The University of Valencia participates in the Igualment Fest with its workshop “Virus hunters”

  • Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit
  • November 21st, 2023
 
2023 Igualment Fest poster

The activity, within the framework of the Igualment Fest organised by the Valencia City Council to celebrate gender equality from an artistic, social and cultural perspective, promotes knowledge of the problem of resistant bacteria, as well as the use of phages as antimicrobial therapy. Pilar Domingo, main researcher of the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group at the University of Valencia, will teach the workshop, aimed at children.

The University of Valencia will carry out the “Virus hunters” workshop at the Igualment Fest, which will be held on Sunday 28. The activity consists of searching for phages, the viruses that infect bacteria, at the Viveros gardens. Through this activity, girls and boys will learn the danger of the misuse of antibiotics and the need to investigate alternative therapeutic approaches that allow treating bacterial infections specifically and effectively, something for which phages show promise. You can participate from 11:00 to 14:00 on Sunday.

“Virus hunters” is a workshop created and coordinated by UV scientist Pilar Domingo-Calap. It is the result of her work as principal investigator of the Environmental and Biomedical Virology group of the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), a joint centre of the CSIC and the University of Valencia, which she leads in the Valencian Community “SUPERFAGO”. This pioneering project seeks to explain phage therapy to ESO and Baccalaureate students as a therapeutic tool against infections caused by superbugs, those resistant to antibiotics.

Igualment Fest will be held at the Viveros gardens of Valencia, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Gender Violence, celebrated on the 25th. The festival aims to “celebrate gender equality from a positive, artistic, social, culture and gender, aimed at all citizens”, explained Lucia Beamud, Councillor for Gender Equality and Policies and LGTBI, in the presentation of the municipal campaign against sexist violence. The event brings together 23 entities related to the protection and support of women and the fight against gender violence.

This activity is co-funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Science and Innovation