We also participated in the "Forsche Schüler Tag" at the Leibniz-HKI.

| by Steffi Feller

In our department, the students learned how fungi can be identified from patient samples. Source: Ronja Münch / Leibniz-HKI

At this year's Forsche Schüler Tag (Researchers' Day) on the Beutenberg campus, interested pupils were once again able to gain a direct insight into research and carry out exciting experiments in our department.

For example, the pupils were given an insight into the entire process of determining pathogenic fungi using an example patient. For this purpose, a small search for traces was prepared with typical work of a microbiological laboratory. The students learned that different Candida species can be easily identified with the help of chromagar plates and how bacteria and fungi differ from each other under the microscope. They also counted how many cultures had formed on an agar plate after incubation. At the end of the experiments, the group was able to identify the unknown "patient sample" without a doubt as Candida albicans.

Many thanks to all who helped organise this day and made it a great experience for the students.