A bath mat of course!
Dissemination of science to a general audience can be challenging- but a fun challenge. A team from JCoDiRC (Jorunn Stamnæs, Louise F Risnes and Alisa Dewan) went all in to create a visual and tangible presentation of the small intestine, the complex processes that occur in the celiac intestine and how research is done to learn more about the disease. A second important point was to visually demystify gluten, which has become a mythical entity rather than a (to most people) harmless plant storage protein with cool biochemical properties. The team made us of a range of everday items to visualize key concepts: the small intestine- a bath mat of course. The coeliac intestine- a bath mat without villi! T cells, B cells and gluten were represented and the stand had multiple quizes and user engagements (including candy).
The team also created a coeliac "flyer" explaining the key processes of the coeliac pathogenesis in a cartoon format (in Norwegian). You can download the full format flyer here. The following image stream will give you a tour of the event!
(Video made by Michael Risnes)