Public Engagement
Our team is rooted on our passion for public engagement, and we believe that interacting with people outside of our team is essential to the spread of our research. Our journey to expand started this summer, where we went to the headquarters of Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) and Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) to present and learn about different brain diseases. We partnered up with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation to promote 10,000 daily steps to people of all ages in New York. From the educational aspects of it, we went on to meet the Columbia University Synthetic Biology Team and present to Stuyvesant High School. To act within the hospital rooms, we also attended the NYC HDSA Family Education Day at Columbia University Medical Center to chat directly with Huntington’s disease patients, their caregivers and public advocates. We find passion in such commitments, as our goal is to, not only conduct research, but to promote health and to raise awareness to the general public.
October 28 2017
We are attending New York City HDSA FAMILY EDUCATION DAY at Columbia University Medical Center – Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion. Event is sponsored by HDSA (Huntington’s Disease Society of America) and HDSA Center of Excellence at Columbia University NYS Psychiatric Institute. Thanks to Casey Snyder and Paula Wasserman for the opportunity.
Julia, Stacy and Catherine attended the event and met with Huntington’s disease patients, their caregivers, advocates and professionals who have been working and studying Huntington’s disease at Columbia University.
October 25 2017
We had a great opportunity to present HD Resolution iGEM project to Stuyvesant High School community of students, student leaders and teachers. Thanks to Julia, Sohee, Rachel and Jessica for organizing this event.
Attended: Rachel, Catherine, Sohee, Jessica and Marianne.
October 21 2017
We are meeting with Columbia University Synthetic Biology Initiative and we are thankful for giving us an opportunity to present our HD Resolution iGEM project to Columbia University Synthetic Biology Initiative members and Columbia University iGEM Team students. Huge thanks to Jennifer, Jason and Benjamin at Columbia iGEM team for the event.
Attended: Esther, Rachel, Yeji, Jason, Eric and Frank
October 17 2017
We had a meeting with Dr. George Yohrling, PhD, Senior Director, Mission and Scientific Affairs and Dr. Leora Fox, PhD, Manager, Research and Mission Programs at Huntington’s Disease Society of America headquarters in New York, NY in October 17 2017. We presented our HD Resolution iGEM project and had a great discussion about the Huntinton’s Disease and possible cures. We are thankful for their insights about Huntington’s Disease current development and HDSA’s wonderful work for the past 50 years.
Attended: Jessica, Sohee, Rachel, Eric, Jason and Frank.
HDSA’s shared document illustrating Antisense oligonucleotides: the science behind the new and ongoing clinical trials.
September 2017
we are excited about our partnership with Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation and joined its Steptember campaign to promote 10,000 daily steps as a healthy way of life among high school students and people.
Dear students! Are you and your friends looking for a fun way to make a big impact this fall, both in your lives and in the lives of others? Sign up today for the STEPtember challenge, it’s free for you! STEPtember is a global fitness challenge in which you commit to take 10,000 steps a day for 28-days straight (September 4th-October 1st)! You’ll join up in teams and ask your family and friends to sponsor you on your journey. All money raised goes towards advancing cutting edge Cerebral Palsy Research. Cerebral Palsy is also a brain disease and affects 17 million people and their ability to move.
It’s not too late to sign up! Get started today:
- Join up in teams of up to 4 and designate a team captain
- Team captain registers at https://event.steptember.us/signup and invites up to 3 teammates to join
- Receive your starter kit and pedometer ($25 value) in the mail or use your own fitness device or smart phone step tracker
- Complete your fundraising page and let your friends know about your journey
- Walk, run, dance, swim and bike your way to 10,000 daily steps! (over 40 activities count toward your steps!)
When you sign up, use the code to waive the registration fee: NYHS_2017
P.S. Check out this video about STEPtember STEPtember2017 60sec Ad
Don’t forget to like STEPtember of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steptemberus/
Download the steptember app today: IOS search: “steptember” or Android search: “steptember cerebral palsy”
For all questions related to Steptember, please reach out to Nina Miller at nmiller@cparf.org
August 21 2017
We had a great opportunity to meet with entire staff at Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) Headquarters in New York. Thanks to AFA and its staff, we had an opportunity to share our HD Resolution iGEM project and learned about Alzheimer’s Disease since both diseases are both brain diseases. Thank you to Sherry Cheng, Coordinator at AFA for organizing this event and Stephanie Crumpton and the rest of AFA team for their hospitality.
