The activities in this workshop demonstrate how double blind trials are run, explaining what a placebo is and how the placebo effect works, how bias is removed as far as possible and how participants and trial medicines are randomised. This resource was made in collaboration between Centre of the Cell and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

The activities in this workshop teach pupils to think about how doctors and other staff diagnose illnesses and how new diagnostic tests are developed. Pupils also consider when screening programmes for diseases are appropriate. How do doctors diagnose disease? First, they take note of a patient’s symptoms. Symptoms are physical signs produced by a disease, but they are not the cause of that disease. If you have a fever, this is your body’s response to an infection. The infection causes your immune system to respond by raising the body’s temperature, and the fever is the symptom of the infection. This resource was made in collaboration between Centre of the Cell and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

The activities in this workshop introduce the idea that there are certain factors, called risk factors, which can increase a person’s likelihood of developing a disease. Pupils learn how scientists use research to determine what the risk factors are for various diseases. This resource was made in collaboration between Centre of the Cell and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

The activities in this workshop introduce the concept of vaccination and why it only protects the population if most people are vaccinated. They show how early vaccination was tested and discuss the role of informed consent in Clinical Research. Pupils learn about the process of developing a new vaccine. The immune system “remembers” its reaction to pathogens and is able to replicate this response. Vaccines work by triggering a controlled immune response, so that a person’s immune system is able to recognize and destroy pathogens before that person becomes ill. This resource was made in collaboration between Centre of the Cell and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.