Communicating our science at the Great Exhibition Road Festival 

Posted on June 10, 2025
Lorraine Gibson
By Lorraine Gibson

Assistant Communications Officer, Imperial College London
Target Malaria UK

The  Great Exhibition Road Festival  is a free annual celebration of science and the arts each summer in South Kensington, led by  Imperial College London.  This year the event took place on 7-8 June and attracted many visitors, around 50,000, according to the festival’s organizing team. 

Visitors could enjoy hands-on workshops, interesting talks, performances and installations from iconic museums, research and culture organisations, including  Imperial College London, the  Natural History Museum,  Royal College of Music,  Science Museum,  V&A,  Royal Albert Hall and many more.    

Target Malaria was present last year, and it was a pleasure to be exhibiting again but this time in the  Future Medicine Zone located at the Imperial Business School, an area dedicated to allowing visitors to experience and discover how new innovations are transforming the future of healthcare. 

Ndeye Mane Sall from the Global Communications team with a visitor.
Martina Mattioli from the Crisanti Lab at Imperial College London showcasing mosquitoes to visitors.

The stand featured various communication tools, such as our   card game “Mozzie Drive”, the  “Swarm” sonification, live mosquitoes and larvae allowing visitors to come face-to-face with mosquitoes.   Visitors were also able to play Target Malaria: The Game, a video game is created in collaboration with Michael Marston, a British video game developer, and Louise Marston, one of Target Malaria’s senior research technicians at Imperial College London. The game allows the player to enter a simulation laboratory, which has been modelled after our real laboratory, and play a module to experience the process of microinjection. The game is available for free download and you can find out more about its development.   

Lord Cobbinah from the Global Communications team playing Target Malaria: The Game with visitors.
Naomi Greenberg from the Crisanti Lab at Imperial College London and Divine Dzokoto from the Global Communications team with visitors.

This was a great opportunity for the team to engage with the public, who were of all ages and backgrounds, to let them know about the project and our vision of a malaria-free future. Thank you to everyone who visited our stand! 

Big thanks to the Crisanti Lab, who welcomed the volunteers to the laboratory and insectary to meet the Discovery team and provided samples of mosquitoes for the Target Malaria stand. 

Krystal Birungi from Target Malaria Uganda discussing mosquitoes with a visitor.
Young visitors playing the plasmid screening module of Target Malaria: The Game.