Author: Brackley, Paul
Title: Dr Jan Löwe on the next frontier for MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge
Reference Cambridge Independent 12 December 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Miscellaneous
Subject: Part one of an interview with Jan Löwe describes how a long-term vision has had such success for the LMB and how such an approach could be used by LMB scientists to map the brain
Keywords: Jan Löwe; Greg Winter; Richard Henderson; Nobel Prize factory; Hugh Pelham; cryo-electron microscopy; Aaron Klug; CT scanners; Sjors Scheres; 3D structure; X-ray crystallography; Venki Ramakrishnan; ribosome; Sydney Brenner; neurons; human brain
Photographs: Jan Löwe in his office, Jan outside the buildingAuthor: Brackley, Paul
Title: Bacteria rule the planet - and we need to understand them, says MRC LMB director Dr Jan Löwe
Reference Cambridge Independent 19 December 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Miscellaneous
Subject: In the second part of the interview with Jan Löwe, he describes his group’s research on the bacterial cytoskeleton and its importance in the fight against antimicrobial resistance
Keywords: Jan Löwe, director; bacteria; Antonie van Leeuwenhoek; “animalcules”; Royal Society; FtsZ; MreB; cytoskeleton; tubulin; actin; “homologue”; proharyotes; antibiotic; AZ-LMB Blue Sky Fund; computers; bioinformatics; Sjors Scheres; cryo-electron microscopy; eukaryotes
Photographs: Jan Löwe on staircase in atrium, in front of the building, in atrium, in his office and next to the DNA model in foyer. (Keith Heppell)Author: Micro Control Instruments
Title: Top Ten Neuroscience Breakthroughs of 2018
Reference Micro Control Instruments 7 January 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Science
Subject: A list of the top ten neuroscience breakthroughs of 2018 includes work by the LMB’s Sjors Scheres and Michel Goedert on tau protein folds and by Greg Jefferis on imaging the fly brain, as well as alumnus Jonny Kohl for his work mapping neural circuitry associated with parenting.
Keywords: Tau protein; Alzheimer’s disease; Sjors Scheres; Michel Goedert; frontotemporal dementia; Cryo-electron microscopy; misfolded; Pick’s disease; fly brain imaged; nanoscale resolution; 3D volume; synaptic level; Johnny Kohl; alumni; galanin-expressing neurons; optogenetic tools; parental circuitry
Photographs:Author: Cookson, Clive
Title: Brilliance in the genes: inside Britain’s ‘Nobel prize factory’
Reference Financial Times 23 January 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Science
Subject: A new film from the Financial Times featuring interviews with Jan Löwe, Madeline Lancaster, Richard Henderson, and Greg Jefferis, describing the importance of long-term thinking and collaboration in continued success.
Keywords: Jan Löwe; Madeline Lancaster; Richard Henderson; Greg Jefferis; ‘Nobel prize factory; stem cells; mini-brains 3D neural tissues; neurological conditions; cryo-electron microscopy; amorphous ice; near-atomic structure; structure-based drug design; AstraZeneca; collaborate; connectome; Alzheimer’s disease; fly brain; neurons; Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Photographs:Author: Oliveira, Carla C.
Title: Dr. Ana Casañal
Reference The RNA Society 5 February 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Career Structure
Subject: RNA Society member spotlight on Ana Casañal, postdoc in Lori Passmore’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, including Ana’s tips on overcoming research challenges and advice for junior researchers.
Keywords: Ana Casañal; Lori Passmore; macromolecular machines; mRNA; cleavage and polyadenylation factor (CPF); cryo-EM structure; scientific career
Photographs: Ana Casañal in labAuthor: Kimble, Judith
Title: John Sulston (1942-2018) - A visionary biologist with a deep social conscience
Reference Science 13 April 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Obituary
Subject: Judith Kimble looks back on the life and career of John Sulston.
Keywords: John Sulston; Human Genome Project; caenorhabditis elegans nematode; director Sanger Centre; daughter cell; The Common Thread; worm; embryo
Photographs: John Sulston outside the Sanger CentreAuthor: MRC Life
Title: Celebrating successes across the MRC
Reference MRC Life February-March 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Awards & Prizes
Subject: Two MRC LMB group leaders, both from the Structural Studies Division, have been honoured in the inaugural Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK
Keywords: M Madan Babu; John Briggs; The Blavatnik Awards; Structural Studies; New York Academy of Sciences; young scientist
Photographs: Portrait pictures of John Briggs and Madan BabuAuthor: Gait, Michael J.
Title: Daniel McGillivray Brown. 3 February 1923 - 24 April 2012
Reference Royal Society 7 November 2018
Year: 2018
Type: History - Reminiscences
Subject: Michael Gait’s Biographical Memoir about Dan Brown
Keywords: Dan Brown; nucleic acid; nucleosides; hydroxylamine on cytidine; ‘bis-adduct’; RNA; X-ray crystallography; Brian Clark; Sydney Brenner; John Karn; David Loakes; Daniela Rhodes; Brian Sproat; Paul Kong; Naveen Anand; John Walker; mis-pairing; bicyclic deoxyriboside (dP); memoir; John Smith; oligodeoxyribonucleotides; base-pairs; mutagenesis
Photographs: Photo of young Dan Brown in lab; Photo of Dan’s research notebook from 1982; Dan at the bench at LMB; Dan and wife with Mike Gait at a Symposium dinnerAuthor: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology
Title: Walther Flemming Award 2018 for Clemens Plaschka
Reference Research Institute of Molecular Pathology 21 August 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni - Awards & Prizes
Subject: Clemens Plaschka, a former post-doctoral researcher in Kiyoshi Nagai’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, has won the 2018 Walther Flemming Award.
Keywords: Clemens Plaschka; Walther Flemming Award; German Society for Cell Biology; kiyoshi Nagai; spliceosome; alumni: RNA
Photographs:Author: Schuh, Melina
Title: Taking a confident leap into uncertainty
Reference Nature Cell Biology 28 August 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni
Subject: Melina Schuh, a former group leader in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has written about her experiences setting up her group at the LMB while also starting a family, for a Focus on Women in Science collection of articles
Keywords: Melina Schuh; Matthew Freeman; Sean Munro; mouse oocytes; Group Leader; Cell Biology; meiotic genes; Max Planck Institute; women in science; Trim-Away; career
Photographs: Photo of Melina (MPI BPC)Author: Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation
Title: 2018 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science Leadership in RNA biology and in scientific mentorship
Reference The Lasker Foundation 13 September 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni - Awards & Prizes
Subject: Joan Argetsinger Steitz, a former post-doctoral researcher at the LMB, has been awarded the 2018 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science for four decades of leadership in biomedical research and in scientific mentorship
Keywords: Joan Argetsinger Steitz: Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science; mRNA: alumni; mentoring; women in science; Jim Watson; mammalian cells; snurps
Photographs:Author: The Vallee Foundation
Title: 2018 Vallee Scholars Appointed
Reference The Vallee Foundation 3 October 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni - Awards & Prizes
Subject: LMB alumni Susan Shao and Tanmay Bharat are two of the five scientists to be awarded prestigious Vallee Scholarships in 2018.
Keywords: Vallee Foundation; Vallee Scholars; Tanmay Bharat; electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM); tomography (cryo-ET); Jan Löwe; John A.G. Briggs; Group Leader; alumni; Sichen (Susan) Shao; Ramanujan Hegde; ribosome
Photographs: Photo of Tanmay Bharat and Susan ShaoAuthor: Johnson, Amanda
Title: Johannes Kohl Wins 2018 Eppendorf & Science Prize
Reference AAAS 11 October 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni - Awards & Prizes
Subject: Johannes Kohl, a former PhD student from Greg Jefferis’ group in the LMB’s Neurobiology division, is the grand prize winner in The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology
Keywords: Johannes Kohl; The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology; prize winner; MPOA neurons; parenting behavior; alumni; “Circuits for care”; Greg Jefferis
Photographs:Author: Kießling, Tilmann
Title: EMBO welcomes twenty-six new Young Investigators
Reference EMBO 20 November 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni
Subject: LMB Alumni Thomas Baden, Yanlan Mao and Peter Sarkies are among 26 life science researchers within their first four years as group leaders to become EMBO Young Investigators.
Keywords: EMBO; Young Investigators; Thomas Baden; Yanlan Mao; Peter Sarkies; Group Leader; award; alumni
Photographs:Author: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Title: Dr. Melina Schuh Cell Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), Göttingen
Reference Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 17 December 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni
Subject: The latest recipients of Germany’s most prestigious research prize, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize have been announced, and includes former LMB group leader, Melina Schuh.
Keywords: Melina Schuh; 2019 Leibniz Prize; meiosis; trisomy 21; reproductive biology; human egg cells; alumni; Group Leader; chromosome segregation
Photographs: Photo of Melina Schuh (Max Planck)Author: Crowther, Tony; Holmes, Ken
Title: John Thomas Finch. 28 February 1930 - 5 December 2017
Reference Royal Society 19 December 2018
Year: 2018
Type: History - Reminiscences
Subject: John’s Royal Society Biographical Memoir, written by Tony Crowther and Ken Holmes.
Keywords: John Finch; X-ray crystallography; chromatin; nucleosomes; tRNA; Hugh Huxley; Aaron Klug; papilloma–polyoma viruses; TMV; Ken Holmes; Rosalind Franklin; powder camera; chromatin; Venki Ramakrishnan; Richard Henderson; A Nobel fellow on every floor; P. J. G. Butler; HIV capsid; Royal Society; memoir
Photographs: John at his desk at Birkbeck in 1958; Geodestix virus models; electron micrographs of viruses taken by John; John with Aaron Klug and model of TMV disk; Finch family pictureAuthor: de Chadarevian, Soraya
Title: John Kendrew and myoglobin: Protein structure determination in the 1950s
Reference Protein Science 6 June 2018
Year: 2018
Type: History - Reminiscences
Subject: Essay reviewing John Kendrew’s pioneering work on the structure of myoglobin for which he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962
Keywords: John Kendrew; myoglobin; protein structure; X-ray crystallography; EDSAC; Cavendish Laboratory; Max Perutz; hemoglobin; Hugh Huxley; “computer girls”; “sausage model”; “Forest of Rods”; European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL); European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO); Jacques Dubochet;
Photographs: X-ray photo of a myoglobin crystal; Patterson projection of electron density for whale myoglobin printed on EDSAC 1; myoglobin calculations on EDSAC 2 are carried by postdoctoral researchers Bror Strandberg and Richard Dickerson; John Kendrew and “forest of rods”Author: Waterston, Robert H.
Title: In memoriam - John Sulston (1942-2018)
Reference Genome Research 3 June 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Obituary
Subject: Robert H. Waterston looks back on the life and career of John Sulston.
Keywords: John Sulston; Sydney Brenner; C. elegans; Alan Coulson; worm; genome; Sanger Centre; Wellcome Trust; Human Genome Project; Companion of Honour; Knighthood; Nobel Prize; Bob Horvitz; sequencing
Photographs: Photo of John Sulston with microscope (MRC-LMB)Author: BBC News
Title: Sir John Sulston human genome pioneer dies
Reference BBC News 9 March 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Obituary
Subject: Obituary on the BBC News website for John Sulston
Keywords: John Sulston; worm; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; Nobel Prize; Companion; human genome
Photographs:Author: White, John
Title: Obituary: John Sulston (1942-2018)
Reference Development 8 May 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Obituary
Subject: Obituary in Development Journal for John Sulston
Keywords: John Sulston; nematode; C.elegans; Sydney Brenner; Nomarski; Bob Horvitz; Judith Kimble; Bob Waterston; Alan Coulson; Nobel Prize; electron microscopy (EM); Sanger Centre; Wellcome Trust; human genome; im Watson; sequencing
Photographs: Photo of John Sulston with microscope (MRC-LMB)Author: Cambridge Independent
Title: Scientist, GP trainee and police chief honoured by Queen
Reference Cambridge Independent 13-19 June 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Awards & Prizes
Subject: Richard Henderson is named as a Companion of Honour in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
Keywords: Richard Henderson; Nobel Prize; Companion of Honour; Max Perutz; César Milstein; Queen’s Birthday Honours; cryo-electron microscopy
Photographs:Author: Wise, Jacqui
Title: Nice prize for Alzheimer’s work, shame about the lack of a cure
Reference New Scientist 6 March 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Awards & Prizes
Subject: The prestigious annual Brain prize has gone to work on Alzheimer’s disease. However, Jacqui Wise finds the failure to find new treatments is worrying
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Brain prize; €1 million; beta amyloid; Michel Goedert; tau protein; plaques; dementia; solanezumab; monoclonal antibody; drug; tangles; LMTX; idalopirdine; serotonin; neurotransmitters
Photographs:Author: Brackley, Paul
Title: A ‘true great’: Nobel Laureate, pioneer and former LMB director Sydney Brenner dies at the age of 92
Reference Cambridge Independent 10-16 April 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Alumni - Obituary
Subject: One of the “true greats” of biology, Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner; has died at the age of 92.
Keywords: Sydney Brenner; director; John Sulston; H. Robert Horvitz; Jan Löwe; nematode worm; C. elegans; Francis Crick; Genetic Division; Cell Biology; bacteriophage; virus; La Jolla; Leslie Barnett; Human Genome Project; RNA
Photographs: Sydney in the 1960’s; Sydney and Francis Crick signing blackboard.Author: Brackley, Paul
Title: Unravelling protein structures found in the brains of dementia patients
Reference Cambridge Independent 3-9 April 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Awards & Prizes
Subject: Dr Benjamin Falcon has won a Rising Star Award from Alzheimer’s Research UK for his work, which could aid the diagnosis and eventually the treatment of diseases including Alzheimer’s and CTE
Keywords: Ben Falcon; Alzheimer’s Research; tau proteins; Michel Goedert; Pick’s disease; chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE); neurodegenerative; cryo-EM; dementia; Rising Star Award; filaments; boxers American football player
Photographs: Ben Falcon in front of 3D image of the structure of tau filaments in CTEAuthor: Devlin, Hannah
Title: Scientists grow ‘mini-brain on the move’ that can contract muscle
Reference The Guardian 18 March 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Science
Subject: Researchers in Madeline Lancaster’s group have developed a method of growing cerebral organoids, or mini-brains, that allows longer-term development and showed that these mini-brains can stimulate muscle contraction
Keywords: Madeline Lancaster; miniature brain; spinal cord; brain organoid; human stem cell; mouse embryo; motor neurone disease; epilepsy; schizophrenia; muscle tissue
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