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Seventeen Minutes of Science: Removing Language Barriers & Making Science More Accessible

Tune in weekly to our virtual series “Seventeen Minutes of Science” every Tuesday at 11am PST / 2pm ET where we go live on Facebook with a new guest each week to talk about how science and biotechnology is woven into their lives for (you guessed it) 17 minutes!

This week on 17 Minutes of Science we are joined by Karol Andrade Bohorquez.

Before the pandemic, Karol was working as a research assistant at a Zoonotic lab in Ecuador (where she currently lives) at the university. Due to the pandemic, all projects were put on hold, so she’s used the extra time to work on her science communications Instagram account (genen_ka), which focuses on the life sciences, specifically genetics. She decided to focus on SciComms to spark meaningful discussions around establishing scientific credibility and to re-establish trust with the public.

Science in Karol’s country (Ecuador) sometimes sounds more like science fiction to the public than reality, and it is because they have not been given the opportunity to get involved. When you say the word “scientist” they usually picture an old man in a lab.

Karol wants to challenge that.

We are in an era in which we can make strong statements through social media. That is why she decided to create GenenKa: Genetics with Karol (GenenKa ). Karol studied genetics and since then has been excited to tell everyone how cool and amazing genetics can be. But every time she tried to tell her parents or friends about it, she noticed that the terminology used was unnecessarily complex and complicated. This made Karol realize that in order to make people interested in something , they first need to understand it. That is what she has been trying to do on her IG account (@genen_ka).

“I consider myself as some kind of translator. I translate weird almost boring looking papers into eye-catching posts, so that everyone can get involved and excited about every new discovery”. While doing so, she also noticed that most updated and relevant information can be found only in English, which creates an information barrier to anyone who is not fluent in English medical vocabulary.

Tune in to learn more! And follow Karol on Facebook (GenenKa) and on Instagram (@genen_ka).

About The Author

InVivo Biosystems

InVivo Biosystems provides essential services to help pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, biotechnology companies and academic research institutions around the globe accelerate their research and drug development efforts. An expert in CRISPR genome editing, InVivo Biosystems creates custom genome edited C. elegans and zebrafish models to enable aging and other disease studies. In addition, InVivo Biosystems provides in-vivo analytical services to produce data and insights for companies that need to make go/no-go decisions quickly in early-stage development of new compounds.

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