De-Andrade (Dentist/Visiting researcher) and Yang Ma (Dentist/MSc student).