I have a job for you today and it’s a fun one. Open your Instagram app on your phone. If you’re not an Instagrammer, don’t worry, you can access the website on your computer.
Do you have it open? OK now type in the hashtag #CIRMSparkLab and click on it.
What you’ll find is around 200 posts of the most inspiring and motivating pictures of stem cell research that I’ve seen. These pictures are from high school students currently participating in the CIRM summer SPARK program, one of our educational programs, which has the goal to train the next generation of stem cell scientists.
The SPARK program offers California high school students an invaluable opportunity to gain hands-on training in regenerative medicine at some of the finest stem cell research institutes in the state. And while they gain valuable research skills, we are challenging them to share their experiences with the general public through blogging and social media.
Communicating science to the public is an important mission of CIRM, and the SPARK students are excelling at this task by posting descriptive photos on Instagram that document their internships. Some of them are fun lab photos, while others are impressive images of data with detailed explanations about their research projects.
Below are a few of my favorite posts so far this summer. I’ve been so inspired by the creativity of these posts that we are now featuring some of them on the @CIRM_Stemcells account. (Yes this is a shameless plug for you to follow us on Instagram!).
I encourage you all to follow our talented SPARK students this summer as they continue to document their exciting journeys on Instagram. These students are our future and supporting their training and education in stem cell research is an honor for CIRM and a vital step towards achieving our mission of accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.
Stay tuned for more blog coverage about SPARK and our other educational program, the Bridges to Stem Cell Research program for undergraduate and master-level students. The annual Bridges conference that brings all the students together to present their research will be held next week, and the SPARK conference is on August 8th both in Berkeley.
The Stem Cellar 