Scientific Seminars


Below is a list of upcoming seminars at the LMB aimed at a general scientific audience and open to individuals throughout Cambridge. If you are not at the LMB and wish to attend a seminar, please contact the seminar secretary.

The LMB hosts ‘The LMB Seminar Series’, where 1-2 leading scientists per month are invited to speak throughout the year. Four of these lectures are named in honour of LMB Nobel Laureates Max Perutz, Francis Crick, César Milstein and John Kendrew, given by eminent scientists from around the world. The LMB Seminar talks and LMB Named Seminar talks are advertised widely throughout the local area and are open to all.

2019 LMB Seminar Series speakers (click to expand)

  • Kendrew Lecture: Brenda Schulman – 10.30am, 3rd October
  • Bernd Bukau – 10:30am, 21st November
  • Wendy Barclay – time tbc, 6th December

 

A full list of LMB Named Lectures to date can be found here.

Details of other local seminars can be found here

  • Neural mechanisms of proprioception and motor control in Drosophila

    Speaker: John Tuthill, Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington
    Host: Greg Jefferis
    Date: 18/09/2019 at 10:00am in the Klug Seminar Room, Level 2, LMB.

  • Human Genetics and Drug Target Landscape in Immune-Mediate Disease

    Speaker: Hai Fang, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford University
    Host: Julian Gough
    Date: 18/09/2019 at 11:00am in the Sanger Seminar Room, Level 3, LMB.

    Further information

    Identifying genetically validated drug targets at an early stage can increase success rates in later-stage drug development. Translational strategies to transform genetic findings, particularly arising from genome-wide association studies (GWAS), into rational drug target discovery however remain an area of unmet need. I will describe strategic steps defined in Priority index (Fang et al, Nat Genet 51:1082–91, 2019) and discuss why targeting genetically diverse immune-mediated diseases can be achieved in a similar way leveraging human genetics.

  • Immunology and Medicine seminar series: Staying in shape: mechanisms and consequences of cell morphology in the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori

    Speaker: Nina Salama, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
    Host: Lalita Ramakrishnan
    Date: 20/09/2019 at 1:00pm in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

  • Future propects for X-ray cryo-microscopy at the 10 nm level

    Speaker: Dr Colin Nave, Diamond Light Source Ltd
    Host: Richard Henderson
    Date: 25/09/2019 at 2:00pm in the Klug Seminar Room, Level 2, LMB.

  • LMB Seminar Series, Kendrew Lecture: How a ubiquitin-like protein brings ubiquitylation to life

    Speaker: Brenda Schulman, Director, Department of Molecular Machines and Signaling, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
    Host: David Barford
    Date: 03/10/2019 at 10:30am in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

    Further information

    Abstract to followA predominant form of eukaryotic regulation involves the dynamic linkage and removal of ubiquitin (and structurally-related ubiquitin-like proteins, UBLs) to control the half-lives, subcellular location, conformation, and other properties of most intracellular proteins. The specificity of ubiquitylation depends on a vast collection of E3 ligase enzymes that modify particular protein substrates at the right time and place in a cell. With more than 200 different family members in humans, and even more in plants and other organisms, the largest E3 ligase family comprises the modular, multisubunit Cullin-RING ligases (CRLs). CRLs regulate virtually every facet of cell biology, including the cell cycle, DNA repair, stress responses, signaling, immunity, circadian rhythms, and a plethora of other pathways. Meanwhile defects in specific CRL subunits underlie numerous diseases including hypertension, neurodegenerative disorders, developmental defects, many cancers, and immune system dysfunction. Moreover, many bacterial and viral pathogens subvert and/or hijack CRL pathways to promote infection and evade host defense systems. To understand this immense regulation, a major focus of our lab is to identify pathways and determine molecular mechanisms underlying CRL activities.

    Numerous facets of CRL activation – from E3 ligase assembly to catalysis of ubiquitylation to subsequent processing of ubiquitylated substrates – depend on the dynamic linkage and removal of the distinctive UBL NEDD8. NEDD8 is nearly 60% identical to ubiquitin, yet it predominantly regulates CRLs. In my talk, I will describe our findings that reveal the marvellous ways NEDD8 uniquely brings CRLs – and 20% of all ubiquitylation - to life.

  • Immunology and Medicine seminar series: Feast, famine, and function: Towards imaging nutrient micro-environments and their impact on immunity.

    Speaker: Mark Boothby, Vanderbilt University
    Host: James Nathan
    Date: 04/10/2019 at 1:00pm in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

  • Epigenetic memory over geological timescales

    Speaker: Professor Hiten Madhani, Biochemistry and Biophysics UCSF, California
    Host: Kiyoshi Nagai & Kelly Nguyen
    Date: 01/11/2019 at 12:00am in the Klug Seminar Room, Level 2, LMB.

    Further information

    The talk will describe the evolutionary loss of a de novo cytosine DNA methyltransferse and its subsequent propagation for millions of years by a exquisitely specific maintenance methyltransferase in the lineage that gave rise to the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.

  • Immunology and Medicine seminar series: Epithelial endoplasmic reticulum stress drives intestinal immune responses

    Speaker: Joep Grootjans, Amsterdam University
    Host: Arthur Kaser
    Date: 01/11/2019 at 1:00pm in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

  • Next Generation Biophysics

    Speaker: Various
    Host: Chris Johnson
    Date: 08/11/2019 at 9:30am in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

    Further information

    An informal one day meeting organised by Astra Zeneca, MRC LMB and Imperial College London examining the application of cutting edge biophysical techniques in complex biological settings. Bringing together scientists in both academia and industry for stimulating talks and discussions how these new and emerging technologies may be able to address challenging questions in the future.

    https://www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/nextgen/

  • LMB Seminar Series: Folding and assembly of newly synthesized proteins revealed by ribosome profiling

    Speaker: Bernd Bukau, Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University and German Cancer Research Center
    Host: Lori Passmore
    Date: 21/11/2019 at 10:30am in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

  • Immunology and Medicine seminar series: A carpet of synchronized motile cilia keeps us alive.

    Speaker: Pietro Cicuta, University of Cambridge
    Host: Andres Floto
    Date: 29/11/2019 at 1:00pm in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

  • LMB Seminar Series: Host factors that shape influenza evolution

    Speaker: Wendy Barclay, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London
    Host: John O’Neill
    Date: 06/12/2019 in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre, LMB.

    Further information

    Abstract to follow