Local students step into Southern Hemisphere’s largest biomedical precinct

Science students from Mount Alexander College (MAC) have been encouraged to consider biomedicine for a career during National Science Week.

Year 10 and 11 pupils from MAC were among 280 students from across Victoria to attend one of three Annual Biomedical Science days at the University of Melbourne.

Events included working alongside researchers in the Gene Technology Access Centre Laboratories, and a tour of the University’s Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, and AdaptLab.

Students worked with electron microscopes, real tissues specimens, and used 3D virtual reality models to examine the human heart.

“It was so cool looking at all the lungs in the museum. So many interesting things to look at,” one Mount Alexander student said.

A panel of Bachelor of Biomedicine students spoke about their experiences after completing the Victorian Certificate of Education, and what to expect from life on campus.

University of Melbourne’s Biomedical Sciences head of school Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka said “revolutionary work” was under way at the school, including research into 3D bone printing, new cancer treatments and vaccines for disease.

A Mount Alexander science teacher said students attending all had “a wonderful learning experience that sometimes took them out of their comfort zone”.