LMB In The News

“Work on the RMJM designed new building for the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge has reached the first major stage of completion with its topping out on Friday 10 September… The new 30,000 m2 LMB building, being built by BAM Construction Ltd with RMJM working in partnership with BAM design practice, will cost around £200 million and provide space and facilities for more than 400 researchers. The laboratory has approximately twice the size of the current building. The design of the new LMB is reminiscent of paired chromosomes, with two long laboratory wings joined by a spacious atrium, encouraging interaction and easy navigation and containing seminar rooms and a lecture theatre.” This article is no longer available from the source website: Architect News 10 September 2010

“First Alzheimer’s patient treated with BAN2401, a novel antibody targeting the neurotoxin believed to cause Alzheimer’s disease… Antibody humanization, also known as CDR-grafting (CDR is a synonym for complementarity determining region) was first invented at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the UK by Dr. Sir Greg Winter and patented by the MRC in the late 1980’s.” More…

“The coverage of the ‘Topping Out’ ceremony shown on BBC Look East can be seen by clicking on the more link.” More …

“The Minister also attended a topping out ceremony at the new £200m building for the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. The new building, due to open in 2012, will provide first class facilities to some of the world’s leading scientists and stands as the flagship building for the extension of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The lab will provide space and facilities for more than 400 researchers. David Willetts said: “This super-lab will be the global site for a new age of research collaborations aiming to alleviate human suffering. The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology has already made great strides towards this goal, ploughing back more than £300m of commercial income generated by its discoveries into the life-saving science of the future. This new facility will build on that success.”” More…

“Parkinson’s disease might have much in common with Alzheimer’s disease, prion diseases and other protein-aggregation disorders… Like many other researchers, Goedert [LMB] now suspects that α-synuclein aggregation is the primary event in Parkinson’s disease — perhaps triggered by toxins or other environmental factors inside the intestines and sinuses. Most of the pathology in the brain appears typically to emanate from the dorsal motor nucleus, which is connected to intestinal neurons via the vagus nerve. In principle, α-synuclein aggregation could spread up this nerve and thereafter into most of the other affected regions.” More…

“Researchers have successfully used a drug to reset and restart the natural 24 hour body clock of mice in the lab. The ability to do this in a mammal opens up the possibility of dealing with a range of human difficulties including some psychiatric disorders, jet lag and the health impacts of shift work. This work is led by Professor Andrew Loudon from the University of Manchester and Dr Mick Hastings of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, working with a multi-disciplinary team of scientists from Pfizer led by Dr Travis Wager, and is published August 24 in PNAS.” More…