Weekly round-up #191

Launching today: BCG Adventures 

VALIDATE team, with some amazing help from members, has been developing BCG Adventures - a series of educational video games all about vaccines. The project officially launches today and we ask that our members play the games and share them as widely as possible. These games would not have been possible without the expertise of our amazing members and support from the University of Oxford Enriching Engagement scheme, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

About the games

Travel back to 1917 and explore a war-torn city to help invent a life-saving vaccine. Avoid killer traffic, deadly rivers and dangerous dogs to deliver BCG to the communities that need it. Enter a microscopic world and defend the human body from mycobacterial invaders. These games are an open-access resource to help VALIDATE members, researchers, parents and teachers engage young people with the science of vaccines.

Two games will be released on Wednesday and you can take a sneak-peak now! Please do not share these pages until after the official launch…

• Albert and Camille’s Little Lille Adventure is an exploration and adventure game in which you help Albert Calmette and Camille Gu鲩n explore occupied Lille in 1917 and gather the supplies they need to create the BCG vaccine (whilst avoiding unfriendly soldiers).
• In Vaccine Delivery Adventure you play as a healthcare worker trying to overcome the challenges of delivering the BCG vaccine in increasingly more difficult environments – can you deliver the vaccines in time?

And coming soon:

• Welcome to your Immune System (coming soon) is an arcade-style game where you defend human cells from an invading of bacteria. 

Spread the word

We need your help getting the word out about this exciting project! With that in mind, we have created a Promotion Pack with everything you need to engage teachers, colleagues, friends and any young people/future scientists who might enjoy the game. The pack includes trailers, gifs, screenshots and some wording for social media posts and emails. .

Our members could help spread the word in the following ways:

• Let colleagues at your institution know about the games…
• post about each of the games on your social media…
• inform any teachers you know or might work with…
• and encourage any young people in your life to play the games and let their friends know.

• Rv0180c contributes to Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell shape and to infectivity in mice and macrophages, Payros D et al, in Plos Pathogens

• Construction and immunogenicity of a T cell epitope-based subunit vaccine candidate against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Xueting FanX et al,in Vaccines

• Engineered porous/hollow Burkholderia pseudomallei loading tumor lysate as a vaccine, Huang FY et al, in Biomaterials