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.
The new LMB building has been announced as joint winner of the 2014 S-Lab award for new research laboratories worldwide. The award was presented at a gala ceremony in London on September 1st, and was accepted by the LMB Director Hugh Pelham and Steve Holmes who was involved in the construction project.
The prestigious Lister Institute Research Prize is awarded annually to three or four young researchers in the UK to support and nurture quality research in biomedical or related biological sciences. This year, two of the recipients are LMB group leaders: Melina Schuh, from the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, and M. Madan Babu, from the LMB’s Structural Studies Division.
The recipients will deliver their Lister Prize Lectures at the awards ceremony on Friday 5th September 2014.
A method for linking proteins together with specific chemical bonds, developed in the LMB’s PNAC Division by Satpal Virdee and Jason Chin, has been licenced by MRC Technology to the global life sciences company Bio-Techne. The company will use the technology to join ubiquitin, or other proteins, to a target protein, enabling both fundamental research into biological regulation and drug discovery.
John Sutherland, from the LMB’s Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division, has been awarded the Royal Society’s Darwin Medal. John receives the medal “in recognition of his novel and convincing work on prebiotic chemistry, in particular his solution to the central problem of nucleoside synthesis”.
The LMB welcomed nearly 600 of its alumni back to a two-day symposium, ‘Molecular Biology at 50 and Beyond’, held in its new building, on 11th and 12th July.
Each year, pupils from all over the East of England compete to grow the best crystal of potash alum possible, in the Eastern Region Crystal Growing Competition. This year, during the International Year of Crystallography, the competition was hugely popular, with nearly 80 schools participating in two age groups.
The top prize in Key Stage II went to Laxton Junior School near Peterborough, with Robert Arkenstall Primary School, Haddenham in second place.