ABC to the LMB

All facilities and services at the LMB are designed to allow you to focus on your research without having to worry about all those very time consuming procedures that generally need to be carried out in order to perform your research. It's absolutely fabulous to be a PhD student here! Our ABC will provide you with a glimpse of the institute with it's numerous outstanding facilities, instruments, services and more.

Antibodies: The technique for producing monoclonal antibodies was pioneered at the LMB by César Milstein, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in 1984.
Biological Services: The LMB Biological Services have state of the art accomodation for rodent, amphibian and aquatic models for research. These operate under strict Home Office regulations. The highly skilled Animal Technician staff perform the husbandry and breeding aspects of animal work to ensure welfare provision to all animals and moreover can with agreement provide additional experimental services.
Computer Support: The IT team at the LMB will always provide you with instant and highly qualified help concerning all sorts of computer related problems. The bioinformaticians at the LMB can help to write a progrem, relevant for your work and are always open for collaborations.
Doughnuts: Available on Fridays during tea-time from the LMB canteen.
E-Mailing List: If you run out of a reagent whilst performing your experiments, don't panic! Just send a quick e-mail to everyone in the building and usually someone can help you out instantly. This is aslo true is you just want to try a new method, reagent or cell line or if you urgently need a bike pump.
Flow Cytometry: Our highly qualified Flor Cytometry Staff is happy to help you with any of our brand new Flow Cytometers and Cell Sorters.
GSA: The Graduate Student Association (GSA) organises numerous subsidised fun events throughout the year, giving you the opportunity to socialise with your fellow students.
Haemoglobin: The structure of haemoglobin was solved at the LMV by Max Perutz, who won the Nobel prize for his pioneering work in X-ray crystallography in 1962, together with John Kendrew,
Independence: The independence of PhD students is spelled in CAPITALS at the LMB.
Journal Club: The Journal Club is organised by students for students. Once per month, one student presents a non-work related scientific article whilst the others enjoy free Pizza!
Kitchen for Media and Glassware: One of the most useful facilities in your every day wet-lab-life! Clean and sterile glassware as well as stashes of the general media, buffers, solutions and media plates is always available while special media and plates can be ordered for the next day.
Library: The Library offers a quiet haven for study and support for any information retrieval queries or open access related questions. Access to a vast range of information resources is available both on site and online, with a large collection of 2000 online journals, 100 print journals and 4000 books.

Microscopy: The LMB has various state-of-the-art microscopes, including the superb Polara Electron-Microscope and other EMs as well as numerous confocal-, UV-, flourescence and light- microscopes.
Nobel Prizes: The work for 13 Nobel Prizes has been carried out at the LMB.
Oligonucleotide Synthesis: You need an oligo quickly? No problem, the in-house sevice can generate it for you in a few hours or you can order it from a company for the next day.
Protein Synthesis and Analysis: The LMB Mass Spectrometry Facility has various state-of-the-art instruments to analyse your protein. The LMB has several NMRs (300-800Mhz), EMs and X-ray sets which you can use to analyse the structure of your protein. Need to produce a large amount of your protein? Use our 120L fermentor.
Questions: Will always be answered at the LMB!
Robotic Crystallisation: Several robots are available to screen for the optimal crystallisation reagents for your protein.
Stores: A simply great and speedy service! All general lab consumables that you frequently use in your every day lab-life can be conveniently bought straight from MRC Stores in the building.
Transgenic and Genotyping Facilities: The transgenic facility can transfect youe targeting construct into ES cells, select, grow and pick them for you. Once the right clone is found they will use it to generate a targeted mouse for you. Need your mouse to be genotyped? Our new facility is happy to do it for you in just one day!
Ultra Centrifuge: Almost every instrument (e.g. ultra centrifuges) that you will possibly need for your experiments can be found somewhere in the building. Major instruments are generally shared, promoting interaction between the scientists.
Visual Aids: MRC Visual Aids provides an excellent, photographic, video, illustration and desktop publishing service. Any figure, poster, or other illustration you need - they are happy to help and make it look superbly professional! (e.g. this Insider's Guide to the LMB!)
Workshops: The LMB workshops for electronics and mechanics will provide you with instant help if an instrument breaks down. Furthermore, the highly skilled staff can build almost anything you would possibly need for your research, ranging from a large-scale prototype and state-of-the-art instruments to simple, non-standard gel combs.
X-ray crystallography: The LMB has several in-house X-ray sets, which allow you to check your crystals in the beam before going to the Synchotron to solve the protein structure.
You: You have the opportunity as an LMB PhD student to make a great contribution to science!
Zinc Fingers: Sir Aaron Klug, who won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1982, discovered zinc fingers are the LMB. Zinc fingers are nowadays used by pharmaceutical companies for cutting edge gene therapy.