The Giant Cell is coming to Cambridge!!!!

Click on the flyer to enlarge and get more info!!! Please share with friends and family. We look forward to seeing you at The Giant Cell!

Welcome to The Giant Cell Blog!

The Giant Cell is the brain-child of Janine Hermann, Head of Education at Interpharma. Interpharma is the Trade Association for research based pharma companies in Switzerland, much like MassBio is in Massachusetts. Interpharma Education (the sister organization to MassBioEd) endeavors to enhance science teaching at all school levels all over Switzerland with specialized projects, such as Teach the Teachers (for teachers), Science Interests Me (for students) and new educational tools like The Giant Cell Exhibit.

The Giant Cell is unique in the world: it is an inflatable model of a human white blood cell magnified 300,000 times. One can literally walk into the Giant Cell and explore all the details of a human cell. It includes a number of interactive devices, screens and audio-guides that explain the cell organelles. (see flyer)

The cell was jointly produced by Interpharma and the University of Basel (which celebrated its 550th anniversary in 2010). Since April 2010, the cell has been on-the-road to high schools in Switzerland, France and Germany. Over 20,000 students have already visited the cell in Europe. Everybody has been fascinated by it. Now you too can explore within the cell, in 3D reality, much of what you have learned from textbooks.

The cell will come to Boston for the grand opening of the Cambridge Science Festival on April 20th and will be open for class visits from April 23rd through April 25th at the Atrium in Alexandria's Technology Square (a short walk from the Kendall Square MBTA stop).

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Giant Cell. There will be 4 Biologists from Switzerland (including 2 PhD students from University of Basel, one Master student from ETH Zurich and one from University of Zurich) explaining the cell and assisting visitors to perform some scientific experiments.

To schedule an appointment for your class please visit the "Schedule an Visit" tab at the top and fill out the required information. For more information on visits and the Giant Cell in general please email Lia Breunig or Andi Sonderegger (click name for email).