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3. Poster Making Assignment Question

Posters should include:

• An introduction to the topic.
• More detailed information relevant to the topic. This may include:
  • facts regarding the molecule and its structure and/or function
  • disease and molecules/genes involved in the disease
  • evolutionary relationships
  • association with superfamilies of molecules
  • clinical relevance
  • population distribution
  • mutation frequency, ethnic variation

• Images, graphs, pathways, molecular structures, sequence alignments and other graphics which help to convey the poster’s topic. For this poster, taking images from websites (such as UCSC genome browser displays, biologically relevant pathway information or PBD images etc) is allowed.

• All figures should be accompanied by a small associated text box which contains a legend to the figure (a legend being a fairly brief, self contained explanation of the figure). Figures are to be referred to in the text by the figure number. Tables of data similarly are referred to by their table number (in each case starting at 1, eg figure 1, figure 2 etc).

• References and data sources should be added as a separate text block (usually low down on the poster).

The data presented should be relevant and aim to make the poster an interesting information delivery system.

This exercise will require you to be selective in what you present - there will be a huge amount of information available to you. Your choices should be justified in your choice of title and in the accompanying report.

Things to think about…

Visual style: careful choice of font and colour can enhance a poster's appeal. A background image or pattern/colour can be used, but avoid vivid colours. Pale or dark backgrounds and images work best. If using an image as background, fading it to be very pale or dark overall will ensure text is visible.

Examples of posters are present on the corridors in places, so it is worth looking at what Researchers do for conference posters. Have a look and see what sort of layout you like (or particularly dislike), and design yours accordingly.

Avoid too much text (ie don’t fill the page with it). Text separated into discrete and relevant sections is easier to read.

Do not use animations of any sort in your PowerPoint file – these are obviously inappropriate for poster presentations.

Do not make more than 1 slide. If you submit more than 1 slide, only the first one will be evaluated.

Check your images/graphics etc look OK when scaled to 200% - if they are pixellated they will not look good on the final printouts.