中文
HOME
HOME / LATEST NEWS / Content

Grade 10: A Field Trip to GSK

December 22, 2013

Grade 10: A Field Trip to GSK

On Friday afternoon, we took the school bus to GSK. After we got in the lobby, we were each given a visitor’s badge. We followed a chemist to the 6th floor where we were led into a spacious meeting room. Once there a neurobiologist used a PowerPoint presentation to introduce us GSK.

GSK focuses on making medicine for nervous system diseases, and it has had several scientists who have been awarded Nobel Prizes for discovering new medicines. GSK mainly focuses on finding medicines for diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s Disease, strokes, and other nervous system diseases. The process of making a medicine is very difficult. From finding out the mechanisms that cause a disease, to creating the medicine, to in vitro tests, to tests on animals, and finally to tests on humans is a long and expensive process.

Afterwards, we went to visit the GSK labs. Because of intellectual property protection policies, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the lab. We started off by visiting the biology labs on the first floor. For safety reasons, we were only allowed to stand at the door of the lab. A biologist gave us a brief introduction to their experiments for testing medicines and emphasized the long and difficult process of testing a medicine.

Then we were taken to the chemistry lab on the third floor. The chemistry lab is huge with many high-tech machines. There were many chemists with gloves and goggles walking back and forth in the lab. A chemist explained the working principles of the machines, including chromatography and crystallization. A chemist even showed us a sealed bottle of strong acid, trifluoroacetic acid. The liquid is transparent and looks just like water.

Finally, we left GSK reluctantly. This tour was really impressive, and it seemed to many of us that working at GSK after we grow up would be a really good choice.

(Written by Cheryl Jiang; Picture by Cheryl Jiang; Supervising teacher: Sophia Yang)