Aurora students visit UNMC to prepare for international competition

The students from the Aurora Public Schools with the UNMC faculty who helped them learn about the pharmaceutical field.

A group of about 20 sixth, ninth and twelfth grade students from the Aurora Public Schools, who will compete this week in an international academic competition, recently stopped by the University of Nebraska Medical Center to prepare for the contest.

The students visited the UNMC Youth Learning Center in Omaha to talk with two medical center faculty members about pharmaceuticals — the topic the Aurora students will confront this week at the Future Problem Solving Program International Contest at the University of Indiana.

At the competition, which starts Thursday, the students will be given a pharmaceutical-related problem to solve.

At UNMC, the students met with UNMC’s David McMillan, Ph.D. and James Booth, Ph.D., associate professors in the College of Medicine, and asked questions related to:

  • How drugs are developed and how pharmaceutical companies make profits;
  • What drugs will look like in the future and how will they affect and are affected by our DNA; and
  • Whether antibiotics are being used properly or misused by doctors, patients and the agricultural business.

Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu.