Image365

Day 173 of #LMB365 is a light microscopy image from Wanda Kukulski in Cell Biology of yeast cells producing a fluorescent version of a protein that assembles into patches on the cell membrane. Each patch contains hundreds of copies of the protein. Together, they induce a local deformation of the membrane, which however is too small to be resolved by light microscopy.

This impressionistic glimpse of the LMB on a sunny day for #LMB365 day 172 was created by Xiaohan Li. In LMBers’ eyes, science can always be artistic.

Day 171 of #LMB365 shows Richard Henderson with a model of the membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin. Richard used high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy, developing new methods for analysing micrographs from tilted specimens, in his landmark paper, published on this day in 1990. The Nobel Committee cited this paper when Richard was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Reference: Richard Henderson et al. Model for the structure of bacteriorhodopsin based on high-resolution electron cryo-microscopy. Journal of Molecular Biology. 213:899-929, 1990

On day 170 of #LMB365 this LMBee is hard at work on the Titan Krios microscope in the LMB’s EM Facility doing its bit to automate high-throughput data collection for cryo-EM.

The LMB Estates & Facilities team gets involved in many projects, both big and small. Day 169 of #LMB365 shows the culmination of months of work to replace the old boilers (red) with new boilers (silver) at our facility at Babraham. The work had to be carried out at a time that disruption to science was kept to a minimum and as anticipated things went very smoothly.

The LMB’s first, purpose built laboratory was officially handed over on 29 January 1962, and all 43 scientists had moved in by the middle of February. Day 31 of #LMB365 shows the building in 1962, on the ‘new’ Addenbrooke’s site, off Hills Road, Cambridge. The facilities on site were very limited at the time, but there was a ‘shop’ from which you could buy your daily newspaper