From its earliest days the LMB has attracted and trained first class scientists from around the world – creating a diverse community for the exchange of ideas and technical innovation. The LMB provides excellent opportunities for early career and established researchers – people with the potential to lead their field. A high percentage of LMB students and post-docs stay in research or science related fields after they leave the LMB. The LMB supports the wider scientific community by supplying highly trained scientific leaders. They leave the LMB to develop and support molecular biology both in the UK and throughout the world.
Professor Kim Nasmyth awarded the 2021 Centenary Award by Biochemical Society
LMB 1982-1987, Scientific Staff, Cell Biology
Kim, who is currently the Whitley Chair at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford and a fellow of Trinity College, has made hugely valuable contributions to the life sciences. He revealed the sophisticated mechanism that mediates the perilous separation of duplicated chromosomes during cell division and thereby prevents genetic diseases such as cancer. After his PhD and a fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor, he was a member of staff at the LMB. The Biochemical Society Centenary Award is awarded annually to a biochemist of distinction from any part of the world. More…
Emmanuel Levy has been announced as the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel 2020 Laureate in Chemistry
LMB 2004-2008, PhD student, Structural Studies
The Blavatnik Awards honour outstanding, innovative scientists at the early stages of their careers. Emmanuel has been recognised for his work on protein assembly and organisation. He will receive the prize at a formal ceremony at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in March. More…
Sir Aaron Klug. 11 August 1926 – 20 November 2018
LMB 1961-2012, Group Leader, Director, Structural Studies
Aaron Klug made outstanding contributions to the development of structural molecular biology. An early interest in viruses prompted him to think deeply about extracting the information contained in electron micrographs. As a result, he proposed a method for making 3D maps of biological specimens from the projected images given by micrographs. For this development and its application to complex molecular assemblies, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The recent revolution in biological structure determination derives from this initial breakthrough. Aaron’s Royal Society Biographical Memoir, written by Tony Crowther, has recently been published. More…
Piotr Szwedziak is one of nine researchers to receive EMBO Installation Grants
LMB 2008-2015, PhD student and post-doc, Structural Studies
Piotr Szwedziak, a former PhD student and post-doctoral researcher in Jan Löwe’s group, has received an EMBO Installation Grant to establish an independent laboratory and joins the EMBO Young Investigator Network. More…
Melina Schuh’s research highlight on Medical Xpress
LMB 2008-2016, Group Leader, Cell Biology
Melina’s work on mechanisms of chromosome segregation in mammalian oocytes has advanced our understanding the process of meiosis and the causes of aneuploidy in mammalian eggs, including humans. The project, led by Melina, set out to discover why genetic faults affect such a high proportion of ageing human eggs, or oocytes, resulting in pregnancy loss, birth defects and infertility. This work was started at the LMB and ended at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. Agata Zielinska, who was part of Melina’s team, also previously worked in Melina’s group at the LMB as a student visitor from May 2014 to April 2016. More…
Johannes Kohl features as October "Scientist to Watch" in The Scientist
LMB 2009-2014, PhD student, Neurobiology Division
A former PhD student from Greg Jefferis’ group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, Johannes, is researching the neural circuitry behind instinct. In this feature, he illustrates his journey from his undergraduate days to his PhD at the LMB to the establishment of his own lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London this January. Johannes is investigating how transient physiological states such as hunger, stress, or tiredness affect the neural circuits underlying parenting, feeding, and aggressive behaviours. In 2018, he had won the Eppendorf and Science Prize for neurobiology for research that makes sense of how a cluster of neurons controls parenting behaviours in mice. More…