Pupils visit Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine, Medical Science Centre while participating the educational programme ‘DNA Summer’ / Photos from personal archive
At the beginning of June 2025, seventh and eighth grade pupils from Vilnius Gabija Progymnasium visited the Translational Health Research Institute at the Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine, Medical Science Centre (VU MF MMC). Scientists from the Population Genomics Laboratory, as part of the several-day educational programme ‘DNA Summer’, gave the pupils an opportunity to visit the premises of the MMC and to get to know the science of genetics at close quarters.
Two visits were organised, each of which was started by Assoc. Prof. Dr Alina Urnikytė with a lecture ‘What is encoded in the Lithuanian genome’. In this lecture, the teenagers were told what DNA can tell about us and our origins. After the theoretical part of the visit, the students were invited to the teaching laboratory where they carried out practical experiments – isolating DNA from strawberries. This activity gave them a better understanding of what a scientist's work looks like in practice and how genetic knowledge applies in real life.
Moments of the pupils' visit at the Population Genomics Laboratory / Photos from personal archive
The initiator and organiser of the educational programme ‘DNA Summer’, Assoc. Prof. Dr Alina Urnikytė, Head of the Population Genomics Laboratory, said that she was pleasantly surprised by the interest and activity of the pupils. "I am very grateful to the curious seventh and eighth graders of Gabija Progymnasium for their active participation! The teenagers who visited our laboratory showed that the topic of genetics is very interesting for them, so we will try to repeat such education in the future, to invite pupils to our laboratory and to introduce them to this field of science", she commented.
Pupils of the Vilnius Gabija Progymnasium visiting Medical Science Centre / Photos from personal archive
The Population Genomics Laboratory at the Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine was established only in recent years. Scientists here are working on a wide range of research on human population differences, origins, migrations, physical fitness and sports, obesity, longevity genomics and other topics of public interest.