MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
University of the Third Age
U3As provides opportunities for people no longer in full-time employment to pursue learning not for qualifications, but for fun.
The University of the Third Age (U3A) is a university in its oldest sense of being a collective of people devoted to learning. It exists for people of the Third Age; those that have graduated from full time employment and parental responsibility and who are free now to follow their own interests.
No qualifications are needed and none are given. Members share learning experiences across a huge range of subjects through a network of self-managed organisations.
Since 2003 NIMR has hosted an annual meeting for the North London region of the U3A, which has been enthusiastically attended by around 150 U3A members. Scientists from NIMR give talks which last around 30 minutes, and are followed by questions and discussion with U3A members.
Previous U3A meetings at NIMR
Reviews of previous meetings are available, to give you a flavour of the range of topics covered at a meeting.
- 2012 meeting - 2012 meeting - Fetal afflictions and the most important days of our lives
- You are what your mother ate - Alex Gould
- Limb formation and perils from inadequately tested drugs - Malcolm Logan
- 2011 meeting - Curses and benefits of parasites
- Malaria: a complex parasite with powerful friends (mosquitoes) - Tony Holder
- The hygiene hypothesis and the origins of allergy and autoimmunity - Mark Wilson
- 2010 U3A meeting - Understanding the heart in health and disease
- Identifying the cause of heart malfunctions - Dr Tim Mohun
- Why should a cardiologist care about developmental biology - Dr Ross Breckenridge
- 2009 U3A meeting - Making an embryo from a fertilised egg
- How cells of the embryo become different from each other - Professor Jim Smith FRS
- How brain tissue sub-divides into functionally distinct units - Dr David Wilkinson
- 2008 U3A meeting - Biochemical signals maketh man
- Making the spinal cord - Dr James Briscoe
- Regulating the hormone that makes bones grow - Professor Iain Robinson
- 2007 U3A meeting - Deconstructing the nervous system
- What is the physical basis of memory?
- Looking for ways to repair spinal injuries
- 2006 U3A meeting - Public health threats
- Waiting for a pandemic
- Growing up in India and Ethiopia: reflections on the Millennium Development Goals
- 2005 U3A meeting - Spectacular plumbing: Scientific insights into the heart and circulatory system
- Creating a heart that can last a hundred years
- Miraculous Self-maintaining Plumbing
- 2004 U3A meeting - Chemical messengers in human biology
- 2003 U3A meeting
- The secrets of the human genome. What will we learn about human biology? - Don Williamson
- Have we anything to fear from infectious disease? - Anne O'Garra
- New ways of refurbishing the damaged body - Robin Lovell-Badge
© MRC National Institute for Medical Research
The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA
Top of page