MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
One of the world's leading research institutes, our scientists are working to advance understanding of biological processes at the molecular level - providing the knowledge needed to solve key problems in human health.
A team of 14 LMB volunteers have raised over £350 for the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) Breast Cancer Appeal. The team baked a delicious and tempting variety of cakes and cookies, which were sold to LMB staff and students on their way to the LMB restaurant for their morning break.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK: one person is diagnosed with breast cancer every 10 minutes.
John O’Neill, group leader in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has helped develop a new display about body clocks for the London Science Museum’s Who Am I? exhibition.
Launched on the 10th October 2017, and featuring until Spring 2018, the body clock display is the latest component of the Who Am I? exhibition. The display explores how light is crucial to regulating our body clocks (also known as our circadian rhythm) and what happens when this signal is disrupted.
During the month of November, a team of twelve scientists and staff at the LMB came together to raise awareness and money for the men’s health charity, The Movember Foundation. The team grew moustaches, held a prize draw for a giant moustache cake and sold stick-on moustaches which were donned by LMB staff in a finale event on Thursday 30th November.
The team exceeded their £1000 target, and have raised over £1500.
John Finch, a superb crystallographer and later electron microscopist, who joined the LMB when it was founded in 1962, died on Tuesday 5th December, after a short illness. His contributions to the structures of viruses and nucleosomes, and elucidation of the mechanism of negative staining EM, were central to many of the molecular structures solved at the LMB.
The musical talents of LMB staff and students were on show during the first LMB Musical Soirée, a fun and informal cabaret-style evening of musical entertainment held in the LMB’s atrium. The event was a great success, with around 100 attendees and a variety of inspiring performances full of heartfelt melodic lines and brilliant instrumental textures.
It is no secret that there are many artistic people working in the LMB.
LMB cyclists have ridden to the top of the leader board in this year’s Cycle September Challenge, a fun, free National competition, organised by Love to Ride, to see which workplaces can get the most people riding.
During the month-long challenge, 179 members of the LMB collectively cycled on 3,677 occasions covering a distance of 19,643 miles.