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Collaborative Posters Develop Students' Ability to Communicate about Undervalued Scientific Resources to Nonscientists.

ABSTRACT: Scientists are increasingly called upon to communicate with the public, yet most never receive formal training in this area. Public understanding is particularly critical to maintaining support for undervalued resources such as biological collections, research data repositories, and expensive equipment. We describe activities carried out in an inquiry-driven organismal biology laboratory course designed to engage a diverse student body using biological collections. The goals of this cooperative learning experience were to increase students' ability to locate and comprehend primary research articles, and to communicate the importance of an undervalued scientific resource to nonscientists. Our results indicate that collaboratively created, research-focused informational posters are an effective tool for achieving these goals and may be applied in other disciplines or classroom settings.

SUBMITTER: Mayfield TJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5969409 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Collaborative Posters Develop Students' Ability to Communicate about Undervalued Scientific Resources to Nonscientists.

Mayfield Teresa J TJ Olimpo Jeffrey T JT Floyd Kevin W KW Greenbaum Eli E

Journal of microbiology & biology education 20180330 1

Scientists are increasingly called upon to communicate with the public, yet most never receive formal training in this area. Public understanding is particularly critical to maintaining support for undervalued resources such as biological collections, research data repositories, and expensive equipment. We describe activities carried out in an inquiry-driven organismal biology laboratory course designed to engage a diverse student body using biological collections. The goals of this cooperative ...[more]

PMID: 29904523

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Project description:BackgroundMost cancer-related deaths result from disseminated diseases that develop resistance to anticancer treatments. Inappropriate communication in this challenging situation may result in unmet patient information and support needs. Patient communication aids such as question prompt lists (QPLs) may help.ObjectiveThis study aims to develop and pilot-test a specific QPL in the following two contrasting clinical contexts in France after cancer resistance has developed: triple-negative and luminal B metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM).MethodsA sequential study design with a mixed methods collaborative approach will be applied. The first step aims to build a specific QPL. Step 1a will explore oncologist-patient communication issues from oncology professionals' interviews (n=20 approximately). Step 1b will appraise information and support needs experienced by patients with MBC or MUM both quantitatively (n=80) and qualitatively (n=40 approximately). These data will be used to develop and pilot-test a QPL specific to patients with cancer experiencing initial or acquired resistance to treatment. We expect to obtain a core QPL that comprises questions and concerns commonly expressed by patients with resistant cancer and is complemented by specific issues for either MBC or MUM cancer sites. In step 1c, 2 focus groups of patients with any type of metastatic cancer (n=4) and health care professionals (n=4) will be conducted to revise the content of a preliminary QPL and elaborate an acceptable and feasible clinical implementation. In step 1d, the content of the QPL version 1 and implementation guidance will be validated using a Delphi process. Step 2 will pilot-test the QPL version 1 in real practice with patients with MBC or MUM (n=80). Clinical utility will be assessed by comparing responses to questionnaires administered in step 1b (QPL-naive historical control group) and step 2 (QPL intervention group).ResultsThis study received grants in March and December 2019 and was approved by the French national ethics committee in July 2019. As of October 2021, interviews with oncology professionals have been conducted and analyzed (N=26 to reach saturation), and 39 and 27 patients with MBC and MUM, respectively, have been recruited.ConclusionsA clinically and culturally tailored QPL is expected to facilitate patients' participation in consultations, improve oncologists' responses to patients' information and support needs, and thus foster patients' psychological adjustment to the diagnosis and follow-up of cancer resistance to treatment.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04118062; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04118062.International registered report identifier (irrid)DERR1-10.2196/26414.

Project description:Stress diseases such as affective disorders are often characterized by a disturbed regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. This dysregulation can be explained by an impaired function of the receptors involved in the HPA-axis regulation, for example, the glucocorticoid receptors (GR). The regulation process of the HPA axis and the GR function are influenced by several genes, for instance by NR3C1 coding for the GR and also by FKBP5, a co-chaperone in the GR-complex. Binder et al. showed that common polymorphisms in FKBP5 are associated with increased FKBP5 protein expression as well as correlation between cortisol levels and peripheral blood FKBP5 mRNA expression. Regarding the effects of FKPB5 genotypes on psychosocial stress reaction, Ising and colleagues tested healthy subjects with the Trier Social Stress Test, a standardized paradigm to induce psychosocial stress. Subjects homozygous for any of the FKBP5 variants showed an incomplete normalization of the stress induced cortisol secretion. Recent studies demonstrated that FKBP5 and NR3C1 are involved in the endocrine stress reaction. Therefore, we expected changes of FKBP5 and NR3C1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood after exposure to a psychosocial stress situation. To address this, we performed a pilot study where we tested six healthy young men without history of psychiatric or severe somatic disorders and applied the trier social stress test (TSST). Before and after two consecutive TSSTs, we took blood samples with a venous catheter in order to measure ACTH and cortisol in plasma and mRNA expression of the candidate genes in peripheral blood. Blood cells were stabilized using PAXgene tubes, and gene expression was processed by qPCR. Briefly after the psychosocial stress the stress hormones ACTH and cortisol increased whereas the reaction to the second TSST was lower suggesting a habituation effect. These endocrine stress responses were followed by an alteration in FKBP5 gene expression, further underlining the importance of this gene for the neuroendocrine stress reaction. NR3C1 mRNA levels did not change after the TSST. Our preliminary data indicate an effect of psychosocial stress on the FKBP5 mRNA levels. Further research with larger samples sizes is required to replicate and extend these results.

Dataset Information

Collaborative Posters Develop Students' Ability to Communicate about Undervalued Scientific Resources to Nonscientists.

Publications

Collaborative Posters Develop Students' Ability to Communicate about Undervalued Scientific Resources to Nonscientists.

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