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.
Pupils from The Perse School for Girls in Cambridge and Laxton Junior School in Peterborough scooped the top prizes in this year’s Eastern Region Crystal Growing Competition.
Competition participants were asked to grow the best crystal of potash alum possible, over a five-week period. The crystals were then judged, on both size and quality, to identify the winners (in the Key Stage II and III competition categories).
Susanna Bidgood, a researcher in Leo James’ group in the LMB’s PNAC division, helped to explain the inner workings of the human cell system, in a new, popular science programme screened on BBC2 at 8pm on Sunday 22 October.
‘Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of the Cell’ used a range of interviews with experts and dramatic computer animations to explain what happens when a viral infection takes hold and how the body works to combat infection.
On the 18th October 1962, a Post Office Telegram was sent to Francis Crick at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, telling him that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Just two weeks later, another telegram arrived for Max Perutz and John Kendrew: they had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. For a lab to receive one Nobel Prize is rare – to receive two different Nobel Prizes in the same year is almost unique.
The LMB is delighted to congratulate alumnus John Gurdon on the award of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. John shares the award with Shinya Yamanaka, from Japan, for their quite different work (more than 40 years apart) on reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells.
John’s key experiments on nuclear transplantations into frog oocytes were done while he was as a graduate student in the Zoology Department in Oxford, in the late 1950’s.
Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, paid a short visit to the LMB on 3 October to learn about the Laboratory’s work, find out about its recent successes in the commercial exploitation of discoveries, and get a first sight of the LMB’s new building.
After a short overview of the LMB’s work, from Hugh Pelham and Martin Dougherty, the Business Secretary visited Jan Löwe’s laboratory to get an insight into bench research.
The winners of this year’s Imagining the Brain competition visited the LMB on Monday 1st October for the formal awards ceremony.
The Imagining the Brain art competition invites Cambridgeshire pupils with an interest in art and science to cut through the jargon usually associated with complex subjects like neuroscience and use art as a means of communication.