Birkerød Gymnasium wins the biology category in the Drughunters competition 2023

Drughunters is a science competition organized by H. Lundbeck A/S as part of Forskningens Døgn. Here, high school students from all over the country compete in knowledge of and dissemination of a brain disease and its treatment. Pupils can participate in the categories biology, chemistry, biotechnology and, from this year, also mathematics. The design of the tasks differs from year to year, but always contains five sub-questions that can only be answered by in-depth research in scientific literature. The questions typically deal with disease description and the unmet needs with today's medicine, cellular mechanisms in the brain that are responsible for the disease, the problem of getting medicine into the brain, use of experimental animals for testing medicine and suggestions for future treatment of the disease.

This year, three classes from Birkerød Gymnasium, HF, IB and Boarding School participated; 2y in the biology competition, 2n and 2x in the chemistry competition. Each team of three students must produce a poster with good figures and text to answer the task. In the run-up to submission, all classes worked on the nervous system in biology and the properties of chemical substances in chemistry, after which the teams must independently answer the task based on the disease depression. Working with the assignment is a big challenge for the students, who must themselves choose a possible solution to the assignment and seek the necessary knowledge, e.g. in English-language scientific articles. It is therefore also a unique training for the large written SRP assignment in 3g, while at the same time it is important core material, i.a. in biology A, biotechnology A and chemistry B.

The result of the work was some very different solutions and beautiful designs, all of which were presented with a five-minute presentation in the classes. The winner in each class went on to the final at Lundbeck in Valby on Friday 28/4. It was a packed day with speeches from Group Director for Research and Development Johan Luthman and Minister of Education and Research Christina Egelund, presentations from the Opus panel about life with a mental illness, Brain Battle where thesis students presented their research and Jan and Je's show, in addition to the many poster presentations within each category. The best posters in each category were selected for presentation on the big stage for all participants.

Congratulations to Amalie Ertmann, Asta Braad Dragsbæk and Micha Mørkøv Lübbe