Image365

Day 215 of #LMB365 is an image of an embryonic day 12 mouse lung, showing the beginning of the extensive branching morphogenesis that will eventually form the adult mouse lung. The tubes of the forming lung are shown in green, and the surrounding supporting tissue is in magenta. The work was carried out by Katja Roeper in collaboration with Emma Rawlins at the Gurdon Institute.

The LMB’s environmental conditions are regulated through the movement of air through the lab. Waste heat is recovered from the exhaust air before being routed to the top of the four plant towers and being discharged at high speed to prevent it being re-entrained back into the building. Of the four discharge exhausts shown in the picture only three are being used. The fourth is capped and available for expansion purposes. On day 214 of #LMB365 it seems as though the residual warmth from the exhausted air has attracted a local resident to trial some new accommodation at this precarious location. We wonder who it is?

Day 213 of #LMB365 shows a set of 29 DNP-derivatives of amino acids, prepared by Fred Sanger for his work on the sequencing of proteins. This work led to the sequencing of insulin, as reported on this day in 1955, in a landmark paper in the Biochemical Journal, “[this] was essentially the climax of our work on insulin. It was the first protein to be sequenced and we had developed methods and demonstrated their applicability. I think this stimulated interest in sequencing in other laboratories, and our methods were used extensively until better ones were available.” Fred Sanger, Selected papers of Frederick Sanger (with commentaries) World Scientific, 1996. Fred received the first of his two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for this work.

Day 212 of #LMB365 shows managers of some of the LMB’s Operations Group teams hard at work in a risk assessment workshop delivered by the LMB’s Health & Safety team. The LMB has an in-house H&S team and they work with all staff to provide advice and support on H&S matters to help keep both the science and the support infrastructure running smoothly and safely.

Day 211 of #LMB365 shows a cerebral organoid section with large ventricles from Laura Pellegrini in Madeline Lancaster’s group in Cell Biology. Cell nuclei are labelled in blue and the apical marker ZO1 in white highlights the perimeter of the ventricle. These organoids can model the architecture of a developing human brain.

The LMB Graduate Student Association (GSA) held its first ever LGBT+ Happy Hour social event recently, which was open to everyone across the LMB. This photo for day 210 of #LMB365 shows some of the attendees enjoying themselves in the early evening sunshine. The GSA is run by and for students and organises social, educational and welfare events throughout the year.