Hanging Out with Mites - Allergy Research in Schools

Science communication is an integral compound of modern high-tech research, whereas the Salzburg allergy research team of Prof. Ftima Ferreira has a long-standing track record within this field. One of the initiatives developed by the team of Prof. Ferreira are the so called Flying Labs. Flying Labs offer the possibility to directly transfer a molecular biology lab into a school setting where according to well established concepts school kids perform experimental work directly in the class room. The course schedule is designed in way that students can elaborate scientific topics from their everyday lives. Since 2009 a Flying Lab is concerned with immunological and allergy-related topics. In personal communications with students, we surveyed a particular interest in the topic of house dust mite mediated allergic diseases. One of the reasons might be the increasing numbers of people suffering from these types of allergic reactions. Of note, in Austria it is estimated that more than half a million people suffer from mite allergies. Therefore, the focus of the current project is the adaptation of the immunological Flying Lab to the mite allergy topic. With the concept students shall be able to analyze their own dust samples by quantifying the allergen content as well as by identifying and investigating living mites under the microscope. Moreover, we will discuss fundamental principles of the development and onset of allergic reactions as well as the mechanisms of allergy therapy and allergen avoidance. Together with our industrial partners we could already obtain a plate reader for this project to be used for ELISA experiments. Moreover, the ongoing Sparkling Science BIO KoSMoS allowed us to purchase a digital microscope to be used for mite analyses. In addition to that, we plan to establish special educational webinars, where we will use flexible camera systems, live data streaming and online comments to transfer lab atmosphere from the bench to the classroom. For these so called Labinars we will develop and test novel protocols and molecular biology work packages. Therefore, the Labinars represent the consequent advancement of our Flying Lab concept to expand its educational content to the digital world to obtain maximal impact. By using these concepts we will be able to communicate the advances of the FWF-funded allergology research to young people by using the proven concept of our Flying Labs. This will subsequently and long-lasting affect the understanding and fascination for molecular biological topics.

Worldwide, the prevalence for allergies is constantly rising whereas more and more people want to understand the underlying mechanisms of the disease. Especially adolescences are more often affected by allergic reactions than adults. Therefore, we wanted to educate teenagers about the most frequent disease of the immune system. Together with our project partner Mag. Reinhard Nestelbacher from DNA Consult Sciencetainment we were able to lift the science communication concept of the Flying labs to the next level. Therefore, we invested in a state-of-the-art molecular biological laboratory, which was directly transfer to the classroom. In the lab seminars, students were not only able to test their own dust sample for allergen content, in addition they could also take pictures of their own cells with a fluorescent microscope and learn about allergy while performing hands-on research. Within the project and with the support of the company Molecular Devices, we also established an ELISA test, which was performed as part of the seminars.In summary, within the school year 2016/2017we held 16 seminars at 8 different educational institutes in 4 states of Austria. Additionally, we were able to support a scientific school project (VWA) by inviting a student to science days to the University of Salzburg, where mite cultures were grown and subsequently investigated immunologically and with a high-tech digital microscope. Furthermore, the most frequent and most important allergens of the European house dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus were produced as reference using latest biotechnological procedures. This was accomplished in cooperation with the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. The allergens were used in experiments at schools as well as in an assay developed to quickly screen the immunologic properties of potential allergy vaccines.In order to facilitate scientific communication to an even broader audience, one of the goals of the project was to establish the concept of a lab-webinar. Pretests were already successful and will be pursued even more intensely in the near future. To sum up, the project strongly contributed to the establishment of a sustainable and eclectic educational portfolio on allergy for a comprehensive audience.