The Great Hall at the Discovery Museum was abuzz with science and exciting conversations last Sunday as Newcastle university researchers, rare disease patients and members of the public gathered to celebrate the International Rare Disease Day.

With 104 attendees and 40 enthusiastic scientists, a wonderful panel debate on achievements and challenges in rare disease research, exciting hands on experiments (building a 3D skin model, DNA extraction, osteoarthritis diagnosis, muscle MRI scans, art installations and many more) and lovely food, we had an amazing day!

We’d like to thank all the presenters and attendees for participating in our event. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, and we hope to see you next year again!

Some feedback from our participants:

[The event] was great, no need for improvement!

Thank you for hosting such an amazing event!

Loved each and every bit.

Thank you for recommending this, I had a really great time! […] Everyone there was really nice and the activities were so fun

Many thanks to you all for giving your weekend to educate and entertain us.

We’re organising Genetics Matters again! Genetics Matters is a free annual event showcasing rare disease and genetic research at Newcastle, with hands-on experiments, laboratory demonstrations, scientist talks and free refreshments.

We’ll be at the Discovery Museum on the 25th of February, join us at http://tinyurl.com/3f4hwkks