Rare Disease Day is an international day celebrated in over 100 countries to raise awareness amongst the general public, the clinical community, and decision-makers about rare diseases and their impact on people affected and their families

At Royal Holloway we have celebrated the day since 2011 by inviting sixth form, college and secondary school students, and members of the public to attend lectures, an exhibition and to get hands-on experience in our labs. See our Rare Disease Day webpage for previous events and updates to the 2022 programme.

On Monday 28 February 2022, 10 am-3:30 pm we will run a virtual event directed to secondary school years 10, 11 and 12. We will very much maintain the format from previous years, with live talks, live exhibition, speed-dating and hands-on activities. The event will touch on medicine, genetics, genomics, biomedical research, societal aspects of rare diseases, as well as university life and other general topics. It will be of particular interest to students considering health-related and science careers.

The afternoon session (2-3:30 pm) is optional. It will include a hands-on activity that will require participating schools to prepare some materials in advance. Full instructions will be provided.

Lead teachers will register their school group. Please note, for this event we are not able to accept individual bookings, however the recorded lectures will be made available via the Royal Holloway Rare Disease Day website after the event.

We very much hope that you will be able to attend our Rare Disease Day event.

If you have any questions about our Rare Disease Day 2022 event please email Prof Rafael Yáñez at rafael.yanez@royalholloway.ac.uk.

Lectures:

• Introduction to Rare Disease Day, Prof Rafael J. Yáñez Muñoz (Prof of Advanced Therapy at Royal Holloway University of London, http://agctlab.org, @rjyanezmunoz)
• The British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, Dr Robyn Bell (Imperial College and British Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, https://www.bsgct.org/, @_bsgct and @robynbell29)
• Gene therapy for neuromuscular diseases, Prof Linda Popplewell (Prof of Molecular Therapies at Royal Holloway University of London, https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/linda-popplewell(b52b1849-52c4-49d3-b248-55e8adaa4b70).html, @PopplewellGroup)

Participating schools will be required to commit formally, as per the instructions below:

• Online presentations and interactions will be through Microsoft Teams. The School teachers supporting the participating students will have familiarised themselves with MS Teams ahead of the event.
• Monitoring the web-based small-group interactions (with external exhibitors, and with undergraduate students in speed-dating) will be the responsibility of the Schools, but Royal Holloway organisers will make every effort to have a volunteer present in the virtual rooms.
• Registered schools will inform Royal Holloway of the size of the group in attendance.