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.
Sydney Brenner: a master of science and of wit
LMB 1957-1989, Group Leader, Director, Cell Biology
LMB Emeritus Group Leader Peter Lawrence shares a selection of Sydney Brenner’s deep and original insights into biology and genetics, alongside many brilliant quotes that display his unique wit. More…
Julian Rayner is appointed the new Director of the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research
LMB 1993-1998, PhD student, Cell Biology
Julian Rayner, a former PhD student in Hugh Pelham’s group in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, will become the fourth Director of the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research. More…
John Thomas Finch. 28 February 1930-5 December 2017
LMB 1961-2012, senior scientist, Structural Studies
John Finch was a gifted experimentalist who used X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy to elucidate the structures of important biological assemblies, particularly viruses and chromatin. His early work on crystals of viruses was important in establishing their symmetry, and later with the electron microscope he mapped out the molecular structure of many virus coats. His observations on negatively stained preparations demonstrated that images of particles prepared in this way represented projections of fully stained embedded particles, not merely one-sided footprints. This was very relevant to the development of methods for making three-dimensional maps of specimens from electron micrographs. John’s Royal Society Biographical Memoir, written by Tony Crowther and Ken Holmes, has recently been published. More…
Melina Schuh awarded a 2019 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
LMB 2008-2016, group leader, Cell Biology
The latest recipients of Germany’s most prestigious research prize, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize have been announced, and includes former LMB group leader, Melina Schuh. Melina has been selected for her fundamental research into reproductive biology. More…
Thomas Baden, Yanlan Mao and Peter Sarkies among twenty-six new EMBO Young Investigators
Thomas Baden, LMB 2008-2010, post-doctoral researcher, Neurobiology; Yanlan Mao, LMB 2004-2008, PhD student & post-doctoral researcher, Cell Biology; Peter Sarkies, LMB 2008 -2011, PhD student, PNAC
LMB Alumni Thomas Baden, Yanlan Mao and Peter Sarkies are among 26 life science researchers within their first four years as group leaders to become EMBO Young Investigators. They join an active network of 102 current and 314 past Young Investigators and will receive support from EMBO during the foundation of their first independent laboratory. More…
Daniel McGillivray Brown. 3 February 1923-24 April 2012
LMB 1982-2007, Attached Scientist, PNAC
Dan Brown was a nucleic acids chemist of the highest order, beginning with pioneering work under Lord Alexander Todd in the 1950s at University of Cambridge on chemical methods for synthesis of nucleosides and nucleotides. In 1982 he moved to the LMB and developed a method to prepare single-stranded DNA probes for detection of RNA sequences and worked on a novel automated device for oligonucleotide synthesis. Dan’s Royal Society Biographical Memoir, written by Mike Gait, has just been published. More…