Just a few months after it was officially opened, the covers have finally come off the Merck Advanced Training Laboratory at the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM). The lab, funded to the tune of R550 000 by the pharmaceutical giant, will be used by, among others, Associate Professor Arieh Katz of the Division of Medical Biochemistry who teaches molecular-biology laboratory techniques to students on the BSc (Med) honours programmes of the School of Biomedical Sciences. The 36 students, including Andrea Mapili (above), on the course this year were the first to avail themselves of the lab.