Special guest presenters Mikey Robins (Good News Week, Vega FM Breakfast Host) and Robyn Williams (ABC Radio National, The Science Show Host) will join some of the sharpest minds in Australia including Professor John Shine, Garvan Executive Director and Associate Professor Phillip Stricker, Director, St Vincent’s Prostate Cancer Centre to discuss “The Future of Science and Medicine”. This panel discussion will complement research updates by leading Garvan researchers on cancer and diabetes.

An interactive Expo offers the chance to talk to leading scientists about their breakthrough research and specific diseases. Visitors can see live human cells through the microscope, witness cancer cells growing, determine their individual risk of bone fracture, understand why dieters hit weight loss plateaus and how to overcome them, experience what it feels like to lose or gain 14 kilos of fat, and what effect it has on the brain, hunger and energy levels.

Tours of Garvan’s state-of-the-art research facility will take in some of the amazing technology used to ensure Garvan remains at the cutting edge of medical research. For example, visitors will see the Mass Array Sequenom Analyser, which can test up to 768 DNA samples at once, effectively enabling what used to take eight months in cancer research to be completed in one day.

Garvan's Open Day will be a great day of discovery:

• See what a state-of-art medical research facility is really like

• Learn about some amazing technology enabling medical research to progress at such a rapid rate

• Explore an Expo where scientists will show you their cutting edge research 

• Join a discussion with senior researchers and clinicians on one of the biggest issues: where is medical research and science heading?