Author: Brackley, Paul
Title: Tributes paid to ‘talented experimental scientist’ Chris Oubridge, of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Reference Cambridge Independent 18 September 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Obituary
Subject: Tributes have been paid to talented experimental scientist Chris Oubridge by colleagues at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, following his death
Keywords: Chris Oubridge; obituary; Kiyoshi Nagai; spliceosome; cryo-EM, snRNA; skit; ‘talented experimental scientist’; Jan Löwe; pre-mRNA; eukaryotic cells
Photographs: Chris Oubridge in office (MRC LMB)Author: Science Daily
Title: Structure of mRNA initiation complex could give insight into cancer and other diseases
Reference Science Daily 3 September 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: Researchers have solved the the structure of the complex formed when mRNA is being scanned to find the starting point for translating RNA into a protein
Keywords: mRNA; Venki Ramakrishnan; Jailson Brito Querido; Sebastian Kraatz; Yuliya Gordiyenko; Mark Skehel; ribosome; cancer
Photographs:Author: Brackley, Paul
Title: Astronomers find possible sign of life in clouds above Venus
Reference Cambridge Independent 16 September 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: An international team of scientists, including the LMBs Paul Rimmer, have announced the discovery of a rare molecule in the planet’s atmosphere called phosphine that could indicate the presence of microbes.
Keywords: Paul Rimmer; phosphine; Venus; life; James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT); “biosignature”; gas of life; oxygen; PH3; Cavendish Astrophysics; Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)
Photographs:Author: Cartwright, Jon
Title: The Nobel that never was
Reference ESRF June 2020
Year: 2020
Type: History - Reminiscences
Subject: The centenary of Rosalind Franklin’s birth reignite the debate about her involvement in the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Keywords: Rosalind Franklin; X-ray diffraction; Maurice Wilkins; crystallography; Francis Crick; James Watson; “photo 51”; Nobel Prize; helical structure
Photographs: Rosalind Franklin at work at Birkbeck collegeAuthor: Brackley, Paul
Title: Meet the 10 brilliant Cambridge scientists elected as fellows of the Royal Society in 2020
Reference Cambridge Independent 30 April 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Awards & Prizes
Subject: An extraordinary 10 out of the 62 newly-elected fellows of the Royal Society are Cambridge scientists. This included Bill Schafer a group leader in Neurobiology.
Keywords: William Schafer; Royal Society; Fellow; C. elegans; nematode worm; Denise Walker; genetic mutations; neurons; Venki Ramakrishnan
Photographs: Bill Schafer in his office (MRC LMB)Author: Brackley, Paul
Title: Missing link in puzzle of how hearing work found by MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Reference Cambridge Independent 7 May 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: Missing pieces to the puzzle of how hearing works at the basic molecular level have been identified by scientists at the LMB
Keywords: William Schafer; hearing loss; sensory neurons; UNC-44; CALM-1; worm; ankyrins; cytoskeleton; C. elegans; gating spring
Photographs: Bill Schafer in his office (MRC LMB)Author: Pellegrini, Laura
Title: From mysterious cysts to CSF-in-a-dish
Reference The Company of Biologists, The Node 21 September 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: Laura Pellegrini posted about the importance of looking closer if something unusual happens to your experiments. There may be something new to be learned from these results.
Keywords: Laura Pellegrini; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); brain; choroid plexus (ChP); Madeline Lancaster; cerebral organoids; dorsal cortex; cysts; Serpin Family F Member 1 (SERPINF1); clusterin (CLU); Claudia Bonfio; NMR; L-dopa; dopamine; Sephin 1; circadian cycle regulation
Photographs:Author: Grens, Kerry
Title: Sydney Brenner, mRNA Discoverer, Dies
Reference The Scientist 4 April 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Alumni - Obituary
Subject: Sydney Brenner obituary in The Scientist magazine
Keywords: Sydney Brenner; C. elegans; mRNA; Francis Crick; obituary; alumni; Salk Institute; Jonathan Hodgkin; nematode; genetics; codons
Photographs: Portrait shot of Sydney; Francis Crick and Sydney signing chalkboard (MRC LMB)Author: Powell, Harold R.
Title: From then till now: changing data collection method in single crystal X-ray crystallography since 1912
Reference Crystallography Reviews 14 June 2019
Year: 2019
Type: History - General
Subject: Over the century or so that X-ray crystallography has existed, various different ways of collecting data have been explored; each offered advantages at the time they were used, but most have been superseded by developing technologies
Keywords: X-ray crystallography; W.H. Bragg; spectrometer; Laue method; Weissenberg camera; Olga Kennard; Arndt-Wonacott rotation camera; Dectris Pilatus 12M; Oxford cryostream; macromolecular
Photographs: Prototype Arndt–Wonacott rotation camera, (MRC-LMB)Author: University of Massachusetts Medical School
Title: Raúl Padrón Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Reference University of Massachusetts Medical School March 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Alumni - Awards & Prizes
Subject: Raúl Padrón, Senior Research Scientist in Radiology, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate
Keywords: Raúl Padrón; elected; National Academy of Science; cryo-EM; award; alumni; Roger Craig; foreign associate; muscle structure
Photographs: Raúl with electron microscope; Raúl with Roger CraigAuthor: Ferry, Georgina
Title: Sydney Brenner obituary
Reference The Guardian 5 April 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Alumni - Obituary
Subject: Georgina Ferry’s obituary for Sydney Brenner who died on 5 April 2019
Keywords: Sydney Brenner; “enfant terrible of molecular biology”; C. elegans; John Sulston; Robert Horvitz; Francis Crick; Leslie Barnett; genetics; Salk Institute; La Jolla; John White; Nicol Thompson; worm; genome
Photographs: Sydney in his officeAuthor: Watts, Geoff
Title: Obituary Aaron Klug
Reference The Lancet (Vol 392) 15 December 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Obituary
Subject: Aaron Klug obituary from the Lancet
Keywords: Aaron Klug; tobacco mosaic virus; Rosalind Franklin; Richard Henderson; “polymath”; zinc fingers; Tony Crowther; Alzheimer’s disease; tau protein; tangles; genes; genome sequencing; President Royal Society; Paul de Kruif; Microbe Hunters
Photographs: Aaron in office (science photo library)Author: Vilcek. Foundation
Title: Ruth Lehmann - 2021 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science
Reference Vilcek Foundation 26 October 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Alumni - Awards & Prizes
Subject: Ruth Lehmann, a former postdoctoral visitor with Michael Wilcox and Peter Lawrence in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has been awarded the 2021 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, for unraveling the molecular basis by which germ cells, which give rise to sperm and egg cells, are formed.
Keywords: Ruth Lehmann; germ cell; life cycle; Michael Wilcox; Peter Lawrence; genetics; egg cytoplasm; alumni; prize; award; Developmental Biology
Photographs: Portrait picture of Ruth; Ruth at age 1 with brother and mother, Ruth at the age of 25 at a conference; Ruth in the 1990; Ruth with post grad and postdoc in labAuthor: Peplow, Mark
Title: Cryo-electron microscopy reaches resolution mileston
Reference C&EN 27 September 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: Detailed protein structures are fueling drug-discovery efforts
Keywords: Cryo-EM; Richard Henderson; GABAA: COVID-19; Titan Krios microscopes; X-ray crystallography; Radu Aricescu; Sjors Scheres; Christopher Russo; SARS-CoV-2; 100 keV; protein
Photographs:Author: Devlin, Hannah
Title: Sir John Sulston, pioneering genome scientist, dies aged 75
Reference The Guardian 9 March 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Obituary
Subject: The Guardian obituary for Sir John Sulston
Keywords: John Sulston; obituary; Human Genome Project; Wellcome Sanger Institute; nematode; Caenorhabditis elegans; genes; Meccano
Photographs: John Sulston head shotAuthor: Service, F. Robert
Title: Protein evolution earns chemistry Nobel
Reference Science Magazine 12 October 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Awards & Prizes
Subject: Nobel Prize in Chemistry that was awarded to Greg Winter with Frances Arnold and George Smith evolved the use of biological molecules.
Keywords: Greg Winter; auto-immune diseases; cancer; viruses; antibodies; evolution; prize; TNF-a; adalimumab; Humira; phage; ethanol fuel; biomolecules; gene
Photographs:Author: Ramakrishnan, Venki: Henderson, Richard
Title: Thomas A. Steitz (1940-2018)
Reference Science 23 November 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni - Obituary (Retrospective)
Subject: Thomas Steitz the biochemistry giant who illuminated ribosome structure dies
Keywords: Thomas A. Steitz; Max Perutz; Joan Argetsinger Steitz; David Blow; crystallography; trypsin; aspartic acid; Brian Hartley; creative science; CAP repressor; 50S ribosome subunit; “jewel in the crown”; peptidyl transfer; obituary; hexokinase; RNA polymerases
Photographs: Picture of Thomas SteitzAuthor: Marshall, Michael
Title: Charles Darwin’s hunch about early life was probaly right
Reference BBC Future 11 November 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: BBC FUTURE article looking back at origin of life research breakthroughs, including key research by John Sutherland that utilised UV light to form the building blocks of life from simple carbon-based chemicals
Keywords: Charles Darwin; natural selection; On the Origin of Species; Claudia Bonfio; amino acids; nucleobases; protein; John Sutherland; building blocks; “fluctuating volcanic hot spring pool”; meteorite crater; wet-dry cycles
Photographs:Author: Highfield, Roger
Title: Coronavirus: The Spike
Reference Science Museum Group 25 November 2020
Year: 2020
Type: Science
Subject: Many COVID-19 drugs, vaccines and tests depend on ‘the spike’. Roger Highfield, Science Director, talks to John Briggs and finds out all there is to know about 2020’s most infamous protein
Keywords: COVID-19; John Briggs; SARS-CoV-2; atomic level; virus; cryo-EM; X rays; 3D reconstruction; spike; coronavirus; angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2); ‘Brownian motion’; ‘hook’; receptor binding domain (RBD); hijack the cell; glycoprotein; neutralising antibodies; immune system; vaccines; RNA; ‘vectors’; adenovirus; Julian Sale; ‘druggable pocket’; Radu Aricescu; Andrew Carter; Leo James; Yorgo Modis; Jan Löwe; Sjors Scheres; diagnostic reagent; D614G; immunoglobulin G (IgG); IgM; IgA; John Meurig Thomas; ‘Nobel prize factory’
Photographs: Various images of coronavirusAuthor: Barr, Sabrina
Title: When you eat could be just as important as what what you eat for prevention of disease
Reference Independent 25 April 2019
Year: 2019
Type: Science
Subject: The time of day that you eat could be just as important to your wellbeing as the food you consume, a new study has found.
Keywords: circadian rhythm; “Period”; cardiovascular disease; type 2 diabetes; body clock; insulin; John O’Neill; food; wellbeing; meal timings; cellular clocks
Photographs:Author: Weeks, Mark
Title: Sir John Sulston (1942-2018)
Reference Wellcome News 9 March 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Obituary
Subject: The death of Sir John Sulston, and how he was an outstanding figure in UK biological and medical science and in Wellcome’s history.
Keywords: John Sulston; obituary; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; genome sequencing; Human Genome Project; nematode worm; C. elegans
Photographs:Author: Royal Society
Title: Sir Gregory Winter CBE FMedSci FRS Blockbuster drugs: from fantasy to reality
Reference Royal Society 29 November 2018
Year: 2018
Type: History - Reminiscences
Subject: An entire new class of drugs was launched as a result of technology developed by Sir Gregory Winter
Keywords: Gregory Winter; human antibodies; “humanise”; genetic engineering; Herceptin; Avastin; cancer; “pie-in-the-sky”; Cambridge Antibody Technology; Humira; AstraZeneca; Domantis; Bicycle Therapies; autoimmune diseases
Photographs: Sir Gregory informal shotAuthor: Cookson, Clive
Title: Stable research funding drives Britain’s ‘Nobel factory’
Reference The Financial Times 7 December 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Funding
Subject: How stable long-term funding contributes to the discoveries made by the LMB
Keywords: Greg Winter; Jan Löwe; “Nobel factory”; Richard Henderson; cryo-EM; funding model; Madeline Lancaster; cerebral organoids; mini brains; Alzheimer’s; autism; Greg Jefferis; Mick Hastings; circadian rhythms; molecular clocks; suprachiasmatic nucleus; antibody-based drugs; collaborative interaction
Photographs: Scientists in LMB lab; Jan Löwe in his office; Greg Winter outside Trinity College; inside the atrium of the buildingAuthor: Bates, Alex
Title: Size Matters: Mapping a Miniature Brain
Reference BlueSci Lent 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Science
Subject: Alex Bates discuses his PhD on mapping a small part of the fly brain
Keywords: Alex Bate; Juvenile fruit fly brain; QI; Alan Davis; Drosophila melanogaster; vinegar fly; ataxia; Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; electron microscopy; caenorhabditis elegans; ‘Tracey’; “Google maps’ of brains; neurons; mapping; penis brain; phallic;‘connectomic’
Photographs:Author: YaleNews
Title: Nobel laureate Thomas A. Steitz dies, mapped the structure of the ribosome
Reference YaleNews 10 October 2018
Year: 2018
Type: Alumni-Obituary
Subject: Thomas A. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale and one of three winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died 9 October 2018
Keywords: Thomas A. Steitz; ribosome; antibiotics; Joan Steitz; obituary; X-ray crystallography
Photographs: Thomas A. Steitz portrait; Thomas at Nobel Prize ceremony