Liverpool exhibits at Natural History Museum as part of Universities Week 2014

The University’s Institute of Integrative Biology will be at the National History Museum in London for Universities Week

The University of Liverpool is featuring in a UK-wide campaign to highlight the value and importance of university research to everyday life.

Universities Week 2014 will be launched on Monday, 9 June at the Natural History Museum in London where a week-long public event will showcase some of the best of UK university research.

Range of research themes

Researchers from the University’s Institute of Integrative Biology will join teams from more than 40 UK universities represented at the Museum during the week. The exhibition will include research stations, pop-up performances, debates and live research demonstrations, covering a range of research themes.

The Liverpool team will be exhibiting research on decoding the wheat genome, highlighting its impact on solving global food shortage. Dr Geraint Parry and Dr Claire Gibney, supported by PhD students from the Institute, will guide visitors in performing their own DNA extraction experiment on a variety of plants.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to make their own DNA code and see the technology that helped Liverpool researchers decipher the genetic code of wheat to help crop breeders increase yield and produce varieties that are better suited to a changing environment.

The week will be launched officially on Monday evening, 9 June by the Universities and Science Minister David Willetts MP at the Natural History Museum.

As well as the week-long exhibition at the Natural History Museum, there will be a range of other activities taking place across the UK as part of Universities Week 2014, to promote and engage the public with the value and importance of university research.

Professor Anthony Hollander, Head of the Institute of Integrative Biology, said: “Universities Week 2014 is an excellent opportunity to highlight how the work going on in our universities has an impact on people’s everyday lives.

Engage and inspire

“It is also a chance for academics to engage with the public, bringing their research to life and hopefully inspiring people to go away and find out more about a topic.”

Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said: “By hosting this high-profile event, we hope that members of the public will be inspired and will leave having learned something new about how universities are helping to solve some of the UK’s, and world’s biggest challenges.”

The Liverpool exhibit, supported by the Wellcome Trust, will take place at the Natural History Museum on Wednesday, 11 June from 6pm-10pm, as well as Thursday, 12 June and Friday 13 June from 10am to 6pm.

For more information about Universities Week, click here