Neuroscience: osteopontin and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Biology and Chemistry.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Amanda Brown, a neuroscience researcher based at Johns Hopkins University in the US who is studying inflammation and neuronal injury in the brain, particularly that caused by HIV-associated disorders.
• It also contains an interview with Amanda. If you or your students have a question for her, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Amanda will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Amanda’s research, and tasks them to think about what they could achieve as a neuroscience researcher.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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