This image for day 87 of #LMB365 shows a small portion of a neuron (brain cell). The spines coating the dendritic projections are the sites of synapses, through which the cell communicates with other neurons. The work in Ingo Greger’s group in the Neurobiology Division aims to understand the mechanisms through which the strength of communication at these sites is controlled, to allow information storage in the brain.
Image365
LMB 365 – Day 86
On day 86 of #LMB365, we celebrate LMB Nobel Laureate John Sulston who was born on this day in 1942. In 1969 he joined Sydney Brenner’s group at the LMB. In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death in C. elegans. “I just loved watching the cells. It’s a beautiful thing to do and a challenge in the jigsaw-puzzling sense to get it all”.
LMB 365 – Day 85
Sometimes after a long day in the lab you are lucky enough to experience a beautiful sight as you leave the building. This photo for day 85 of #LMB365 was taken by Lesley Drynan as the sun set for another day and the multi-coloured light was reflected in the glass façade of the LMB’s building.
LMB 365 – Day 84
The LMB’s new sub-cellular light sheet microscope allows for high speed 3D imaging of cells and small organisms with minimal damage and loss of fluorescent glow. For day 84 of #LMB365 a green laser is focussed to form a thin light sheet of illumination in the centre of the photo. A small silver spoon holds the sample and moves it through the sheet at high speed. Thanks to the gentleness of this technique, scientists can study a range of cells and small organisms for hundreds of time points before the signal is lost.
LMB 365 – Day 83
LMB Nobel Laureate John Kendrew was born on this day in Oxford in 1917. In 1946 he became Max Perutz’s first research student, and helped found the MRC Unit a year later. In 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his studies of the structures of globular proteins. He died in Cambridge on 23 August 1997. For day 83 of #LMB365, this photo from the late 1950s shows John lecturing next to his large ‘sausage’ model of myoglobin, the protein that stores oxygen in muscles
LMB 365 – Day 82
Using cryo-EM, researchers in the groups of Sjors Scheres and Michel Goedert determined the atomic structure of tau filaments that were extracted from the brain of an individual with Alzheimer’s disease. The resulting structure is shown on day 82 of #LMB365. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of tau aggregation in neurodegenerative disease may be important in finding a cure.