MedMagLabs (Griffith University) and the Queensland Virtual STEM Academy teamed up to offer two 10-week research programs for Queensland high school students keen to tackle a grand challenge. The program has been supported by a Queensland Government Citizen Science Grant.
Year 9 and 10 citizen scientists from regional and rural high schools have designed, built and tested DIY maggot laboratories for the production of medicinal maggots used in maggot therapy. These cheap low-tech but effective laboratories aim to be replicated by isolated communities in conflict regions where medical aid is hard to reach.
Maggot therapy is the treatment of wounds with living fly larvae to remove dead tissue, to control infection, and to promote wound healing. This project has real-life impact, and participating citizen scientists will help to save limbs and lives in conflict and war.
Students from high schools across Queensland learned about maggot therapy and medicinal fly biology. They used this knowledge to invent cheap and easy equipment and methods to produce medicinal maggots in low-resource healthcare settings such as conflict-affected communities. Students built cages for flies and maggots and laboratory equipment to prepare maggots safely for treatment.
MedMagLabs’ partnership with QVSA and the Queensland Government has been a win-win for all involved. Australians living in rural and remote parts of the country are famous for their resourcefulness and ingenuity which this collaboration unlocked to save limbs and lives of innocent civilians in conflict zones around the world. For the citizen science students, it was a fantastic opportunity to work with researchers on an extraordinary challenge that highlights clearly the value of citizen science in delivering real-world outcomes.
In 2019 MedMagLabs was awarded a CAD250,000 grant to conduct maggot therapy supply chain research from Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge. It is a partnership of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, with support from Grand Challenges Canada.