Cologne Children´s University at our Institute

What do the cells in my body look like?

What do the cells in my body look like, how does a PCR work and how do you get DNA out of a banana? Twelve children investigated these questions in a workshop of the Cologne KinderUni at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing.

Our body is made up of an unimaginably large number of cells. There are many different types of cells, for example nerve cells, skin cells and muscle cells. And the different types of cells have different tasks in our body.

"We take our young junior researchers on a journey into the body. They look at different cell types, look at their own cells and also perform a PCR," explains Maren Berghoff, responsible for public relations at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing.

"I totally enjoyed the workshop and the supervisors were also really nice," said one of the workshop participants. "What I enjoyed most was getting the DNA out of the banana."