Throughout 2019 we will be posting an image a day on the LMB’s website and social media channels about life and work at the LMB, both now and in the past.
Science can be very visual, and with the increasing number of different techniques available to visualise molecules, cells and organisms at increasingly higher resolution and in different ways, now is an ideal time to share some of the ground-breaking and exciting science taking place at the LMB. We also want to give people an insight into what it is like to work at such a world-class institute, whether in the support services or within the labs themselves. It is hoped that these images will help to inspire people, from all walks of life, about the beauty of science and about the pleasure of working in such a prestigious organisation. We also aim to issue images that link to the history of the LMB and the science that has led to the awarding of 12 Nobel Prizes.
We hope you enjoy the project.
As 2019 draws to a close and we get to day 365 of #LMB365 the whole LMB wants to say thank you for following this project. We hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the images as much as we’ve enjoyed pulling them together and that you’ve discovered things about the LMB you didn’t know before. Can you spot the #LMBee in the photo?
In quieter moments between experiments, members of the LMB have had fun recreating some of our state-of-the art equipment in Lego®, as seen here on day 364 of #LMB365. This includes an NMR machine, AKTA, orbitrap mass spec and a transmission electron microscope. To make the DNA model see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV-k00iQk2w
On day 363 of #LMB365 we bring you a beautiful sunset captured from the LMB’s restaurant area overlooking the nearby housing and park developments. Having such a view while in the Restaurant is an inspiration to all and we hope our images during 2019 have inspired you too.
Day 362 of #LMB365 shows the LMB Executive Committee after a recent meeting. The Committee is made up of the Director, Deputy Director, Chief Operating Officer, and the Heads of Divisions. They meet 4 times a year to make decisions on the running of the Laboratory and future developments. (L-R: Manu Hegde, Michael Hastings, Jason Chin, Andrew McKenzie, Lalita Ramakrishnan, Sean Munro, Mariann Bienz, Jan Löwe, David Barford, Sjors Scheres and Kevin Moreton).
On day 361 of #LMB365 we have an immunofluorescence photomicrograph of blood cells in murine spleen by Ashley Kamimae-Lanning in the PNAC Division. Shown are B cells (green) and T cells (red) in germinal centres of the spleen, with cell nuclei in blue and red blood cells appearing yellow. The Patel Lab studies how metabolism and DNA repair together form two tiers of protection against DNA-damaging aldehydes, which are produced in the body and environment. Blood stem & progenitor cells, which give rise to all blood cells over a lifetime, are particularly susceptible to damage from aldehydes when these tiers of protection are removed or are overwhelmed.
Day 360 of #LMB365 shows a stack of new 10 gigabit network switches being configured by the LMB’s IT team. The network in the new building was designed and installed by the team back in 2012 and they continue to update this to ensure the LMB’s infrastructure is cutting-edge
Happy Christmas from the LMBees on day 359 of #LMB365! These cuddly bees are available to purchase from the LMB’s Reception when they aren’t having fun swarming on the Christmas tree…
Day 358 of #LMB365 is a Christmas tree composed of Hela cells ectopically expressing golgin-97 at the mitochondria, in green, and co-stained with vesicle cargo proteins in red and blue. Golgin-97 is a peripheral membrane protein that localises to the trans-Golgi via a C-terminal GRIP domain. By replacing the GRIP domain with a mitochondrial targeting sequence we can re-localise golgin-97 from the Golgi to the mitochondria and then, using immunofluorescence, see what happens to the localisation of other proteins in the cell. Using this assay Sean Munro’s group in the Cell Biology Division has shown that Golgin-97 is a vesicle tether that captures endosomally derived vesicles via its N-terminus. The ‘baubles’ are labelled with the cis-Golgi marker gm130 and the ‘star’ labelled with the trans-Golgi markers TGN46 and golgin-245.
Science is all about success as well as failure and many experiments don’t work. Dealing with failure in a constructive way is a vital skill that scientists develop throughout their career. On day 357 of #LMB365, a postdoc lost his purified protein due to a machine malfunction after spending hours in the cold room trying to save it. While he felt great disappointment, he also made the best of the situation by applying his sense of humour to the situation at hand. A great example of failing gracefully!
As we celebrate the winter solstice, day 356 of #LMB365 shows John O’Neill’s group on an outing to visit the Corpus Clock in Cambridge. Sitting atop the clock is an extraordinary monster: the ‘Chronophage’ meaning Eater of Time. John’s group studies the fundamental mechanisms of daily cellular timekeeping and how circadian regulation of biological function is achieved.
Long-serving staff member Jane Randall retired this month after more than 26 years at the LMB. As the Assistant Divisional Administrator for PNAC Division, Jane worked for many distinguished LMB scientists over the years including César Milstein, Terry Rabbitts, Michael Neuberger and Greg Winter. Day 355 of #LMB365 shows Jane and colleagues at her retirement party when she was presented with a number of gifts, including a framed photo of her being presented to the Queen in 2013 at the official opening of the new LMB building. We wish her well for a richly deserved and fulfilling retirement.
On day 354 of #LMB365, members of the LMB celebrate Christmas Jumper Day – bringing in the holidays in style!
Day 353 of #LMB365 shows the LMB Library sprouts in quiet discussion about their Christmas preparations and wish lists. Sprout one is hoping Santa is going to bring them a copy of the Nordic Baking Book. Sprout two would really like some fancy pyjamas. They are both sure they are going to have to resort to First class stamps as they haven’t written any cards yet.
Christmas came early for the LMB’s EM Facility as they took delivery of a new Glacios electron microscope. Day 352 of #LMB365 shows members of the Facility with one of the major components just after it was unloaded from the van. The microscope will be used by groups across the LMB to assess and image samples for cryo-electron microscopy.
The LMB has held a charity Christmas raffle every year since the 1970’s and has raised many thousands of pounds over the decades. Day 351 of #LMB365 is a photo of the LMB’s raffle drum, built by Bill Parkinson from the Maintenance Department in the 1980’s, with stickers showing the sums raised in various years for different charities. The charity this year is the Cystic Fibrosis Trust – watch this space to see how much we raise in 2019
Day 350 of #LMB365 shows one of our Domestic Service Assistants, Freda Chapman, with her amazing cleaning trolley. Together they are bringing festive cheer across the LMB during the lead up to Christmas.
Day 349 of #LMB365 shows some of the LMB’s dedicated crafters running their Christmas stall to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Many of the items for sale were crocheted, knitted or embroidered and members of the LMB purchased lots of beautiful items for Christmas. Watch this space to see how much we raise
A Secret Santa gift of wine glass markers has been put to good use in the NMR facility on day 348 of #LMB365. These cute markers will help staff in the facility easily identify important samples, and bring a little festive spirit too!
The LMB is simply having a wonderful Christmastime! Day 347 of #LMB365 shows the restaurant decked in festive finery, ready to welcome over 200 people for a delicious 3 course lunch with all the trimmings. Thank you to our amazing catering team
CryoEM structures determined by the Modis group show how the innate immune sensor MDA5 recognizes viral RNA by forming filaments. ATP hydrolysis is coupled to structural changes in the filament, which are proposed to promote discrimination between viral and cellular RNAs. Depicted here on day 346 of #LMB365 is a model of an MDA5-dsRNA filament (foreground). A viral dsRNA genome and the endosome that delivered it into the cytosol are shown in the background. Image created by Lesley McKeane (Visual Aids) in consultation with Yorgo Modis.
On day 345 of #LMB365 we have a picture by Katja Röper in the Cell Biology Division. Shown is a confocal image of the two tissue primordia that will form the tubes of the salivary glands in a Drosophila embryo, a model system for the formation of tubular organs. Tube precursor cells are in pink, cell outlines are in blue. The Röper lab studies how important tubular organs form during development, from flies to humans.
On this day each year the Nobel Prize award ceremony and banquet is held. To celebrate this, day 344 of #LMB365 shows a very rare collection of Nobel Prize Medals awarded to members of the LMB, together with champagne bottles signed by some Nobel laureates at the party on the day they found out they had won the Prize
The technique of Hydrogen Deuterium exchange/Mass Spectrometry can be used to highlight regions of a protein’s structure that change upon binding to another protein or ligand. Day 343 of #LMB365 shows a butterfly plot or chart, showing the incorporation of deuterium into a protein over time (orange shortest, black the longest period). The upper half of the plot shows incorporation by the protein in complex, while the lower area indicates the incorporation by the protein alone. The plot can give insights into regions of intrinsic disorder as well as regions of higher order structure such as alpha-helices and beta-sheets.
Day 342 of #LMB365 shows PhD student, Elyse Fischer, loading her sample into the column of one of the LMB’s FEI Titan Krios microscopes. Protein samples frozen on grids in amorphous ice are placed inside a nanocap. Upon insertion of the nanocap, a mechanical arm is activated which brings the samples into an autoloader. This streamlines grid screening and data collection as up to 12 grids can be exchanged into the column with just a press of the button.
Day 341 of #LMB365 is a 3D printed model of a cerebral organoid, made by the LMB’s Technical Instrumentation Workshop. Madeline Lancaster’s lab in Cell Biology uses this for public outreach to help illustrate what brain organoids look like inside and out.
Simon Bullock’s lab uses a combination of in vitro and in vivo methods to investigate how microtubule-based cargo transport is orchestrated in cells. On day 340 of #LMB365 Simon illustrates this approach by overlaying a crystal structure from a motor adaptor, which was solved by his group, on an image of a symmetric ‘two-tailed’ fly embryo that has a mutation in this protein.
Day 339 of #LMB365 shows dedicated members of the Domestic Services team working hard one recent weekend preparing the LMB’s restaurant floor for the annual application of a new polish.
Christmas has come to the LMB and for day 338 of #LMB365 Rihab Gam has taken this lovely photo of the Christmas tree now brightening up the LMB’s reception area.
Day 337 of #LMB365 shows this year’s PhD student photo featuring most of the current students, together with the LMB Director, Director of Studies, Postgraduate Administrator and Assistant. The LMB students are a diverse group and come from over 25 countries across the world. Look back at day 261 to see the photo being taken…
On day 336 of #LMB365 we recognise Michel Goedert, who started work at the LMB 35 years ago. As a postdoctoral fellow, he spent much of his time learning the rudiments of molecular biology and applying them to the study of Alzheimer’s disease. He became a programme leader in 1988 and has been involved in the work on the molecular nature of the paired helical and straight filaments of Alzheimer’s disease, which showed that tau protein is an integral component of these filaments. This established the concept that the aggregation of tau protein is sufficient to cause neurodegeneration and dementia. Further work showed that the protein alpha-synuclein is the major component of the Lewy pathology, the defining neuropathological characteristic of Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, and of the filamentous inclusions of multiple system atrophy, a related movement disorder. In recent collaborative work, it was discovered that aggregated human tau proteins exhibit prion-like properties and can exist as distinct conformers. Michel was Head/joint head of the Neurobiology Division from 2003-2016
On this day in 1977 Fred Sanger, Steve Nicklen and Alan Coulson published their landmark paper on the dideoxy sequencing method for DNA. Day 335 of #LMB365 shows a dideoxy sequencing gel of bacteriophage phiX174. Fred was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980 for this work, becoming the only Briton to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes. F. Sanger, S. Nicklen, A. R. Coulson. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. PNAS, 74: 5463-5467, 1977
This image for day 334 of #LMB365 shows members of the LMB research support staff who met recently to discuss and work on their Professional Registration applications. Professional Registration is just one aspect of the Technician Commitment, promoting visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technical staff
The Tecnai F20 at the LMB is a 200 keV TEM equipped with a field emission gun and Falcon 3 direct detector, and is mainly used for screening cryo-EM samples before data acquisition on the Titan Krios microscopes. Day 333 of #LMB365 shows Aaron Tan and John Lu from the Briggs group using this microscope to screen assemblies of HIV-1 capsid protein prior to collection of high-resolution cryo-electron tomography data.
Day 332 of #LMB365 shows many of the LMB’s PhD students enjoying a recent wine and cheese evening. A great way to meet new people and relax after a busy day in the lab…
Day 331 of #LMB365 shows a submarine mini gel, originally designed by Greg Winter. The design was inspired by seeing Russian gels at a sequencing course in Poland. Greg first made a version in an old filter box, glueing in platinum wires taken from obsolete equipment. He caste the gel between spacers, which like the well comb were set into notches on the side of the box. This provided a very quick and convenient way of making regular and reproducible gels to check plasmids/restriction digests. This prototype was made into a safe and easy-to-use version by the LMB Workshop and proved invaluable in Greg’s recombinant DNA work and is now a mainstay of the LMB. Greg has donated this replica of the original 1984 version to the Nobel Museum, following his 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
This photo for day 330 of #LMB365 was taken by our Estates & Facilities Manager during one of his routine walks around the LMB site and shows some beautiful fungi that have come up in one of the flowerbeds outside the front of the LMB building.
Day 329 of #LMB365 shows the cryo-EM structure of the human 20S proteasome bound to PA200. This provides significant new information on this important but still poorly studied protein complex located in the nucleus of cells. This structure, by Ana Toste Rêgo and Paula da Fonseca, was determined by the analysis of a sample obtained by the recombinant co-expression of all the complex 15 constitutive subunits together with its 5 dedicated assembly chaperones
Day 328 of #LMB365 shows a view of the illuminated staircase from the LMB’s restaurant. The restaurant is situated on the top floor of the building, as it was in the original LMB building, and the staircase is always busy during the day.
Day 327 of #LMB365 shows Group Leader Kelly Nguyen preparing some cryo-EM grids. A tiny drop of sample is applied to an EM grid inside a “Vitrobot”. After applying the sample, it is incubated at 4°C and 100% humidity to let the grid adsorb the sample without drying out. After incubation, the “Vitrobot” blots most of the sample away, leaving a thin layer of sample, which is then rapidly plunged into liquid ethane for vitrification.
A stormy day over the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and the LMB, captured here for day 326 of #LMB365 by Alexey Murzin. One end of the rainbow is over the new Royal Papworth Hospital.
Day 325 of #LMB365 shows the LMBees being excited by all the new cutting edge techniques presented at the recent Next Generation Biophysics meeting https://www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/nextgen/ that brought scientists from academia and industry together to discuss new developments. All the speakers were given their LMBees as a memento of their visit to the LMB. We hope they will all return next year for the next installment
This image for day 324 of #LMB365 shows a cryo-EM visualisation of a G protein-coupled receptor reconstituted into a lipid nanodisc and then coupled to beta-arrestin from Chris Tate’s group in the Structural Studies Division
Asymmetric cell division is the process by which one cell gives rise to two daughters that have different fate. Asymmetric cell division is the hallmark of stem cells, which generate all the different cell types in the organism. The Derivery Lab in the Cell Biology Division uses the fruit fly to study the molecular mechanism of asymmetric cell division as it is amenable to imaging and genetic modifications. This image for day 323 of #LMB365 represents the back of the fly (called the notum), where all the cells express a cytoskeleton marker in green, while only the cells dividing asymmetrically express a red marker. These cells form a remarkable aligned array, which will give rise to the mechanosensory bristles on the adult fly.
Day 322 of #LMB365 shows Li Jin and Christine Hilcenko setting up their stand at the LMB for a charity cake sale in support of The Raymond Nicolet Trust. The sale achieved an amazing £178 that will fully go to support educational establishments in Serbia.
If you have ever wondered how all the glass in the atrium of the LMB is kept clean, this photo for day 321 of #LMB365 shows you how. This is carried out biennially and takes two people 8 days to clean all the glass, including the fascia boards, high girders, tops of pods, and floodlights. Throughout the process care is taken to protect the atrium floor.
On day 320 of #LMB365 we have a picture by Katja Röper in the Cell Biology Division. This image shows a confocal image of the forming tube of the salivary glands in a Drosophila embryo, a model system for the formation of tubular organs. Tube cells are in green, and this forming tube is aberrant and forked due to a specific genetic mutation affecting tube formation. The Röper lab studies how important tubular organs from flies to humans form during development.
The Electronics Workshop stocks an impressive array of electronic components and ‘useful bits and pieces’ as seen here on day 319 of #LMB365. They come in especially useful when a visiting contractor is short of something to finish a job.
This photo for day 318 of #LMB365 was taken by Paul Margiotta from the nearby Green and Gardens public space showing the LMB in the background. The tent sculpture was designed by artist Ryan Gander and is one of several items in this new landscape and public art installation.
This image provided by David Barford for day 317 of #LMB365 shows the cryo-EM structure of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C) (surface representation) bound to its inhibitor, the mitotic checkpoint complex (MCC) (ribbons representation). The MCC exerts the spindle assembly checkpoint during mitosis to coordinate APC/C activity with the correct attachment of all chromosomes to the mitotic spindle. This ensures faithful chromosome segregation and prevents aneuploidy, a causative factor in cancer and congenital defects.
Fire safety is vitally important for the protection of our staff and facilities. This photo for day 316 of #LMB365 shows a recent hands-on staff training session on how, when and where to use fire extinguishers.
On day 315 of #LMB365 we see the PDB Art Exhibition, currently on display in the LMB’s atrium, in which students from local schools have produced amazing works of art inspired by protein structures. More close-ups to come…
It’s not every day a steam train goes past the LMB. Day 314 of #LMB365 shows the 61306 Mayflower on a recent trip from London. Mayflower is a B1 Class locomotive and was built in 1948 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow for the London & North Eastern Railway
The image for day 313 of #LMB365 shows apical localisation of the h mRNA (magenta) in the fruit fly embryo. This mRNA is trafficked by the microtubule motor dynein and Simon Bullock’s group in Cell Biology has used this system to shed light on how dynein recognises cargoes and how its motility is regulated. Blue and green signals are from DNA and nuclear envelopes, respectively.
LMB staff have spotted a variety of small creatures when wandering around outside the LMB building and on the wider Campus as seen here on day 312 of #LMB365.
The photo for day 311 of #LMB365 shows the north wing of the building where members of the Neurobiology Division are working hard. When people leave the building, detectors in the offices and write-up areas identify that staff have left for the day and turn lights off automatically if they have been accidentally left on. This helps reduce energy consumption and has the added benefit of lowering the amount of light pollution that the building emits.
This image for day 310 of #LMB365 shows one of the four plate pouring machines used daily by the LMB’s dedicated Media Prep team. Each machine is used to pour both standard and specially requested plates and in total the LMB uses over 200,000 plates a year.
This image for day 309 of #LMB365 shows mouse fibroblasts where surface receptors have been clustered into spots using new synthetic polymers. Imaging is performed using sub-cellular light sheet microscopy, a state-of-the-art microscopy technique established at the LMB by James Manton, that is able to resolve cellular details with unprecedented temporal resolution. The Derivery lab is using this technique to study the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis and trafficking of receptors and cell fate determinants in cells.
Day 308 of #LMB365 shows two mysterious visitors who on the 31st of October gave LMB staff some grave reminders about the need for good posture. After all – a skeleton is for life, not just for Halloween…
This experiment by Hugh Pelham’s group, seen here on day 307 of #LMB365, demonstrates quality control of membrane proteins. A GFP-tagged SNARE protein (yellow) that normally goes to the plasma membrane in yeast (right) is completely redirected to the vacuole if an acidic residue is placed in the single C-terminal transmembrane domain (left). This aberrant transmembrane domain is recognised in the Golgi apparatus by a ubiquitin ligase, in this case Tul1, and ubiquitination of the protein directs it to the vacuole. The Nomarski image of the cells has been rendered as 3D elevation.
Ice contamination is the last thing you want to see on your cryo-EM grid, as charging of the ice under the electron beam is a common source of image drift at high magnification. However, sometimes while screening your sample it is nice to come across such a perfectly hexagonal ice crystal as seen here on day 306 of #LMB365
This photo for day 305 of #LMB365 shows our Deputy Head of Scientific Computing, Toby Darling, loading GPU servers into racks in the new server room. The LMB’s computing cluster has 4,108 CPU cores, 128 GPU cards and access to over 5PB of storage.
Day 304 of #LMB365 shows a model of the 70S ribosome, printed by Mark Hoelzer at 3D Molecular Designs. The atomic co-ordinates were provided by Venki Ramakrishnan, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for their work on the ribosome.
Day 303 of #LMB365 is a photograph from Madeline Lancaster’s group in the Cell Biology Division of brain organoids bathing in a nutrient rich broth that helps them to grow and develop. Their large size means you can see them with your bare eye.
Day 302 of #LMB365 shows the LMB Governing Board in 1967: Hugh Huxley, John Kendrew, Max Perutz, Francis Crick, Fred Sanger and Sydney Brenner. When the LMB was formally set-up in 1962, out of the previous MRC Unit, Max was appointed Chairman of a Governing Board, rather than being Director. The board met only occasionally when major decisions of scientific policy were needed but they did not direct the Lab’s research, just provided the means by which people could carry out their work. The Governing Board was the fore-runner of the current Executive Committee, which is chaired by the LMB Director
Day 301 of #LMB365 shows the sun setting on the west end of the LMB building. It’s amazing how the building can look at different times of day throughout the year.
CryoEM structures determined by Yorgo Modis’ group show how the innate immune sensor MDA5 recognizes viral RNA by forming filaments. ATP hydrolysis is coupled to structural changes in the filament, which are proposed to promote discrimination between viral and cellular RNAs. Depicted here on day 300 of #LMB365 is a model of an MDA5-dsRNA filament (foreground). A viral dsRNA genome and the endosome that delivered it into the cytosol are shown in the background.
This photo for day 299 of #LMB365 shows some of the LMB’s Domestic Services team celebrating James’ birthday. The LMB has many long-term members of staff and these 3 between them have racked up over 50 years of loyal service.
During the last year, over 4,500 initial crystallisation screens were used at the LMB to test macromolecular samples of interest. Further screens are often required for optimisation purposes. The corresponding trays containing the crystallisation experiments are stored in temperature-controlled rooms as seen here on day 298 of #LMB365.
Day 297 of #LMB365 is a screenshot from our internal “Bee Cam”. It shows our resident beekeeper Geoff putting on a feeder of sugar syrup for the LMB’s bees to build up stores for the winter. The bees have also been treated for mites so hopefully they will be well until next year.
The annual Perutz Student Prize has been awarded recently and the winners photographed in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre under Max’s watchful eye as recorded here on day 296 of #LMB365 by Anne Bertolotti. Watch this space to find out about the winners…
Day 295 of #LMB365 shows the structure of a human GABAA receptor in a membrane nanodisc, bound to alprazolam/Xanax, solved in Radu Aricescu’s group. GABAA receptors are essential for brain function and also targets for major clinical drugs including general anaesthetics, benzodiazepines and sleeping pills.
Day 294 of #LMB365 shows a bottle of Caveat mTOR, a hot sauce made from chillies grown on the windowsill of Roger Williams’ Lab. After picking, the chillies are lacto-fermented for a week with onion, garlic, and a few herbs and spices before blending, seasoning and bottling. The protein ‘mTOR’ is a key target of investigation in the Williams lab, hence the hilarious pun which gives the sauce its name.
Day 293 of #LMB365 shows the new public art outside the recently opened Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre. Artists Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion produced the artwork titled “CORPUS” to represent a series of standing stones that engage and reflect on the anatomy and psyche of being human. The LMB building can be seen in the background of this photo taken by Paul Margiotta.
Day 292 of #LMB365 from Laura Pellegrini in Madeline Lancaster’s group shows a section of a cerebral organoid including a ventricular lobe, resembling the structure of the developing human cortex. It also shows an epithelial tissue named the choroid plexus (green), which secretes the cerebrospinal fluid important for brain expansion and maintenance.
This beautiful image, taken in the LMB car park by Conny Yu for day 291 of #LMB365, shows the sun setting behind the building.
Caught in the act on day 290 of #LMB365. Members of the LMB planted over 800 daffodil and narcissi bulbs that will cheerily pop up outside the LMB next Spring announcing in all their golden glory that a new season has sprung. The bulbs were generously donated by Scotsdales Garden Centre to help raise funds for Marie Curie.
Day 289 of #LMB365 is an image from Costa Televantos in Lalita Ramakrishnan’s group of a granuloma from a fish infected with Mycobacterium marinum. In this image, macrophages (a type of white blood cell responsible for controlling infection) are fluorescent, with green nuclei and a red cytosol and are infected with blue bacteria. The early stage of Mycobacterium marinum infection in zebrafish models that of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans. The group utilise the genetic tractability and optical transparency of the zebrafish to influence and monitor the progression of infection.
This photo for day 288 of #LMB365 shows some of the hundreds of parcels of varying types processed by the LMB Stores Team every day. These are then delivered to all departments across the LMB building.
On day 287 of #LMB365 we see an image of a bee’s leg taken by a pupil at Stapleford Primary School and submitted for the LMB’s 2019 Science Image Award. We’re now starting to recruit nearby primary schools for next year’s competition https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/microscopes4schools/award.php
Day 286 of #LMB365 shows the developing Cambridge Biomedical Campus taken by Paul Margiotta from the nearby Nine Wells nature reserve. The LMB’s plant towers can be seen between the Anne McLaren Facility (left) and the Royal Papworth Hospital (blue) and Abcam (right).
The production of purified macromolecular samples can be very challenging. Subsequently it is hard to schedule exactly when the final sample preparation will be obtained. Samples produced at the LMB can be screened anytime for crystallisation because crystallisation trays filled up with with a broad variety of initial screens (LMB screens) are made readily available to users of the crystallisation facility. A fully automated pipetting system prepares the LMB screens, as seen here on day 285 of #LMB365.
The LMB postgraduate students are a truly international and diverse community. Every year 20-30 new graduates from the UK and all over the world join the LMB PhD programme. This photo for day 284 of #LMB365 shows this year’s intake on their first day in the Lab.
On day 283 of #LMB365 John Walker enjoys a rare moment of peace and quiet following the announcement of his Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1997
On day 282 of #LMB365 Fred Sanger gets in the party mood for the second of his Nobel Prizes for Chemistry. Pictured with then LMB Director, Sydney Brenner, Fred was awarded the Nobel in 1958 and 1980. He is the only Briton to have won 2 Nobel Prizes
César Milstein was born on this day in 1927 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina. He joined LMB in 1963 and worked here until his death in March 2002. On day 281 of #LMB365 he is seen receiving his Nobel Prize Medal for Physiology and Medicine for his development of the technique to produce monoclonal antibodies. On the announcement of the award César commented “we were stuck for a few months, and getting negative results. It is the struggle of that period and all the scientific tension that I remember the most. It was little bits of excitement rather than one moment.” Photo courtesy of Celia Milstein
Cheers! On day 280 of #LMB365 Venki Ramakrishnan celebrates his 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the LMB Restaurant. While the award is limited to three recipients, it is the collective work of many and Venki thanked his dedicated students and postdocs who gave the work their all
In 1982 Aaron Klug was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Day 279 of #LMB365 shows Aaron and his wife Liebe at the champagne celebration in the LMB Restaurant
On day 278 of #LMB365 we show how John Kendrew and Max Perutz received news of their 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. At the time the telegram was the best way for Stockholm to contact the recipients. This was the LMB’s second Nobel for 1962, Francis Crick and James Watson had already been awarded the Physiology and Medicine Prize for their work on the structure of DNA
In the spotlight on day 277 of #LMB365 is Richard Henderson who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Speaking to the press in the LMB lecture theatre on the day of the announcement, accompanied by then LMB Director Hugh Pelham, it was the first of many press enquiries Richard undertook. He summed up the importance of the technique he helped to develop as “the big thing about cryo-EM is that you can use it for determining all the other unknown structures that have been intractable by the other methods”
As Nobel Prize week approaches we celebrate LMB’s Nobel successes. On day 276 of #LMB365 Greg Winter is seen following the tradition of signing empty champagne bottles for colleagues at his party in the LMB restaurant. Speaking after the announcement of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Greg responded, “It came as a bit of a shock, and I felt a bit numb for a while. It’s almost like you’re in a different universe. For a scientist, a Nobel Prize is the highest accolade you can get, and I’m so lucky because there are so many brilliant scientists and not enough Nobel Prizes to go around”
LMB scientists visited Ely Cathedral for LifeLab last weekend to talk to members of the public about their research on the origin of life and about how cryo-EM works. On day 275 of #LMB365, we see some LMB volunteers carrying the backdrop of the LMB’s Recipe4Life stand out of the cathedral
Working at the LMB isn’t all about science. One of our administrative staff submitted this image for day 274 of #LMB365. The excellent work of the administrative and facility staff is crucial in facilitating the ground-breaking science that takes place at LMB every day
This beautiful sunset for day 273 of #LMB365 was taken by Georgia Ntatsiou as she left work – luckily for us she had her camera at the ready.
The two amoebae shown here on day 272 of #LMB365 are drinking their surrounding medium by macropinocytosis and contain two different fluorescent proteins, one marking their actin ‘muscles’ and the other a membrane signal (PIP3) that guides where the actin works. These are viewed using a cutting edge light-sheet microscope built by James Manton in the LMB’s Light Microscopy Facility. Successive frames are combined and colour coded to create this scientific art
During September the LMB Library promoted its new collection of environmental books, to help us make positive changes for a greener life, as seen here on day 271 of #LMB365. As well as displaying some plastic free items, posters by the LMB green committee showed users how the LMB is trying to reduce waste and encourage wildlife
Day 270 of #LMB365 shows members of the Genotyping and McKenzie groups saying a fond farewell to James McKenzie with the help of a few cakes! James spent a gap year working in the Genotyping Service before leaving to begin his studies in chemistry, at the University of Southampton. The Genotyping Service will now be joined by a new school leaver. This benefits both the Genotyping Service, by providing a valuable pair of additional hands, and the school leaver, who gets excellent laboratory experience before starting their university studies
Day 269 of #LMB365 is a photo peering in on a low energy plasma chamber built in the LMB Workshops with Chris Russo from the Structural Studies Division. Plasmas such as these are used to modify the support grids used for imaging proteins in cryoEM
This image for day 268 of #LMB365 shows the brain and some imaginal discs isolated from a Drosophila larva. Imaginal discs are sacks of cells that will develop into adult structures such as wings, legs and eyes during metamorphosis. The tissue was stained for GFP (green), Wingless (red) as well as DAPI (blue), which marks the nuclei.
LMB scientists will be taking C. elegans worms to Queensgate shopping centre in Peterborough on Saturday 28th September to tell members of the public about how we use worms to study how neurons work and improve our understanding of ageing and disease. On day 267, we see a previous occasion when visitors got to see some of our worms.
This image for day 266 of #LMB365 shows a female mouse relaxing in a ‘Nombrero’. This is just one example of the environmental enrichment provided to LMB mice. The Biological Services Group provides some form of environmental enrichment to all mice as part of their commitment to improving animal welfare. The aim of environmental enrichment is to provide opportunities to express species-specific behaviours. The Nombrero was originally designed to hold wet mashed food, however this little mouse prefers to use it as a comfy bed!
Day 265 of #LMB365 shows the front entrance of the LMB taken at dusk by Conny Yu.
On day 264 of #LMB365 is an image of the structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit. This structure was first published #OTD in 2000 in a landmark paper in Nature by Venki Ramakrishnan and colleagues. The 30S ribosomal subunit has a crucial role in decoding mRNA by monitoring base pairing between the codon on mRNA and the anticodon on transfer RNA. Venki shared the 2009 @Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on determining the ribosome structure. Brian T.Wimberly, Ditlev E.Brodersen, William M.Clemons Jr, Robert J.Morgan-Warren, Andrew P.Carter, Clemens Vonrhein, Thomas Hartsch, V.Ramakrishnan. Structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit. Nature 407(6802):327-339, 21 September 2000
Much of the research at the LMB must be conducted in carefully controlled conditions of temperature, vibration and magnetic fields. The Electronics Workshop works with Group Leaders to detect and analyse extremely small sources of potential interference. This image for day 263 of #LMB365 shows a test spectrum created using precision sensors and software.
Day 262 of #LMB365 shows a confocal image of a gravid Caenorhabditis elegans worm from Ranya Behbehani in Rebecca Taylor’s lab in the Neurobiology Division. This model organism has been used at the LMB for many years since the initial studies on the genetic regulation of organ development by Sydney Brenner, Bob Horvitz and John Sulston.
Every year or so the LMB takes a group photo of all the current PhD students. Photos in the LMB Archive go back to at least the 1990’s. Day 261 of #LMB365 shows the current cohort posing for this year’s photo – watch this space for the actual photo…
Day 260 of #LMB365 shows Michael Fuller, who was born on this day in 1936. He served the LMB for over 44 years, as apprentice technician, Steward, Laboratory Services Manager and Special Projects Co-ordinator. This photo, taken at Venki Ramakrishnan’s Nobel party in 2009, was the 6th Nobel party organized by Michael
Drosophila Melanogaster is a key model organism used across the LMB to study fundamental aspects of biology. This image for day 259 of #LMB365 shows the dorsal portion of the fly thorax, called the notum, imaged by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) taken by Emmanuel Derivery in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division. In normal conditions (right-hand side), the notum is covered with hair, which are mechanosensory organs, and constitute a well-established system to study cell fate determination following asymmetric cell division. When the mechanisms of cell fate determination are compromised, for instance in mutant conditions (left-hand side), these hairs disappear. Such genetic studies are thus helpful to further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of asymmetric cell fate determination during stem cell division
On day 258 of #LMB365 in a break between experiments, LMB scientists get competitive at table football in one of the communal spaces across the building. The table was purchased by crowd-funding within the LMB over 5 years ago and is still going strong!
This photo for day 257 of #LMB365 was taken from Hobson’s Park, south-west of the LMB, which is part of the Great Kneighton development.
KDEL is the sorting signal for luminal ER proteins. In this a classic experiment for day 256 of #LMB365, lysozyme was expressed in COS cells without (left) or with (right) the addition of the sequence SEKDEL, and detected by immunofluorescence. Normally, lysozyme is rapidly secreted and the main pool of intracellular protein is in transit through the Golgi apparatus. Addition of KDEL causes it to accumulate to high levels in the ER. This was the original proof that (SE)KDEL is a sufficient signal for ER retention.
This image for day 255 of #LMB365 shows our Head of Scientific Computing donating the LMB’s old line printer to the Centre for Computing History (CCH) in Cambridge http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/. The printer was bought in 1991 for £8,125 and has been in constant use until very recently… Before graphics terminals became so sophisticated and image processing so automated, the LMB’s line printer gave essential output of large scale images and transforms for manual analysis of helical assemblies, such as tubes of the acetylcholine receptor
Day 254 of #LMB365 shows a reflection of the LMB in the nearby AstraZeneca building at sunset. We wonder whether they can see similar reflections of their building in the glass façade of our building?
As the model organism C. elegans is transparent we can use it to look at subcellular organelles and use fluorescent protein tags to study different processes. This image for day 253 of #LMB365 shows two different organelles labelled with green and magenta, which shows as white if there is co-localisation
Day 252 of #LMB365 shows the LMB’s Research Office who had an awesome team day recently and visited the LMB’s animal facility. They learned more about the work carried out there and how the mice are cared for.
Day 251 of #LMB365 shows odour delivery manifolds built by the LMB’s Technical Instrumentation Workshop for Shahar Frechter in Greg Jefferis’ lab. The system was developed to synchronise odour selection for the study of neural circuits and behaviour in Drosophila. The polymer manifolds can each hold up to eight flasks (eight odours) and the control box can handle up to eight manifolds, allowing up to sixty four independent odour channels.
Day 250 of #LMB365 shows a recent repair to the LMB’s fire hydrant ring main that sprung a leak. The soil had to be excavated to expose the leak on a brass fitting. This was repaired by contractors working with the LMB’s Estates and Facilities team.
Day 249 of #LMB365 shows animage taken by a pupil at St Paul’s Primary School for the LMB’s 2019 Science Image Award competition https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/microscopes4schools/award.php. 16 primary schools from across Cambridgeshire and Essex received a small digital microscope for 2 weeks and children in Years 5 and 6 were encouraged to look at and take images of things they could find outside
The LMB has been running regular mentoring sessions for students and postdocs to support them in progressing their scientific careers. This photo for day 248 of #LMB365 was taken at a recent lunch held by our Deputy Director Mariann Bienz where discussions included how to come up with a vision for your own research programme as a future group leader, what to look out for when choosing a host institute or department and how to combine running your own group with bringing up children.
Apple trees around the LMB building, originally planted in 2011 as 2-3 year old trees, are starting to mature. They are now heavy with fruit, as seen in this photo taken by Laura Easton on day 247 of #LMB365. The trees planted around the end of the site were specifically selected to meet the Cambridgeshire Landscape Guidelines for woodland perimeter planting
Day 246 of #LMB365 is an artistic representation of a synthetic bacterium, by artist Larissa Ulisko. Jason Chin’s group computationally designed and synthesised an E. coli genome where all instances of three codons have been replaced by their synonymous counterparts in annotated genes. The bacterium’s natural genome was then replaced, step-by-step, by the synthetic version, yielding a living cell with a completely rewritten genome.
This image for day 245 of #LMB365 is a view of the western end of the LMB taken by Ivan Rosa e Silva. The glass is cleaned annually which, on a lovely clear day, means all the reflections in the glass show off the beauty of the building.
On day 244 of #LMB365 is Richard Henderson who #OTD in 1974 started his research group at the LMB. He is pictured here in the 1970s with the X-ray camera rotating anode. Richard would predominately use electron microscopy for his work on membrane proteins and received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2017 for his work on developing electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM)
Day 243 of #LMB365 shows an SDS-PAGE cake baked by Jaslyn Wong in Roger Williams’ group in the PNAC Division. She hoped to motivate her colleagues to keep trying to get crystals of Rag proteins that activate the cancer drug target mTOR. Protein crystallisation has been, and is still used by many groups across the LMB to determine protein structure.
Day 242 of #LMB365 by Dana Galili in Greg Jefferis’ group in the Neurobiology Division shows interactions between fruit flies. These videos are automatically tracked using computer vision and machine learning methods, to closely inspect their social behaviour patterns. By manipulating the activity of specific neurons in behaving flies, the researchers study the logic of the neuronal circuits underlying sex-specific behaviours.
The LMB Group Leaders recently went on a 2-day retreat to discuss their vision for the future of their research and the LMB as a whole. This included discussions about matters impacting on staff, particularly women in science. The female group leaders present took the opportunity to get this photo taken for day 241 of #LMB365 in between sessions.
Ketan Malhotra from Anne Bertolotti’s group and Manuel Carminati from Lori Passmore’s group recently prepped 62 litres of E.coli to harvest their protein for purification and structure determination. Day 240 of #LMB365 shows the resulting 50 ml falcon tubes, which each contain 2 litres of cells
The Electronics Workshop at the LMB designs many items of custom equipment to facilitate the scientific research. Their Computer Aided Design & Manufacturing (CADCAM) systems are invaluable in providing swift and accurate development, none more so than the printed circuit board production machine, featured here on day 239 of #LMB365, which allows them to make complex circuit designs in a matter of hours.
Day 238 of #LMB365 shows a cerebral organoid ventricle labelled with markers of neuroepithelial cells, neuronal progenitors and neurons from Laura Pellegrini in Madeline Lancaster’s group in Cell Biology. The complex structural organisation of these cells and how they position within the tissue highly resembles early stages of brain development.
On day 237 of #LMB365 is a model of the structure of the enzyme, F1-ATPase. The structure was first published one this day in 1994 in a landmark paper in Nature. F1-ATPase is the catalytic component of ATP synthase, the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of ATP in living cells. The gamma subunit (blue) is believed to rotate within the three alpha (red) and three beta (yellow) subunits during catalysis. For his work in solving this structure John Walker shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Jan Pieter Abrahams, Andrew G. W. Leslie, René Lutter; John E. Walker. Structure at 2.8 angstrom resolution of F1-ATPase from bovine heart mitochondria. Nature 370: 621-628, 1994
Day 236 of #LMB365,taken by Neil Grant in the LMB’s Visual Aids team, shows the geometric patterns and reflections that can be seen when exploring the exterior of the LMB building on a sunny day.
On day 235 of #LMB365 PhD student Ross Hill celebrates with fellow students and postdocs the publication of his first paper from his PhD. The culmination of 3½ years of work and the ultimate accolade: to see your work reaching the scientific community. Worth a toast! Read more at https://t.co/G8ylgimczZ?amp=1
Amoebae and some cancer cells can feed by swallowing large gulps of their surrounding medium. An amoeba can drink nearly its own volume in an hour – an amazing feat if scaled to humans. This process is known as macropinocytosis, and has been studied by Rob Kay’s group in the Cell Biology Division. Day 234 of #LMB365 shows cells forming cups from their plasma membrane. These are shaped around a patch of the lipid PIP3 (orange), surrounded by a necklace of the SCAR/WAVE protein (green) that guides formation of the walls of the cup
Scientists rely on antibodies, proteins produced by the mammalian immune system, which are able to identify very specific molecules. Day 233 of #LMB365 shows Saša Šviković, from Julian Sale’s lab in the PNAC division, purifying antibodies from litres of cells grown in the lab by passing them through a column able to trap them. This approach has been used extensively ever since César Milstein and Georges Koehler (both PNAC alumni) developed technology to produce monoclonal antibodies, for which they won the Nobel Prize in 1984. The antibodies will be used to investigate how cells respond to various obstacles encountered during the duplication of DNA
The LMB’s NMR facility is home to five of the LMB’s seven NMR spectrometers, and is also currently hosting a spectrometer for our future neighbours AstraZeneca while their building is being completed. This photograph for day 232 of #LMB365 shows our highest strength, 800 MHz, magnet which is typically used for studying larger protein systems or when the most sensitivity is required. Liquid helium maintains the magnetic coils of the spectrometer at a chilly 1.9 kelvin: removing all electrical resistance, which allows the charge to remain indefinitely without a power source. Many people do not realise that we can’t simply switch off our magnets once energised.
Day 231 of #LMB365 shows a sample of baker’s yeast labelled with fluorescent dyes. Three dyes (red, green and blue) create seven different colour combinations. These multi-coloured images are used as part of a method developed by John Briggs’ group in collaboration with colleagues from the Weizmann Institute of Science to perform multiple electron microscopy experiments in parallel. Yeast cells from different experiments get a unique colour-code. They are then pooled together in one sample for electron microscopy. By reading the colour-code, the experimenter can later work out which cell came from which experiment. http://jcb.rupress.org/content/218/8/2797
This photo for day 230 of #LMB365 shows the newly installed heat exchanger for the new Scientific Computing server room. The primary chilled water system in the building is at 4C, and this heat exchanger ensures that the water cooling used for the computer racks is raised to 14C to prevent any condensation forming in the server room
Day 229 of #LMB365 shows a member of staff taking advantage of Wellness Wednesday at the LMB with a non-subsidized seated massage treatment. This uses a combination of massage and acupressure techniques to the back, neck, shoulders, arms, hands and scalp to relieve tension and reduce stress. No need to undress and no oils used, so you can go straight back to work feeling refreshed and revitalised. Blissssss…
Day 228 of #LMB365 was provided by Rosemary Keeble in Lalita Ramakrishnan’s group. They use zebrafish as a model organism to study human diseases such as tuberculosis. It is important to ensure the welfare of the fish and bacteria-free egg water containing the antifungal agent methylene blue is used to incubate embryos to ensure survival pre-hatching. This image shows 1 litre of egg water in a glass bottle viewed from above.
It is generally thought that abnormal proteins aggregate, the aggregates get ubiquitinated, and this leads to their degradation by autophagy or the proteasome. Hugh Pelham’s group in Cell Biology has been working on ubiquitination of protein condensates by Nedd4 ubiquitin ligases. These images for day 227 of #LMB365 show that artificial protein condensates (green, left) do not recruit NEDD4 ubiquitin ligase (red), unless they contain a PY motif (right).
We have recently purchased a jet washer to help improve the external appearance of the site. On day 226 of #LMB365, Phil Peck from Domestic Services has started to pressure wash the paths around the LMB building. Hopefully it’s not like painting the Forth Railway bridge…
On day 225 of #LMB365 is Fred Sanger who was born on this day in 1918. He is the only Briton to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes and the only scientist to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry twice: in 1958 and 1980. He first developed methods for amino acid sequencing and then pioneered a technique to sequence nucleic acids, the building blocks in DNA. This later method would shape the way that genomics and biomedicine were explored and was key to the Human Genome Project
Day 224 of #LMB365 shows the first cruise undertaken by an #LMBee. It enjoyed visiting locations around the Mediterranean including Barcelona, Malta, Sicily and Genoa in the company of Danny Leader. Who knew you could have so much fun with a cuddly bee nicknamed “Barnaby”?
Day 223 of #LMB365 shows Aaron Klug beside an electron microscope at the LMB. Aaron was born on this day in 1926. He was instrumental in revealing the structures of complex biological molecules, from viruses to tRNA, to chromatin and zinc fingers. His most important contribution to scientific research was his painstaking development of crystallographic electron microscopy. This combines the techniques of electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction to recover three-dimensional structural information from two-dimensional electron micrographs. For this he was the sole recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Day 222 of #LMB365 shows a lovely pyramid orchid that has been blooming in the wildflower areas around the LMB. This one, in the drainage ditch verge, adds a bright pop of colour on the way to work
This shot of one of the LMB’s plant towers for day 221 of #LMB365 was taken by Pablo Rodriguez. It shows the light of the setting sun reflected in the stainless steel façade. The faint large square that you can see in the middle of the tower reveals the access panel that will need to be removed if we ever had to replace an entire air handling unit
This image for day 220 of #LMB365 shows a digitalized patch of cells within the Drosophila melanogaster embryo. Cell-to-cell interfaces are randomly coloured and cell centroids are depicted with a square. Image by Yara Sanchez-Corrales in Katja Röper’s group in the Cell Biology Division.
Stands the church clock at ten to three. And is there honey still for tea? Day 219 of #LMB365 shows some of the first jars of honey produced this year by our bees. 60 jars went on sale to staff and sold out within a couple of hours
Emmanuel Derivery’s group in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division uses bacteria to express proteins of interest. They also modify them, in this case making the protein fluorescent pink, as this allows them to easily see the protein in microscopy experiments. Day 218 of #LMB365 shows some stages in the purification of a fluorescently-labelled protein, at the same time as the unlabelled protein.
This image for day 217 of #LMB365 shows one of the racks of zebrafish tanks found in the aquatics facility within the University occupied space at the LMB. Each 1.5 litre tank can hold up to 25 fish fry up to 30 days of age and the racks are designed to provide a controlled environment of 26C, pH7 and conductivity of 650 to ensure the welfare of the fish.
Day 216 of #LMB365 shows a brain organoid, grown by Madeline Lancaster’s group in Cell Biology, seen down a microscope. This one has been injected with a blue dye to visualise the fluid-filled cavities that are similar to the ventricles of the brain.
Day 215 of #LMB365 is an image of an embryonic day 12 mouse lung, showing the beginning of the extensive branching morphogenesis that will eventually form the adult mouse lung. The tubes of the forming lung are shown in green, and the surrounding supporting tissue is in magenta. The work was carried out by Katja Roeper in collaboration with Emma Rawlins at the Gurdon Institute.
The LMB’s environmental conditions are regulated through the movement of air through the lab. Waste heat is recovered from the exhaust air before being routed to the top of the four plant towers and being discharged at high speed to prevent it being re-entrained back into the building. Of the four discharge exhausts shown in the picture only three are being used. The fourth is capped and available for expansion purposes. On day 214 of #LMB365 it seems as though the residual warmth from the exhausted air has attracted a local resident to trial some new accommodation at this precarious location. We wonder who it is?
Day 213 of #LMB365 shows a set of 29 DNP-derivatives of amino acids, prepared by Fred Sanger for his work on the sequencing of proteins. This work led to the sequencing of insulin, as reported on this day in 1955, in a landmark paper in the Biochemical Journal, “[this] was essentially the climax of our work on insulin. It was the first protein to be sequenced and we had developed methods and demonstrated their applicability. I think this stimulated interest in sequencing in other laboratories, and our methods were used extensively until better ones were available.” Fred Sanger, Selected papers of Frederick Sanger (with commentaries) World Scientific, 1996. Fred received the first of his two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for this work.
Day 212 of #LMB365 shows managers of some of the LMB’s Operations Group teams hard at work in a risk assessment workshop delivered by the LMB’s Health & Safety team. The LMB has an in-house H&S team and they work with all staff to provide advice and support on H&S matters to help keep both the science and the support infrastructure running smoothly and safely.
Day 211 of #LMB365 shows a cerebral organoid section with large ventricles from Laura Pellegrini in Madeline Lancaster’s group in Cell Biology. Cell nuclei are labelled in blue and the apical marker ZO1 in white highlights the perimeter of the ventricle. These organoids can model the architecture of a developing human brain.
The LMB Graduate Student Association (GSA) held its first ever LGBT+ Happy Hour social event recently, which was open to everyone across the LMB. This photo for day 210 of #LMB365 shows some of the attendees enjoying themselves in the early evening sunshine. The GSA is run by and for students and organises social, educational and welfare events throughout the year.
This shot of the LMB for day 209 of #LMB365 was taken by Oleksiy Kovtun. The stainless steel façade of the plant towers was installed by hand by a company called Varla. The discharge from each of the flues on the towers is the equivalent of a transit van of air every second and ensures the building is supplied with fresh, environmentally controlled air.
Day 208 of #LMB365 shows a collage of yeast cells expressing a fluorescently tagged protein which is usually located in the endoplasmic reticulum. Liz Miller’s group deletes individual genes from the yeast genome to see how the fluorescently tagged protein is affected. Each individual image shows cells where a different gene has been deleted. Some of these deletions affect the localisation of the fluorescent protein, indicating a relationship between the two.
On day 207 of #LMB365, the LMBee has been exploring the wonderful LMB Archive. The Archive has a diverse collection of resources and information about the LMB, its science and people. Here, the LMBee sits in one of the display cabinets, amongst a small sample of models, artefacts and photographs
Day 206 of #LMB365 features Russell Ableman from Lab Services before he starts his daily round topping up the liquid nitrogen Dewars around the LMB. This ensures that supplies are maintained to the cell storage banks and specialist equipment in the EM facility, X-ray sets and NMR and allows the LMB to function 24/7. The LMB uses over 4000 litres of liquid nitrogen a week.
Metalwork and services everywhere! This photo for day 205 of #LMB365 is a view from the energy centre boiler house down into the basement plant room. There are various pipes carrying different types of water services over to the main building. Right at the back is the bulk salt storage container for the water softeners (blue vessels in the centre) that accepts a delivery of 7 tonnes of salt every two months.
This image for day 204 of #LMB365 is made with micropatterning, the process whereby any protein, in this case a fluorescent protein, can be printed onto a glass coverslip. Each logo in this image is about 100 micrometres across. Emmanuel Derivery’s lab uses these micropatterns (not in the shape of the LMB logo!) to control the precise location of proteins both on the inside and outside of cells.
Day 203 of #LMB365 from Kevin Takaki in Lalita Ramakrishnan’s group shows macrophages attacking and encasing a parasite schistosoma egg within a larval zebrafish. Schistosoma, known as blood flukes, are parasitic flatworms responsible for a significant group of infections in humans. They infect and lay their eggs within the vasculature of their human hosts and the eggs and the host immune response to these are a major cause of pathology.
When viewed as a whole, the LMB building is impressive. Just as dramatic though are the glimpses seen as you enter/exit the building on a daily basis. This view for day 202 of #LMB365 captures the reflection of one of the towers in the glass-clad exterior of the building, taken from one of the side doors by our Head of Health & Safety on a sunny day.
A crocheted stag’s head looks out into the atrium on day 201 of #LMB365 giving a glimpse of this years Art and Craft show. The annual event gives staff at the LMB a chance to showcase their artistic and creative talents and for others to see a different side to their colleagues
Richard Henderson was born on this day in 1945, in Edinburgh. Day 200 of #LMB365 shows Richard overlooking the atrium of the LMB building. It was during his time as LMB Director that the plans for a new building were launched. Richard was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his development of cryo-EM
Day 199 of #LMB365 shows the new signage for the LMB Stores before it was installed. The team processes approximately 300 parcels a day and Stores holds a stock of approximately 650 different items that are issued over the counter. LMB alumni will well remember the queues down the corridor of the old building while waiting to be served. Luckily the new building has allowed processes to be improved and the days of chatting in the queue are long gone…
Protein samples need to be rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen so they can be stored without degrading. While freezing samples, Christina Heroven and Patricia Brown were surprised to see the tubes forming a perfect circle within the container as seen here on day 198 of #LMB365
On day 197 of #LMB365 we have a picture by Katja Röper in the Cell Biology Division. This image shows a confocal section of the primordium of the salivary glands in a Drosophila embryo, a model system for the formation of tubular organs. The Röper lab studies how important tubular organs from flies to humans form during development. The image is false-coloured with cell outlines labelled blue.
This shot of the LMB for day 196 of #LMB365 was taken by Oleksiy Kovtun. It was taken from Hobson’s Park at Great Kneighton and you can see the top of a train travelling between London and Cambridge past the building
Cricket was the first recreational activity organised at the LMB. The LMB cricket team officially began playing in the interdepartmental league in 1969 under the chairmanship of Max Perutz and this year marks the team’s golden jubilee! Notable past players include Fred Sanger and John Walker. This image for day 195 of #LMB365 shows the current team who are still actively competing in the interdepartmental cricket league, which itself celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2018.
This photo for day 194 of #LMB365 shows an engineer cutting into the existing chilled water circuit for the new server room. The welder’s left hand is on a pipe that has been frozen with liquid nitrogen to freeze the water within and enable it to be worked on “live”.
Liz Miller’s lab in Cell Biology uses yeast colony arrays, seen here on day 192 of #LMB365, to test growth of >5000 genetic mutants all at once. They pin the yeast cells at 384 density to capture the full genome on only 15 plates and quantify colony size to measure growth defects. Using such high throughput screening, Liz’s lab aims to identify new players in protein quality control in the secretory pathway.
The LMB canteen recently supported Cupcake Day to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society. Day 191 of #LMB365 shows some of the cakes they baked, which helped raise £51.20 for this worthy cause.
Day 190 of #LMB365 shows some plastic measuring cylinders. There are over 1200 cylinders in cupboards across the LMB ranging from 10ml to 2litres. These are washed and replaced by the Glasswash Team on a daily basis & without their dedication LMB science would soon grind to a halt
Day 189 of #LMB365 shows sections of cerebral organoids labelled with markers of neuroepithelial cells, neuronal progenitors and cortical neurons. Laura Pellegrini in Madeline Lancaster’s group in Cell Biology uses organoids to study how cortical neurons migrate to form the cerebral cortex.
This image for day 188 of #LMB365 was collected by Michael Wozny in Wanda Kukulski’s group in Cell Biology using the ion beam source of a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Clumps of plunge-frozen yeast cells are seen centred within the grid squares of an electron microscope grid. The Focussed Ion Beam (FIB) is used to carefully remove material off the tops and bottoms of these cells to produce thin sections called lamellae that are ~200 nm in thickness. These lamellae are then suitable to be imaged using cryo-electron tomography using the LMB’s Titan Krios microscopes.
PhD students at the LMB are registered with the University of Cambridge, and are therefore automatically members of a college. This photo for day 187 of #LMB365 shows members of Bill Schafer’s lab celebrating the end of another day in the LMB by going to a formal dinner at Homerton College.
Day 186 of #LMB365 shows a common occurrence at the LMB. Our Nobel laureates, on this occasion Venki Ramakrishnan, and others are frequently called upon to be interviewed about their science. More can be found on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/LMBCambridge/
On day 185 of #LMB365, the early morning sunshine casts a reflection of a 1950s ball and spoke model of the alpha-helix peptide chain onto the wall of the library mezzanine. Linus Pauling, of Caltech, beat the MRC Unit in solving this structure and this gave the Cambridge team the urgency to be first in determining the structure of DNA
This photo for day 184 of #LMB365 was taken by Ben Phillips when leaving work at sunset on the summer solstice, when most people had already gone home for the night. Amazing colours and reflections…
This image for day 183 of #LMB365 is the surface of a Drosophila melanogaster embryo showing fluorescent markers of nuclei (magenta) and cell membranes (green) from Yara Sanchez-Corrales in Katja Röper’s group in the Cell Biology Division.
Day 182 of #LMB365 was taken outside the LMB’s Max Perutz Lecture Theatre where Anna Howes and Vaithish Velazhahan, both first year PhD students, were awarded LMBees for attending the most Biophysical Techniques Lectures as part of their PhD training. The lecture theatre will be the venue for a one-day meeting in November, organized by the Biophysics Facility, AstraZeneca and Imperial College London, on how cutting-edge biophysics is being applied to complex biological systems. More details can be found at https://www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/nextgen/
This model for day 181 of #LMB365 shows a molecule of RNA folded into a ribozyme – a specific 3D shape that can carry out reactions. This particular ribozyme builds other RNA molecules, and can even make a copy of itself. It was developed by scientists in Phil Holliger’s group in the PNAC division as part of an effort to reconstitute a self-sustaining system capable of Darwinian evolution, a top goal of synthetic biology. At this year’s Royal Society Summer Exhibition, LMB scientists will be presenting how such self-replicating molecules could have contributed to the origin of life https://www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/recipe4life/
This image for day 180 of #LMB365 was taken by Ilaria Chiaradia in the Cell Biology Division when she was on a confocal microscopy training session. It shows atypical mitosis in a HeLa cell which is characterised by double the number of centrosomes (labelled with anti-γ-tubulin antibody in green) and cross-shaped mitotic DNA (labelled in blue with DAPI), while mitochondria are labelled in red.
The LMB Happy Hour team recently held a quiz night. Quizmaster for the evening was David Christensen from the LMB’s Public Engagement team, and he kept everyone entertained with questions on various topics including music, films (whether real or made up!) and the LMB. A great time was had by all, and this photo for day 179 of #LMB365 shows the winning team with their prize of reusable MRC bags.
LMB researchers will be telling the public about their work on the origin of life at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. On day 178 of #LMB365 we see Phil Holliger being interviewed about the exhibition. Learn more about our exhibit at https://mrc.io/recipe4life & come along 1-7 July!
Strike a pose, be it mountain, tree or downward facing dog, the benefits of yoga in the workplace are well documented for counteracting the long hours spent at a work station. Staff at the LMB seen here on day 177 of #LMB365 execute a Paschimottanasana during an in-house yoga session led by Lucy in order to improve posture, flexibility and breathing, reduce stress and enhance focus.
Some experiments require pipetting into huge numbers of tubes. On day 176 of #LMB365, Christina Heroven and Patricia Brown had to divide their protein samples into more than 80 tubes of 100 microliters each!
The LMB’s Operations Group recently held its annual BBQ in the Library garden. Our IT Manager Paul Hart, pictured here on day 175 of #LMB365, showed off his culinary skills by cooking over 150 items on the LMB’s BBQs. Everyone brought along delicious salads and puddings to go with the BBQ and we were lucky to catch a rare sunny spell in between the June showers.
Andrew Carter’s group has showed how dynein (grey), a motor protein, moves along microtubules (green). Dynein attaches to its cargo via an adaptor protein called Bicaudal-D2 (orange). The attachment requires the help of another protein complex called dynactin (multi-coloured). These structures were determined by both cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography and Janet Iwasa helped create this beautiful image for day 174 of #LMB365.
Day 173 of #LMB365 is a light microscopy image from Wanda Kukulski in Cell Biology of yeast cells producing a fluorescent version of a protein that assembles into patches on the cell membrane. Each patch contains hundreds of copies of the protein. Together, they induce a local deformation of the membrane, which however is too small to be resolved by light microscopy.
This impressionistic glimpse of the LMB on a sunny day for #LMB365 day 172 was created by Xiaohan Li. In LMBers’ eyes, science can always be artistic.
Day 171 of #LMB365 shows Richard Henderson with a model of the membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin. Richard used high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy, developing new methods for analysing micrographs from tilted specimens, in his landmark paper, published on this day in 1990. The Nobel Committee cited this paper when Richard was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Reference: Richard Henderson et al. Model for the structure of bacteriorhodopsin based on high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy. Journal of Molecular Biology. 213:899-929, 1990
On day 170 of #LMB365 this LMBee is hard at work on the Titan Krios microscope in the LMB’s EM Facility doing its bit to automate high-throughput data collection for cryo-EM.
The LMB Estates & Facilities team gets involved in many projects, both big and small. Day 169 of #LMB365 shows the culmination of months of work to replace the old boilers (red) with new boilers (silver) at our facility at Babraham. The work had to be carried out at a time that disruption to science was kept to a minimum and as anticipated things went very smoothly.
On day 168 of #LMB365 a fibroblast is shown labelled with the unique reverse directed myosin motor, myosin VI (green), actin filaments (red) and the nucleus (blue). Myosin VI targets to clathrin coated structures at the plasma membrane and is involved in the initial stages of endocytosis
Day 167 of #LMB365 shows a selection of doughnuts recently sold in the LMB’s canteen for National Doughnut Week – yes there really is such a thing. These provided much needed energy and happiness for members of the LMB.
High-quality protein crystals are a prerequisite for the process of macromolecular structure determination by X-ray diffraction. Day 166 of #LMB365 shows examples of protein crystals (30-200 nanometer long) obtained during the development of the MORPHEUS II crystallisation screen at the LMB by Fabrice Gorrec.
Lalita Ramakrishnan’s group from the University of Cambridge Molecular Immunity Unit, based in the LMB, is working to understand the pathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB) using zebrafish as a model organism. TB infection results in the formation of granulomas and this confocal image for day 165 of #LMB365 shows a nascent TB granuloma containing macrophages (green) and Mycobacterium marinum (red).
In Lori Passmore’s group they study how different protein factors and RNA sequences affect the activity of highly conserved deadenylase enzymes. This image for day 163 of #LMB365 from Terence Tang shows a two-colour in vitro enzymatic assay in which purified enzyme is mixed with two differently labelled RNA substrates (red & blue) to observe any relative differences in nuclease activity.
Happy Hour is one of the LMB’s regular social events where people can meet, chat, have a couple of drinks, discuss their work or organise their weekend’s activities. Happy Hour has been going for around 10 years and this photo for day 162 of #LMB365 shows all the drinks lined up awaiting the first attendees for a recent gathering.
The meadow flower planting on the mounds around the edge of the LMB building was intended to mitigate the loss of grassland habitat of the original site and to try and increase biodiversity. The original wildflower planting mix contained 20+ different species of wildflowers and ornamental grasses. Over time, nature has intervened and we now have a different blend of plant species including Salvia verbenaca (wild sage) seen here on day 161 of #LMB365. The rich variety of plants, with the bulk of them requiring insect pollination, has started to develop into a mature ecosystem beneficial to the LMB bees. There is at least one bee in the photo – can you find it?
This image for day 160 of #LMB365 is a Drosophila melanogaster embryo showing the embryonic nervous system. Fluorescent labels correspond to microtubules (yellow) and nuclei (red). Image by Yara Sanchez-Corrales in Katja Röper’s group in the Cell Biology Division.
Day 159 of #LMB365 shows Francis Crick in the 1960s, when he was joint head of the LMB’s Molecular Genetics (now Cell Biology) Division. Francis was born on this day in 1916, in Northampton. He was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the structure of DNA
Between the floors of the LMB’s building are full height Interstitial Service Voids (ISVs), which house the ductwork, pipes and services. These ISVs are normally only accessible for maintenance and modifications by the Estates and Facilities team. The team recently ran some “Secret LMB Tours” for the LMB’s students to allow them to see behind the scenes in these areas and this photo for day 158 of #LMB365 was taken while they found out more about how the building functions.
Day 157 of #LMB365 shows an artistic view of a ribosome engineering process created by Zakir Tnimov and Wolfgang Schmied in Jason Chin’s group. This ‘stapled’ ribosome has subunits linked by an RNA hinge and can be evolved for synthetic polymer synthesis in cells.
How do cells distinguish normal proteins from defective proteins and selectively get rid of the latter? This is one of the questions Manu Hegde’s lab is trying to answer because problems in getting rid of defective proteins can lead to neurodegeneration. In this microscope image of two cells for day 156 of #LMB365, normal and defective versions of the same protein are visualised in red and green, respectively. The cell keeps the normal protein on the cell surface, where it belongs, but most of the defective protein is found in degradation compartments called lysosomes. How cells know to remove only the defective proteins from the cell surface is being investigated by Eszter Zavodszky in the Hegde lab.
On day 155 of #LMB365 it appears the LMB bees have been busy. This is a honey frame from one of our hives two thirds full and capped over. Once full this can be extracted and the honey bottled ready for use. We hope to have LMB honey available during 2019!
It’s not every day an LMB Group Leader has a significant birthday, so John O’Neill’s group in Cell Biology surprised him with a molecularly crowded Happy Birthday on day 154 of #LMB365.
Julian Gough uses theoretical and computational approaches to harness the power of data generated by experimental methods to advance scientific knowledge in areas including regenerative medicine and personal genomics. The transcriptome is the set of all RNA molecules in a specified cell population. This image for day 153 of #LMB365 shows a map derived from real human cellular transcriptome data. Hundreds of cell types are plotted on the landscape and a few of them highlighted with labels.
The LMB supports long-term research projects and on this day in 1994 Andrew McKenzie started his group working on the immune system. On day 152 of #LMB365 Andrew is pictured giving a lecture to LMB support staff about the work that led to the identification of a new immune cell type that contributes to the start of allergic asthma. This has provided a critical first step in developing new treatments.
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus continues to expand, with the nearby Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre due to open shortly and AstraZeneca continuing their building project. This photo for day 151 of #LMB365 was taken while LMB staff watched the careful construction of new portacabins on the AstraZeneca site.
Day 150 of #LMB365 shows the transparent multicellular organism C. elegans, which has fewer than 1,000 cells, and is therefore an ideal model organism for studying various biological processes. Here the entire intestine of two worms is tagged using a green fluorescent protein (GFP), while rows of oval-shaped eggs can be seen in grey.
Imagining the Brain was an outreach project conceived by Yvonne Vallis and Harvey McMahon in the Neurobiology Division to engage school pupils to use art to communicate science. They gave talks on science topics and held an annual exhibition, open to the public, of the work the students produced. Particularly talented students were offered a residency to create artwork in the LMB. Inspired by the scientific and artistic relationship between form and function, as part of Edward Parkhouse’s residency work in 2011 he created a piece of artwork that told the story of the LMB and looked forward to the move to the new building. The image for day 149 of #LMB365 is the result. This is his commentary on the project: “I wanted to create a piece of furniture that was inspired by the history of the LMB. I based the piece on a tree stump to represent the processes of life; this opens into the double helix structure of DNA. The supporting metal helices in the middle of the stem have some parts where the nucleotide bases are left out, representing what science has yet to discover. The metalwork then opens out into the form of a human brain in cross-section, supporting the brain-shaped glass table-top. Creating this piece was one of the most challenging and enjoyable things I have ever done. It was inspirational to work with the scientists at the LMB and I hope that they enjoy this vision of the past and future of this amazing laboratory.”
On this day in 1962, HM The Queen officially opened the first LMB building. For day 148 of #LMB365, The Queen is seen arriving at the entrance to the LMB. Max Perutz, in the foreground, greets The Queen, while LMB staff inside the building can be seen through the window
Day 147 of #LMB365 shows some aluminium and copper swarf created by the Technical Instrumentation Workshop. Swarf is the technical term for the metal removed during the machining process and is generally small chips or spirals that can be extremely sharp. The swarf is kept separate (copper, brass, aluminium, stainless steel etc) making it easier to recycle.
Day 146 of #LMB365 is a photo taken in the middle of the night while using one of the £4million Titan Krios microscopes to determine the structure of protein complexes. Often the days get fairly long, including setting the microscopes up, but the rewards can be amazing. See more about the use of cryo-EM on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/BtuAz12zXBs
On day 145 of #LMB365, a detailed close-up of the 1960s vertical wire model of haemoglobin. This ‘working’ model was made for Max Perutz and its vertical wires and graph-paper-like baseboard allowed precise coordinate measurements to be made for comparison with the electron density map from X-ray crystallography. This means that it was not just a model for display but an important research tool.
As the sun comes out on day 144 of LMB365 Andrew McKenzie and members of his group in the LMB’s PNAC Division take advantage of the LMB’s garden to discuss recent findings.
On day 143 of #LMB365, we celebrate the 6th anniversary of the official opening of the current LMB building. HM The Queen, accompanied by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, is seen walking through the LMB Atrium, escorted by the then LMB Director Hugh Pelham.
Drosophila Melanogaster is a key model organism used across the LMB to study fundamental aspects of biology. This image for day 142 of #LMB365 shows a Drosophila head imaged by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) taken by Emmanuel Derivery in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division. Fly hairs, which are actually mechanosensory organs, are a well-established system to study cell fate determination following asymmetric cell division, and as such help our understanding of asymmetric cell fate determination during stem cell division in humans.
This photo of the LMB by Ivan Rosa e Silva for day 141 of #LMB365, was taken from Hobson’s Park at Great Kneighton to the West of the Campus. Totalling around 120 acres, the park contains woodland and four ponds.
On day 140 of #LMB365 we have a picture by Katja Röper in the Cell biology Division. This image shows a confocal section of a mouse lung bud at embryonic day 12. Nuclei of cells are labelled in blue, the microtubule cytoskeleton in green and cell-cell junctions in red. The Röper lab studies how important tubular organs such as the lung form during development.
Max Perutz was born on this day in 1914, in Vienna, Austria. He was the founder and first Chairman of the LMB. On day 139 of #LMB365, Max is photographed on the day he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the studies of the structures of globular proteins. The photograph was taken by LMB student, Hans Boye. Max died on 6 February 2002, in Cambridge.
The LMB is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Medical Research Council. The Chair of UKRI, Sir John Kingman, recently visited the LMB to find out more about the exciting science being carried out here. This included a visit to the EM facility where he was introduced to the wonders of this technology by Lori Passmore and Chris Russo where this picture for day 138 of #LMB365 was taken.
In this image for day 137 of #LMB365 seam cells are highlighted in green in the middle of a young (larval) C. elegans worm. The seam cells act like stem cells and during larval development these cells undergo asymmetrical divisions and either self-renew or differentiate to various cell types.
Day 136 of #LMB365 shows Ananth Kumar from Lori Passmore’s Group in Structural Studies submitting his PhD thesis titled “Architecture of eukaryotic mRNA 3′ end processing machinery and insights into the mechanism of polyadenylation” at the new “red” door with his colleagues James Stowell and Ana Casañal. Now just the small matter of the viva to come…
On day 135 of #LMB365 we have a 1970s drawing showing the hybrid atomic orbitals of the lysozyme system, to highlight Michael Levitt’s landmark paper on the theoretical studies of enzymic reactions, published on this day in 1976. This paper reported the first computerised model of an enzymatic reaction, a development that allowed any kind of chemical reaction to be simulated involving any kind of molecule, irrespective of size. For this work Michael shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Reference: A. Warshel & M Levitt, Theoretical studies of enzymic reactions, Journal of Molecular Biology 103: 227-249.
All neat and tidy on day 134 of #LMB365. They look like they could be scientific samples waiting to be used, but these are storage tubes for different size drill bits, all carefully arranged in the LMB’s Technical Instrumentation Workshop. There are thousands of different sizes – imperial, metric, number and letter and the workshop get through a huge amount of drill bits, hence the well organised and labelled spares. Storing the drill bits in tubes was devised way back in the 1970s and each successive Head of the Workshop has inherited and carried on with the tradition.
Whilst the sun sets in the background of this photo by Shahana Ahmed, the conscientious LMB researchers continue in their pursuit of discovery on day 133 of #LMB365. Every sunset brings the promise of a new day, new opportunities and even more experiments!
The LMB’s Tissue Culture Lab prepares big batches of Earle’s Balanced Salt Solution for trypsin. The solution seen being prepared on day 132 of #LMB365 will be used all around the building to dissociate adherent cells from the vessel in which they are being cultured.
With funding from the MRC specifically aimed at the wellbeing of its staff, a full-size outdoor table tennis table was acquired by the LMB in 2017. It is frequently in use, as seen here on day 131 of #LMB365, even in adverse weather. It promotes social interaction and, depending on the opponents, an element of competitiveness. It challenges your brain and your body but the fun of playing can be the perfect stress-reliever in between experiments.
This picture for day 130 of #LMB365 by Thomas Mund shows a confocal image of the GFP-stained cytoskeletal remnants of a HeLa cell, an immortal cell line used in scientific research at the LMB. Sometimes beauty lies beyond what you are originally looking for…
Day 129 of #LMB365 shows Michael Levitt when he joined the scientific staff at the LMB in 1974. Michael was born on this day in 1947, in Pretoria, South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013 for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems
Day 128 of #LMB365 shows Bob Horvitz when he joined the LMB as a postdoctoral visitor in 1974. Bob was born on this day in 1947, in Chicago, USA. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for the discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death in C. elegans
As the first outpatients are welcomed to the new state-of-the-art Royal Papworth hospital here on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, on day 127 of #LMB365 we share a photo of our new neighbours with the LMB building behind. Welcome to the campus!
Day 126 of #LMB365 was taken ahead of a recent meeting where members of HR, Finance, the Divisional Administrators and other support staff get together to share news and discuss ways to improve how things work across the LMB to support our scientists. Their invaluable support helps ensure the smooth running of the LMB, allowing scientists to concentrate on what they do best…
LMB scientists use mouse models of human diseases in their research where there are no suitable alternatives. The image for day 125 of #LMB365 shows a genetically modified mouse with a black and white patchwork coloured coat. This mouse is known as a chimera and results from the injection of genetically modified embryonic stem (ES) cells derived from a black mouse, into a donor blastocyst from a white wild type mouse. This technique provides LMB researchers with physiologically relevant mouse models of human diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer and asthma, with the aim of identifying a new therapy or cure.
The LMB was delighted to welcome a team from Leeds to visit recently as they cycled around the UK on a charity microscope tour to raise £20k for International Justice Mission, a charity tackling modern slavery. This image for day 124 of #LMB365 was taken after their refreshment stop at the LMB where they were hosted by the LMB EM facility, Lori Passmore, Sjors Scheres and Wanda Kukulski.
The image for day 123 of #LMB365 shows the Ty3 retrotransposon capsid. Like retroviruses, Ty3 builds a capsid, replicates its nucleic acid, and inserts itself into new positions in the genome, but unlike a virus it never leaves the yeast cells in which it is found. Ty3 and the human virus HIV-1 diverged from a common ancestor that existed before the divergence of plants and animals 1.5 billion years ago. Surprisingly, Ty3 is also similar to a neuronal protein called Arc1. John Briggs’ group in the Structural Studies Division collaborated with the Sandmeyer lab who discovered Ty3 in the 1980’s, to determine the structure of the Ty3 capsid using cryo-electron microscopy and found that it has many similarities to the capsid of HIV-1. https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/04/26/1900931116
On this day in 1970, a landmark paper showing the 3D reconstructions of spherical viruses was published. On day 122 of #LMB365, an electron micrograph of human wart virus is shown, alongside a version with its surface lattice superimposed on top. Aaron Klug led a group of LMB scientists applying the technique he had developed just a few years early, of computing 3D density maps from electron micrographs, to spherical viruses. The tecnique produced clear reconstructions of the surface structures of viruses, and paved the way for 3D imaging by electron microscopy. Reference: R. A. Crowther, Linda A. Amos, J T. Finch, D J DeRosier, A. Klug. Nature 226: 421-425.
On day 121 of #LMB365 we have a 1970s image of the nematode worm, C. elegans, to highlight Sydney Brenner’s landmark paper on the genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans which was published in May 1974: Genetics 77: 71-94. “The ease of handling of the nematode coupled with its small genome size suggests that it is feasible to look for mutants in all of the genes to try to discover how they participate in the development and functioning of a simple multicellular organism.” For this work, Sydney shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
On day 120 of #LMB365 we find some LMB PhD students “relaxing” by bouldering at a local climbing centre after a long day in the lab. Abilities varied, but they all enjoyed themselves and ended up with a well-deserved pint in a local pub.
Day 119 of #LMB365 shows blue, yellow-green, and red lasers hitting the sample stream in the MoFlo cell sorter within the Flow Cytometry facility. As cells flow through the laser beams at this interrogation point their fluorescence is measured and the cells are sorted accordingly. This technique is used by many people across the LMB to select cells of interest for further study.
The small soil worm C. elegans is used by Mario de Bono’s group in the Cell Biology Division to study proteins that control behaviour. To extract these proteins, worms are frozen into balls by dropping them into liquid nitrogen and then ground into a fine powder. Day 118 of #LMB365 is a photo of some frozen “worm balls” containing over 1 million frozen worms.
Most steps of X-ray crystallography are enabled with safe and straightforward automated protocols. This is particularly true for screening protein crystallisation conditions. On day 117 of #LMB365 a young visitor (Julia, aged 6) was desperate to try our equipment, although she expected to reveal the mythical powers of the crystals rather than solving their structure.
This image for day 116 of #LMB365 is a dish of negatively stained grids, discarded after use in the general-use Spirit, which is a 120 kV transmission electron microscope (TEM). Samples are applied to the grid, then surrounded by heavy metal stain that blocks the electrons, thereby enhancing contrast.
On this day in 1953 the landmark paper proposing the structure of DNA was published in the journal Nature. ‘We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.’ Day 115 of #LMB365 shows a reproduction of the original DNA model, which can be seen in the foyer of the LMB building
Day 114 of #LMB365. Ferris Beuller would never go to the lab on such a spectacular spring day! But if you don’t have access to a 1961 Ferrari GT, you might as well be in the LMB doing experiments.
The external mounds around the LMB were originally planted with 20 different wild flora species to produce a grassland meadow mixture. The original planting mixture has now been taken over by species from the surrounding area and the variety of plants is changing, including these lovely cowslips in the LMB’s drainage ditches for day 113 of #LMB365
Day 112 of #LMB365 shows our resident LMBeekeeper carrying out his weekly checks on our two colonies of honeybees to ensure the hives are healthy. It is hoped that LMB honey will be available for sale later in the year. To follow the progress of our bees do keep an eye on their blog https://www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/lmbees/
The LMBee has been exploring the LMB’s canteen and, as well as finding lots of sweet Easter treats, has found some new friends. They would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter on day 111 of #LMB365.
On day 110 of #LMB365 Soudabeh Imanikia in the Neurobiology Division took advantage of fluorescently labelled Caenorhabditis elegans worms to make them spell our name! C. elegans has been a model organism used at the LMB for many decades since Sydney Brenner, Bob Horvitz and John Sulston used it to study development.
The image for day 109 of #LMB365 is provided by Ben Sutcliffe in the LMB’s Light Microscopy Facility. When they need to align the laser on the custom mSPIM light sheet microscope they use a solution of highlighter pen in water so that they can see the beam.
On day 108 of #LMB365 a new turbomolecular pump is installed on a new thin film instrument in the lab. Much like a jet engine, the “turbo” pump contains a turbine that spins at very high speed (60,000 rpm) to suck the air out of the instrument. They run 24/7 for years on end to keep our electron microscopes and instruments running.
Georges Kohler was born on this day in 1946, in Munich, Germany. On day 107 of #LMB365 he is pictured with César Milstein. Georges and César were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1984, for their work on the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies
On this day in 1999, Venki Ramakrishnan started his group at the LMB. On day 106 of #LMB365, Venki is pictured giving a lecture to his colleagues at LMB, in front of a schematic of the structure of ribosome. Venki helped to determine the structure and for this shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In his Nobel biography, From Chidambaram to Cambridge: A Life in Science, Venki commented, “So only a few months after my move to Cambridge, with the rest of my lab still in Utah, we had made a major breakthrough. When I revealed our findings at the triennial ribosome meeting in Denmark in June, I could sense the shock in the audience, especially since virtually none of them knew we were working on the problem. Soon afterwards, our work was published in Nature in August 1999 with much fanfare.”
Day 104 of #LMB365 shows Greg Winter at the entrance to the LMB. Greg was born on this day in 1951. He studied for his PhD at the LMB and after postdoctoral research, returned here as a Programme Leader in 1981. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2018 for his work on phage display of peptides and antibodies
This image for day 103 of #LMB365 shows the denticles on the ventral side of a Drosophila embryo cuticle taken by differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. The denticles form segmentally repeated belts in the embryo and can have different sizes, shape and orientation. The pattern results from the spatially organised activation of several signalling pathways during embryogenesis and this can serve as a physiological readout for changes in signalling pathways including planar polarity. Mariann Bienz’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division is using this to study Wnt signalling components which are involved in the development of cancer.
The photo for day 102 of #LMB365 is of the new power distribution units (PDUs) in the server room. The PDUs are part of the significant electrical infrastructure required and can supply 200 kW of power to the new computing equipment. They are configured to provide redundancy should one system ever develop a fault the power can be taken from the stand-by feed.
On day 101 of #LMB365 a display of photographs in a meeting room charts the 10 former Heads of the Structural Studies Division: Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Hugh Huxley, Aaron Klug, Richard Henderson, Nigel Unwin, Tony Crowther, Kiyoshi Nagai, Venki Ramakrishnan and Jan Löwe. This impressive list includes 5 Nobel Laureates and 4 LMB Directors. Imagine having a meeting here with this eminent group looking down upon you.
Neurons (brain cells) communicate by passing electrical signals to each other across connections called synapses. By simulating the activity of individual synapses on a neuron, seen as deflections in this image for day 100 of #LMB365, Jake Watson in Ingo Greger’s group in Neurobiology can investigate the properties of information transfer between neurons.
Day 99 of #LMB365 is a journal cover design by Lesley McKeane in the LMB’s Visual Aids team. The selective coupling of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to specific G proteins is critical to trigger the appropriate physiological response. This image represents this selective binding using the analogy of multiple keys (receptors) opening the same lock (G protein, orange).
Our building is comprised of more than 25,000 square metres of glass, inside and out. All this glass allows for stunning views of our surroundings and on day 98 of #LMB365, we look past the Director’s suite at the sun setting over the nearby nature reserve.
Day 97 of #LMB365 shows a precious column collection mounted on the wall of a cold room using aluminium holders designed by the LMB’s Director and made in the Technical Instrumentation Workshop. This is an essential part of the preparation of samples for the Structural Studies Division. The columns are filled with special resins that separate the injected protein samples based on their affinity for such resins, or on their charge or size. Dependent on the sample size and purification step, the columns need to be of different diameter, length and volume.
Jim Watson was born on this day in 1928. He joined the MRC Unit in Cambridge in 1951, where he met and began working with Francis Crick. He was just 25 when together they revealed the structure of DNA, for which they were awarded the 1962 @NobelPrize for Physiology or Medicine. This photo of Jim, on day 96 of #LMB365 was taken by research student Hans Boye in a corridor of the old LMB in 1962
On day 95 of LMB365 we have a picture by Katja Röper in the Cell Biology Division. This image shows the flat epithelial patch of cells in the Drosophila embryo that will form the tubes of the salivary glands over a the time span of a few hours. The cell membranes are labelled and the image shows cell outlines at three different depths through the cells, each depth in a different shade of colour. This visualisation therefore allows an appreciation of 3D cell shapes.
Day 94 of #LMB365 image by Philipp Schlegel (Jefferis lab, Neurobiology Division) shows olfactory projection neurons in the poppy seed-sized brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Each dot is one of ~57k axonal presynapses coloured by neuron type. This data was produced through EM reconstruction in collaboration with Davi Bock (Janelia Research Campus) and is used to study circuits for instinctive olfactory behaviour.
The LMB Craft and Chatter group pictured here for day 93 of #LMB365 meet on a monthly basis. Projects currently on the go include a knitted fox cowl, a series of crocheted wreathes and knitted baby’s cardigan destined for an overseas charity. As well as being one of the many social activities taking place at the LMB, there is increasing evidence of the physical and mental health benefits of crafting, and members of the group value this “time-out” from their day-to-day routines and the positive impact on their well-being.
This picture for day 92 of #LMB365 shows the cable drums that were used to pull the new steel wire armoured electrical cables into place to support the LMB’s new server room facility that is under construction. The project is due to finish late Spring / early Summer and will double the Scientific Computing capability within the LMB.
An image of a new specie of fruit fly, Drosophila trumpitana, found at the LMB by Ghislain Gillard for day 91 of #LMB365.
The LMB cares for the environment and has an active environmental committee consisting of scientific and support staff and students. We have various trees and flowering plants that the LMB bees can enjoy. Strolling to work on a sunny spring day allowed Soudi Imanikia to capture these lovely cherry blossoms outside the front of the building for day 90 of #LMB365.
The image for day 89 of #LMB365 is provided by Oleksiy Kovtun. This EM image shows phage particles tangled in bacterial flagella. Bacteria are used as a protein expression host to allow the purification of large amounts of the protein of interest, and their remnants sometimes can be found in protein specimens, like this one.
As the end of the financial year looms ever closer, LMBee has been lending a hand in the LMB’s finance office on day 88 of #LMB365. Hopefully LMBee has a good grasp of numbers…
This image for day 87 of #LMB365 shows a small portion of a neuron (brain cell). The spines coating the dendritic projections are the sites of synapses, through which the cell communicates with other neurons. The work in Ingo Greger’s group in the Neurobiology Division aims to understand the mechanisms through which the strength of communication at these sites is controlled, to allow information storage in the brain.
On day 86 of #LMB365, we celebrate LMB Nobel Laureate John Sulston who was born on this day in 1942. In 1969 he joined Sydney Brenner’s group at the LMB. In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death in C. elegans. “I just loved watching the cells. It’s a beautiful thing to do and a challenge in the jigsaw-puzzling sense to get it all”.
Sometimes after a long day in the lab you are lucky enough to experience a beautiful sight as you leave the building. This photo for day 85 of #LMB365 was taken by Lesley Drynan as the sun set for another day and the multi-coloured light was reflected in the glass façade of the LMB’s building.
The LMB’s new sub-cellular light sheet microscope allows for high speed 3D imaging of cells and small organisms with minimal damage and loss of fluorescent glow. For day 84 of #LMB365 a green laser is focussed to form a thin light sheet of illumination in the centre of the photo. A small silver spoon holds the sample and moves it through the sheet at high speed. Thanks to the gentleness of this technique, scientists can study a range of cells and small organisms for hundreds of time points before the signal is lost.
LMB Nobel Laureate John Kendrew was born on this day in Oxford in 1917. In 1946 he became Max Perutz’s first research student, and helped found the MRC Unit a year later. In 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his studies of the structures of globular proteins. He died in Cambridge on 23 August 1997. For day 83 of #LMB365, this photo from the late 1950s shows John lecturing next to his large ‘sausage’ model of myoglobin, the protein that stores oxygen in muscles
Using cryo-EM, researchers in the groups of Sjors Scheres and Michel Goedert determined the atomic structure of tau filaments that were extracted from the brain of an individual with Alzheimer’s disease. The resulting structure is shown on day 82 of #LMB365. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of tau aggregation in neurodegenerative disease may be important in finding a cure.
This image for day 81 of #LMB365 is from Yara Sanchez-Corrales in Katja Röper’s group in the Cell Biology Division. It is of a Drosophila melanogaster embryo showing apical membrane in the whole embryo (green). The 3D cell shape of some cells can be appreciated using a cytoplasm marker (magenta). For more information about 3D shape, check their recent paper @eLife: https://elifesciences.org/articles/35717
LMB scientists often give talks to explain their research for members of the public. For day 80 of #LMB365 we see Liz Miller contributing to the Cambridge Science Festival and describing how cells police their proteins to make sure that they are assembled correctly
This drawing for day 79 of #LMB365 is by Paul Margiotta #piljammin in the LMB’s Visual Aids team. It is an abstract interpretation of the LMB’s use of X-rays to reveal hitherto undefined protein structures overlaid with the period feel of the film used for this early work.
LMB scientists are taking part in the Cambridge Science Festival. On day 78 of LMB365 we see some of the new model proteins that visitors made while learning about synthetic biology at the Guildhall on Saturday.
Electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) is used across the LMB to determine protein structures. Part of the process for data collection involves screening grids in the electron microscope to check the grids have been produced correctly and the samples can be used. Sadly this is not always the case and on day 77 of #LMB365 “Sam” identified that the ice was too thin to be useful. To cheer himself up he wrote his name in the holes of the EM grid by melting the ice with the electron beam.
Day 76 of #LMB365 is an image of synchronous nuclear divisions in the fruit fly embryo captured by David Salvador-Garcia in Simon Bullock’s lab in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division. David is studying how chromosome segregation is co-ordinated by the molecular motor dynein.
On day 75 of #LMB365 we celebrate Daniela Peris @ddanielaperis finishing her PhD viva. During her PhD, Daniela was a member of Gonville and Caius College @caiuscollege, so she was presented with a wall plaque of the College crest. She was also a keen rower for her College (wining superblades in Bumps), and was constantly cold when on the river, so she was given a woolly hat showing the University of Cambridge crest. Daniela was a Milstein Scholar and worked on the in vitro diversification of antibodies using the DT40 chicken cell line.
Day 74 of #LMB365 is of some hand-painted Russian dolls attempting bench work. They were a gift from Evgeny Zatulovskiy to Rob Kay upon his retirement. Evgeny was a PhD student with Rob on a Herchel Smith Fellowship and is currently a postdoc in San Francisco. The dolls show Rob, David Traynor and Evgeny himself (dolls 2, 3 and 4), then a Dictyostelium fruiting body, migrating slug and amoeba. Obviously, not to scale!
Day 73 of #LMB365 brings you a group photograph of the MRC Council who held their recent meeting here at the LMB. The MRC Council is responsible for advising the MRC Executive Chair and making decisions, as delegated to it by the UKRI Board, on scientific, research and innovation matters.
This image for day 72 of #LMB365 shows the body wall muscle structure of the worm C. elegans using an F-actin dye. Soudi Imanikia in Rebecca Taylor’s group in the Neurobiology Division studies age-related muscular degeneration as part of their studies on neurodegeneration. Worms are fixed prior to the experiment and F-actin is used to observe the muscle fibres.
Day 71 of #LMB365 shows what happens when you accidentally put a denaturing gel in the freezer rather than the fridge. Denaturing gels are used to separate double stranded DNA into single stranded DNA. KJ Patel’s group in the PNAC Division is studying DNA crosslinking agents and the repair of cross-linked DNA. They use the gels to confirm the presence of cross-linked DNA which won’t be able to separate into its individual strands and will consequently run slower through the gel.
On day 70 of #LMB365 we find the LMB PhD students celebrating a night out at a formal hall at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The Graduate Student Association organises several opportunities for socialising like this throughout the term.
Day 69 of #LMB365 brings you the atrium of the LMB on a Sunday. Although all seems quiet, the labs are alive with activity as the progress of science marches on.
As predicted #LMBees are exploring the building and have made it as far as the LMB’s Media Prep Department. As can be see on day 68 of #LMB365, they searched through pre-prepared solutions until they found something sweet. Hopefully they have left some for the scientists…
On day 67 of #LMB365 we celebrate International Women’s Day and the start of British Science Week with an image featuring some of the women working in science across the LMB.
This image for day 66 of #LMB365 shows a C57BL/6 mouse egg being fertilised by sperm from a genetically modified mouse, during an IVF (in vitro fertilisation). The spermatozoa bind to the outer membrane of the egg, often causing the egg to rotate as they attempt to penetrate it. This is sometimes known as the “fertilisation dance”. The LMB shares genetically modified mouse strains with other research establishments in the UK and around the world. In order to minimise the transportation of live mice, and limit any potential stress caused to the animals, cryopreserved sperm is often shared between establishments, rather than live mice. This is an example of 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement). The LMB is committed to upholding the highest standards of animal welfare.
On day 65 of #LMB365 the LMB joins Freda in ‘Getting behind the Daffodil’ during March to raise funds for the Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal because behind every daffodil, there is a story. Find out how much we raise at the end of the month…
Day 64 of #LMB365 shows a transparent nematode worm C. elegans (and eggs), with red and green fluorescence marking different tissues in the body, including neurons in the head (middle of image). The fluorescent markers indicate where signalling molecules acting via a particular neuropeptide (red) or dopamine (green) are expressed. Fluorescent tools like these help researchers to dissect which neurons make up circuits in the brain that control the animal’s behaviour. This was one of the winners in the 2018 Image Competition.
Even the flooring used in the LMB’s atrium has a scientific story to tell about geology and evolutionary biology as it is littered with beautiful fossils. This ammonite for day 63 of #LMB365 was spotted by our Head of Health & safety outside her office. The floor is made from Jura limestone tiles, 600mm x 1000mm x 30mm thick from a quarry in Bavaria.
Patterns and shapes in everyday objects can be seen on day 61 of #LMB365 which is a photo of some of the R8 milling collets in the LMB’s Technical Instrumentation Workshop. These hold milling cutters concentric to the spindle in a very tight grip. They are used daily and are now mainly metric by size, although a set of imperial collets are still in use.
This image for day 60 of #LMB365 shows a handful of pseudocoloured hippocampal neurons (brain cells) that have been specifically targeted with DNA expressing a fluorescent protein which has allowed Jake Watson to visualise them. In Ingo Greger’s group in the Neurobiology Division they modify specific cells in order to understand how synapses, the sites of communication between cells, transmit information.
On day 59 of #LMB365 we have a close-up of a large scale oligonucleotide synthesiser used by John Sutherland’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division to make sufficient amounts of RNA oligonucleotides for NMR experiments to investigate the sort of chemistry they think might have taken place on early Earth.
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The photo for day 57 of #LMB365 is of the LMB’s openSPIM light sheet microscope. This is run by the LMB’s Light Microscopy Facility and has 4 different laser lines (488 nm and 640 nm pictured), dual sided illumination and temperature control it enables gentle long-term imaging. This microscope is ideal for capturing processes such as salivary gland maturation in Drosophila embryos or brain/kidney organoid development.
On day 56 of #LMB365 ultraviolet rays from a special lamp shine brightly on frozen samples sitting on a bed of dry ice. In this biochemical experiment, the ultraviolet light induces crosslinks between a protein of interest and other unknown proteins surrounding it. This is being used by Manu Hegde’s group in Cell Biology to study how newly made proteins are guided to the correct location and assembled properly. This experiment is searching for the “guides” that direct this important cellular process.
On day 55 of #LMB365 we bring you brown stained microglia by Jennifer Macdonald from the lab of Michel Goedert @MichelGoed in the Neurobiology Division. Microglia are cells within the brain and spinal cord whose role is to survey their environment and eat up cellular debris or dead neurons. They are incredibly dynamic and respond to changes by adopting different states. This picture is that of a brain in which many clumps or aggregates consisting of a protein named tau, though not made visible here, are present. Some argue the state adopted by microglia plays a crucial role in the outcome of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including tauopathies, diseases in which tau protein forms clumps. Here an array of morphologies can be seen, probably reflecting the various states microglia adopt. Are all these microglia in states harmful to neurons or are some of these in a state that is helping neurons clear or cope with tau aggregates?
The LMB has an excellent Technical Instrumentation Workshop which has expert skills in designing and building various items in different materials. Day 54 of #LMB365 is a 3D printed model of a dengue virus particle made out of polylactic acid for Yorgo Modis @yorgomodis in the Molecular Immunity Unit. It was printed in two halves and put together post print and clearly shows the icosahedral symmetry of the virus. Yorgo is working on how viruses are sensed and silenced by the innate immune system and the model is a useful educational and design tool
Liz Miller’s lab in the Cell Biology Division uses yeast cells to study the fundamental mechanisms of transport between cellular organelles. Electron microscopy is employed to observe how organelle membranes reshape into transporters called vesicles and travel to their destination. This image on day 53 of #LMB365 is a glimpse inside a cell of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with the nucleus in the middle, endoplasmic reticulum cisternas following the cell contour and through the cytoplasm, some lipid reservoirs called lipid droplets and thousands of ribosomes crowding the cytoplasm while synthesising proteins.
In day 52 of #LMB365 rays of light from the setting sun pierce passing rainclouds to shine brightly on the LMB. This endlessly changing view from a nearby cyclepath inspires many LMBers every morning and evening as they cycle to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus @CamBioCampus
Day 51 of #LMB365 shows the embryonic germ cells of the mouse. Using immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy Ross Hill (@rosshill92) visualises the developing testis of a mouse embryo where the cells that ultimately produce sperm in adult mice are stained green. These cells are unique in that they are solely responsible for passing genetic information from one generation to the next. These cells are of particular interest to scientists in the group of Gerry Crossan in the PNAC Division who study DNA repair in germ cells.
Day 50 of #LMB365 shows a spinning centrifuge exerting outward force on the samples within it. This principle is exploited by biochemists at the LMB to separate the contents within a cell by their relative size. The separated components can each be studied in detail to understand how they contribute to a cell’s function
The LMB’s Graduate Student Association meets weekly for tea and cake in the canteen. Day 49 of #LMB365 shows a recent gathering of PhD students who are clearly enjoying the sugar rush before returning to their experiments.
To understand processes at the molecular levels, basic components of the cell can be purified, crystallised and then visualised with X-rays to allow their molecular structure to be determined. These crystals, photographed for day 48 of #LMB365 by Malte Gersch, contain a protein that is regarded as a potential drug target against Parkinson’s disease.
On day 47 of #LMB365 the LMB’s IT team have provided a photo of one of the 12 LMB comms rooms they maintain. These rooms deliver network services to scientists’ desktop machines via approximately 10,000 data outlets across the building.
The DNA cycle path in Cambridge, which starts near the LMB, depicts the sequence of the BRCA2 gene, which is involved in some forms of breast cancer. In the lab, we use CRISPR to cause targeted errors in specific genes to study their function. We call these errors ‘indels’. Day 46 of #LMB365, a photo taken by Andrew Beale, shows an ‘indel’ in the BRCA2 gene.
Day 45 of #LMB365 is a ventricular zone of a cerebral organoid labelled for neuronal progenitors and cells in division. This was taken by Laura Pellegrini from Madeline Lancaster’s group in the Cell Biology Division. The cerebral organoids represent a useful tool to model human brain development and to understand neurogenesis.
Max Perutz’s landmark paper on the structure of haemoglobin was published on this day in 1960. Day 44 of #LMB365 shows the model built to represent this work. The red discs represent the haem groups, which carry the oxygen in blood. Haemoglobin has four haem groups. Despite this breakthrough, in the paper Max noted, “little can be said as yet about the relation between structure and function. Whatever interaction between the haem groups exists must be of a subtle and indirect kind that we cannot yet guess.” For this work Max was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Reference: M.F.Perutz, M.G.Rossmann, A.F.Cullis, H.Muirhead, G.Will, A.C.T.North. Structure of haemoglobin. A three-dimensional Fourier synthesis at 5.5-Angstroms resolution, obtained by X-ray analysis. Nature 185: 416-422, 13 February 1960.
Day 43 of #LMB365 is a stunning aerial shot from the west of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus taken one weekend (notice the lack of cars) with the LMB in the foreground. You can clearly see our new neighbours, AstraZeneca and Royal Papworth, with the original Addenbrooke’s hospital site in the background.
Day 42 of #LMB365 is a stained wing disc of the fruit fly Drosophila by Lisa Heinke from the group of Mariann Bienz in the PNAC Division. Wing discs are larval structures that will give rise to the wing of the adult fly. The Bienz lab is researching the gene/protein wingless, an important developmental regulator with a role in cancer, to find interactors of wingless as potential targets in medical treatment. Candidates are used to generate mutant clones in the wing disc that are stained with green fluorescent protein (GFP, shown in green) to allow them to be visualised under a confocal microscope. If wingless and the candidate interact, wingless expression (red stripe) is altered. DNA is stained in blue to show the cell nuclei of the wing disc.
The “Intellectual Centre of the Laboratory” is represented in this drawing by Paul Margiotta #piljammin in the LMB’s Visual Aids team for day 41 of #LMB365. Max Perutz, founder of the LMB, felt it was important that there was somewhere in the Lab for people to go and socialise, and to get good, reasonably priced food. Researchers were encouraged to visit the Canteen and it became the place to share ideas. Some people even credited this as one of the contributing factors to the LMB’s success.
Over the past few years members of the LMB have been watching the development of the new AstraZeneca building with interest. We have a camera on the LMB’s roof which has been taking timelapse photos since the project started. On day 40 of #LMB365 we have two photos captured by the camera a few years ago and again this month. It appears that the local birds are equally as interested in the work!
Day 39 of #LMB365 is a photograph of Rob Kay in Cell Biology who has recently stepped down as a Group Leader at the LMB after 34 years. He is pictured with his retirement gift – a microscope he brought with him to the LMB back in 1984, which has now had a beautiful box made of Afromosia (African teak) to store it in. The box was made by the LMB’s Technical Instrumentation Workshop using old lab benches salvaged from the old LMB building many years ago. Rob will be continuing to work as an Emeritus Scientist within the LMB.
On day 38 of #LMB365 we bring you the beginning of life. Early 4-8 cell mouse embryos, as seen under a light microscope, will be left to develop until they form blastocysts. Ross Hill (@rosshill92) will then derive mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines that have the unique potential to form all cell types in an adult organism. In the group of Gerry Crossan in the PNAC Division ESCs are used to study DNA repair in germ cells, the specialised cells responsible for passing on genetic information to the next generation.
On day 37 of #LMB365 we have an update on the LMB honeybee colonies. This thermal image was taken recently of one of our colonies, showing a good heat signature low down in the hive. You can even see some bees flying in and out, so it looks like they are overwintering well at present. Hopefully they will be ready to produce some LMB honey later in 2019 – follow their progress at https://www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/lmbees/
Day 36 of #LMB365 shows flow cytometry tubes waiting to be analysed. Flow cytometry is used to measure and analyse multiple physical characteristics of individual cells in suspension. This particular experiment from Julian Sale’s lab in the PNAC Division is evaluating protein expression changes on the surface of cells in response to chemotherapeutic drugs that interfere with DNA replication. It forms part of a project funded by the Blue Skies collaboration with AstraZeneca.
On day 35 of #LMB365 we bring you the first ever photo of the new LMB mascot – The LMBee. Delivery has just taken place and the LMBees are currently enjoying their view of the LMB atrium before swarming up to the restaurant in the hope of finding a new home. Tomorrow the LMBees will gather in the LMB Reception from where they can be purchased
Day 34 of #LMB365 is just another day in the life of the LMB Estates & Facilities team and raises the question, how easy is it to change light bulbs at 6 metres up in the LMB’s atrium? Simple, the LMB Estates & Facilities team will build the scaffold, change the bulbs and dismantle the scaffold before you can drink your coffee!!!
The LMB has a dedicated NMR facility which is heavily involved in answering structural and biophysical questions that can’t be tackled by other techniques. Day 33 of #LMB365 brings you a two-dimensional projection of an NMR experiment to assign the backbone signals of the plastic eating enzyme PETase in collaboration with Prof. John McGeehan from University of Portsmouth. The aim of this study is to search for scientific solutions to the plastic pollution crisis by improving the efficiency and stability of this novel enzyme.
Feeding the brain for a day at work at the LMB. Day 32 of #LMB365 shows a selection of treats available in the LMB Restaurant, including the ‘famous’ LMB cheese scones, that have been much loved throughout the decades and are fondly remembered by many LMB alumni. Whenever the LMB has a new chef their ability to make a perfect scone is key to their success!
The LMB’s first, purpose built laboratory was officially handed over on 29 January 1962, and all 43 scientists had moved in by the middle of February. Day 31 of #LMB365 shows the building in 1962, on the ‘new’ Addenbrooke’s site, off Hills Road, Cambridge. The facilities on site were very limited at the time, but there was a ‘shop’ from which you could buy your daily newspaper
A beautiful crisp winter morning today on the Campus @CamBioCampus, with a scattering of snow. Still not enough to deter the LMB’s cyclists on day 30 of #LMB365
Day 29 of #LMB365 is a black and white photo of one of the LMB’s service towers that make up the iconic architecture of the LMB building on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. This photo was the winner of the 2018 LMB Image Competition and is now proudly displayed in the Director’s office – we’ll bring you more of the winning images over the year
The central nervous system of a larval vinegar fly, Drosophila Melanogaster, is the subject of day 28 of #LMB365. In this image, by Alex Bates in the group of Greg Jefferis in the Neurobiology Division, the larva is expressing a green fluorescent protein in its newly formed neurons, highlighting tracts in which bundles of neurons project together. Tracts can be used as landmarks, by which different neurons and brain regions can be identified
A little piece of history was made recently, when the Science Museum formally took possession of an original ‘Joyce-Loebl Microdensitometer Mark 4’ from the LMB. This equipment was designed in the 1970s, with significant input from the LMB’s Electronics and Technical Instrumentation Workshops, as a precision scanning instrument to measure and record spatially resolved optical density in photographic film. Developed and updated until the 2000s, the microdensitometer has only relatively recently been superseded by newer technology. This photo for day 27 of #LMB365 shows the handover of the electronic control unit to the Science Museum by Richard Henderson.
Day 26 of #LMB365 shows two scientists hard at work looking for a clear result from a late night Western blot. Sometimes data interpretation requires a bit of contrast coming from the light outside the LMB
Day 25 of #LMB365 brings you a close up of the tiny fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster. These are used to study development in the group of Katja Roeper in the Cell Biology Division. These fluorescent flies in their cage lay GFP-expressing embryos which are collected for further analysis
Day 24 of #LMB365 is titled ‘Cells within Cells’ and was taken by Leo Hillier in the LMB’s Visual Aids team. It shows light from the glass side of the building reflected in the stainless steel façade of the plant towers. During the construction of the building the planning department had a concern that the towers would be too shiny so made the contractor build a 20 foot high section that was then dangled from a tower crane whilst the planners viewed it from the Gog Magog Hills south of the Campus to see how much the sun reflected off it!
On day 23 of #LMB365 we have a photo taken by a member of the LMB Stores team showing a member of the Structural Studies Division growing mammalian cells for the production of a human glycoprotein. Work is carried out in a Class II safety cabinet to ensure a sterile environment for the work. This work is looking at the molecular basis of the synthesis of hormones which play an essential role in metabolism and development
As is sadly a regular event at the LMB, we often have to say goodbye to friends and colleagues as they move on to new roles. Day 22 of #LMB365 brings you a group shot taken at the party to celebrate Angelica Mariani leaving the LMB to take up her new position at Illumina. Angelica has been working as a postdoc in John Sutherland’s group in the PNAC Division investigating the chemical origins of molecular biology. We wish her success in her future career.
On day 21 of #LMB365 we bring you a Max Perutz Word Cloud. Max Perutz was the founder of the MRC Unit in Cambridge, that became the LMB. He was the first Chairman of the LMB and won the 1962 Nobel Prize @NobelPrize, jointly with John Kendrew, for their work on the structure of proteins. Max determined the structure of haemoglobin, the protein that stores oxygen in blood
The first research undertaken at the MRC Unit in Cambridge, that later was renamed the LMB, was the work to determine the structure of proteins. Here, on day 20 of #LMB365, is the model of the first protein whose structure was determined: myoglobin. Myoglobin is an oxygen storing protein found in muscles, in particular in ocean and diving mammals, such as whales. This model, on display in the LMB Atrium, was made for LMB scientist and Nobel Laureate, John Kendrew @NobelPrize
Day 19 of #LMB365 brings a DNA fibre assay from the group of KJ Patel in the PNAC Division. Living cells are treated with two kinds of DNA building block chemicals, which they incorporate into any actively replicating DNA. The DNA from these cells is then spread on glass slides and antibodies are used to label the replication tracts where the chemical building blocks were used for DNA synthesis (shown in green and blue) and the rest of the DNA, including that which wasn’t replicating at the time of treatment (shown in pink). This technique is used to study dynamics of the DNA replication fork, such as in the context of DNA repair defects
Day 18 of #LMB365 shows pronuclear injection of a transgenic DNA solution into a 0.5 day fertilised mouse egg. The egg is held in place onto a pulled glass holding pipette by suction. Pronuclear microinjection is one of the methods used to produce new transgenic mouse strains, which LMB scientists can use to study human diseases, and potentially identify new targets for treatments.
Day 17 of #LMB365 brings you the sculpture ‘What Mad Pursuit’ by Kindra Crick @K_Crick. Known locally as the ‘blue helix’, the sculpture depicts the DNA double helix structure. Kindra, the granddaughter of Francis Crick, one of the LMB scientists who discovered the DNA structure in the 1950s and who won the 1962 Nobel Prize @NobelPrize for the discovery, creates art that gives visual expression to the wonder and process of scientific inquiry. Part of the design on Kindra’s sculpture represents the blackboard drawings of Francis, which he created to help explore and solve his scientific ideas
On day 16 of #LMB365 Laura Pellegrini @laupellegrini from Madeline Lancaster’s group @MinibrainLab in the Cell Biology Division @CellBiol_MRCLMB has made a collage of human cerebral organoid ventricular buds. The ventricular buds are used to study the development of human cerebral cortex
Day 15 of #LMB365 brings you a very satisfying photo from Andrew Carter’s @Carter_Lab group in Structural Studies. The set of tubes contains the inner protein contents of cells which have been spun at very high speeds. It is a bit like breaking open an egg and separating the yolks from the whites but under very high centrifugal forces. In order to spin these tubes at such speeds they need to be perfectly balanced with each other resulting in a beautiful pattern of the inner contents of cells layered on top of each other
Day 14 of #LMB365 shows a reflection of the LMB’s building in the facade of the new headquarters for @AstraZeneca. Members of the LMB have been eagerly watching the progress of the building over the past few years and are looking forward to welcoming them and others to the expanded Cambridge Biomedical Campus @CamBioCampus in the near future
On day 13 of #LMB365 we celebrate another of the LMB’s Nobel Laureates @NobelPrize. Born on this day in 1927 in Germiston, South Africa #OTD, Sydney Brenner was, jointly with Bob Horvitz and John Sulston, awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for his discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development in C. elegans
When DNA is damaged the consequence can be mutation which can drive cancer. Fortunately, our cells have repair mechanisms that can fix damage in order to protect the cell. KJ Patel’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division studies these cellular processes by deleting a target gene to reveal its role in repair; if a gene is needed for repair, the cells will form fewer colonies. On Day 12 of #LMB365 we show towers of plates containing such colonies before they are counted by a project student from Cambridge University @Cambridge_Uni
John Sutherland’s group in the PNAC Division is trying to recreate the steps that led to life and took place on Earth 4.5 billion years ago. In day 11 of #LMB365 we see a pair of flasks in which components of potentially primitive genetic materials have been made
On day 10 of #LMB365 we have an image taken from the LMB terrace located at roof level which has spectacular views over the Cambridge Biomedical Campus @CamBioCampus. On what was a cold and bright day, not a day to stay outside very long without a good reason, Benedicte Recolin @BediRecolin was able to capture a bright moon trying to make its way up while the sun hadn’t yet set. As a result, she enjoyed staring at a teeny tiny white ball floating in the sky and showing up between the LMB’s chimneys
On day 9 of #LMB365 we have another stunning image by Katja Roeper @katjaroeper in the Cell Biology Division @CellBiol_MRCLMB. This shows a Drosophila embryo viewed during the process of dorsal closure. The cell-cell adhesion molecule Cadherin is labelled in red, the LIM-domain protein Zasp52 is labelled in green, and nuclei are in blue. Drosophila is a key model organism to study fundamental aspects of biology and Katja’s group uses it to understand organ formation
Orbital lights in the LMB Library @LMB_Library for day 8 of #LMB365, welcoming scientists, students and staff to a quiet and relaxing part of the building where they can find resources and write up papers and thesis away from the buzz of the labs
On day 7 of #LMB365 we celebrate one of the LMB’s Nobel Laureates @NobelPrize. Sir John Walker was born on this day in Halifax, Yorkshire in 1941. He was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on the elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
Day 6 of #LMB365 is provided by Alex Bates @as_bates in the group of Greg Jefferis @gsxej who are working on circuits in the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster. The data was first collected by Ann-Shyn Chiang’s lab in Taiwan and categorised by scientists at the LMB. The image shows over a thousand neurons from the fly’s ‘instinct centre’, which is similar to the human amygdala, and how they spread across the brain.
On Day 5 of #LMB365 we have a surface view of a Drosophila embryonic blastoderm provided by Ghislain Gillard @GhislainGillard in the group of Katja Roeper @katjaroeper in the Cell Biology Division @CellBiol_MRCLMB. During early development, the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) embryo is a syncitia, meaning that it contains many nuclei in a common cytoplasm. These nuclei then migrate toward the surface of the embryo, where membranes will be built around them to form individual cells with a single nucleus, in a process termed cellularisation. This image represents an embryo after this step of cellularisation, viewed from the top. Each roundish structure corresponds to a single cell containing a single nucleus (not visible here). The membranes are stained for several proteins, one of them, Actin (in magenta) being essential for this cellularisation to occur
Microscopes at the ready on day 4 of #LMB365. These microscopes are used in the Cell Biology Division @CellBiol_MRCLMB for looking at Dictyostelium discoideum, a species of soil-living amoeba, which is one of the model organisms used at the LMB. This area of research focuses on how cells drink and move: macropinocytosis and chemotaxis
Day 3 of #LMB365 we bring you an image of the multicellular organism Caenorhabditis elegans provided by Soudabeh Imanikia @Simanikia in the Neurobiology Division. With fewer than 1000 cells and a transparent body, it is possible to follow the entire process of embryogenesis in the tiny oval-shaped eggs “live” inside the body of the worms!!! This worm has a fluorescent-green gut to allow the @TaylorLabLMB to follow changes during ageing without the need for dissection and a red pharynx used as a co-injection marker to show the plasmid has successfully integrated in the worm
On Day 2 of #LMB365 we have a beautiful image by Katja Roeper @katjaroeper in the Cell Biology Division @CellBiol_MRCLMB showing an epithelial Caco2 cell monolayer labelled for a tight junction protein in blue and nuclei in red. Her lab uses this model to understand how cell surface receptors affect epithelial integrity
As day dawns over the New Year, the LMB celebrates a year of life and work in images. This is Day 1 of #LMB365 – see more every day throughout 2019 as we bring you amazing images of our science and the people that make the LMB tick