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.
Donald Caspar 1927 – 2021
LMB: 1955-1956, Postdoctoral Fellow; 1957-1961 Scientific Visitor; 1962-1975 (intermittently) Scientific Worker, Structural Studies
Don Caspar, LMB alumnus, has died at the age of 94. Don first came to the MRC Unit for the Study of the Molecular Structure of Biological Systems (now the LMB) as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 1955. He would become a frequent scientific worker at the Lab over the next 20 years and remained a friend and scientific colleague to many. It was Francis Crick who first recruited Don, to record some single crystal virus diffraction patterns, which he had asserted could test his theory with Jim Watson that “spherical” viruses should have cubic symmetry (tetrahedral, octahedral or icosahedral). Don recognised non-crystallographic icosahedral symmetry axes in his precession photographs of Bushy Stunt Virus crystal from their “spikes of high intensity”. Exploring implications of the icosahedral virus symmetry he had discovered kept him returning to the LMB for the next 20 years; from 1965-1975 he had a small desk at the back of Aaron Klug’s office for his summer visits, nominally to work on a description of his Buckminster Fuller-inspired “tensegrity” models, which provided a basis for Don and Aaron’s 1962 quasi-equivalence theory of virus construction. More…
Christian Münch and Clemens Plaschka join EMBO Young Investigator Network
C. Münch: LMB 2008-2012, PhD Student, Neurobiology
C. Plaschka: LMB 2016-2018, post-doctoral visitor and researcher, Structural Studies
Two LMB alumni, Christian Münch and Clemens Plaschka, are among twenty-six life scientists to be welcomed into EMBO’s Young Investigator Network. They join a cohort of 130 current and 368 former members with access to networking opportunities and funding. More…
Kenneth Holmes 1934 – 2021
LMB 1961-1968, Scientific Staff, Structural Studies
Ken Holmes, LMB alumnus and friend, has died at the age of 86. He was a PhD student with Rosalind Franklin at Birkbeck College, London, and moved to the LMB alongside Aaron Klug in 1961. He continued the work of Rosalind and Aaron on the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and his work on insect flight muscle paralleled the work of Hugh Huxley studying the structure and function of vertebrate muscle. Ken was the first to find the crucial evidence that the myosin crossbridges in the thick filaments in muscle moved depending on the presence or absence of ATP. His work on muscle and TMV continued when he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in 1968, becoming Director of the Department of Biophysics in 1973. He remained in contact with many colleagues at the LMB, participating in events and inspiring conversations. In 2017, he published his biography of Aaron Klug – A Long Way from Durban – which was celebrated with a book launch at the LMB. More
The life and work of Robert C. Sheppard – pioneer of peptide synthesis
LMB 1971-1993, Group Leader and Head of Sub-Division of Peptide Chemistry,
John Wade from The University of Melbourne and John Jones from Balliol College, University of Oxford have partnered to essay the life and work of Robert Charles Sheppard. Bob was invited to join the LMB to head its Peptide Chemistry research group in 1971. He was an essential part of the PNAC division during his outstanding career. He made a hugely significant and fundamental contribution to the field of peptide synthesis research. Bob was a true pioneer of solid-phase protein synthesis (SPPS) and many of the methods he helped develop are still widely used today across industry and academia. More…
Flinders Foundation’s Mary Overton Senior Research Fellowship in Neuroscience awarded to Yee Lian Chew
LMB 2015-2019, postdoctoral researcher, Neurobiology
Yee Lian Chew is the recipient of the Flinders Foundation’s Mary Overton Senior Research Fellowship in Neuroscience. In her new research laboratory at Flinders she will continue her research using Nematode worms to better understand chronic pain. More…
Maria Leptin has been appointed President of the European Research Council
LMB 1984-1987, postdoctoral researcher, Cell Biology
Maria Leptin is the new President of the European Research Council starting from 1 October 2021. Since her postdoc position in Michael Wilcox’s group at the LMB, Maria has been a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, led a research group at EMBL and served as Director of EMBO. More…