Image365

Day 45 of #LMB365 is a ventricular zone of a cerebral organoid labelled for neuronal progenitors and cells in division. This was taken by Laura Pellegrini from Madeline Lancaster’s group in the Cell Biology Division. The cerebral organoids represent a useful tool to model human brain development and to understand neurogenesis.

Max Perutz’s landmark paper on the structure of haemoglobin was published on this day in 1960. Day 44 of #LMB365 shows the model built to represent this work. The red discs represent the haem groups, which carry the oxygen in blood. Haemoglobin has four haem groups. Despite this breakthrough, in the paper Max noted, “little can be said as yet about the relation between structure and function. Whatever interaction between the haem groups exists must be of a subtle and indirect kind that we cannot yet guess.” For this work Max was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Reference: M.F.Perutz, M.G.Rossmann, A.F.Cullis, H.Muirhead, G.Will, A.C.T.North. Structure of haemoglobin. A three-dimensional Fourier synthesis at 5.5-Angstroms resolution, obtained by X-ray analysis. Nature 185: 416-422, 13 February 1960.

Day 43 of #LMB365 is a stunning aerial shot from the west of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus taken one weekend (notice the lack of cars) with the LMB in the foreground. You can clearly see our new neighbours, AstraZeneca and Royal Papworth, with the original Addenbrooke’s hospital site in the background.

Day 42 of #LMB365 is a stained wing disc of the fruit fly Drosophila by Lisa Heinke from the group of Mariann Bienz in the PNAC Division. Wing discs are larval structures that will give rise to the wing of the adult fly. The Bienz lab is researching the gene/protein wingless, an important developmental regulator with a role in cancer, to find interactors of wingless as potential targets in medical treatment. Candidates are used to generate mutant clones in the wing disc that are stained with green fluorescent protein (GFP, shown in green) to allow them to be visualised under a confocal microscope. If wingless and the candidate interact, wingless expression (red stripe) is altered. DNA is stained in blue to show the cell nuclei of the wing disc.

The “Intellectual Centre of the Laboratory” is represented in this drawing by Paul Margiotta #piljammin in the LMB’s Visual Aids team for day 41 of #LMB365. Max Perutz, founder of the LMB, felt it was important that there was somewhere in the Lab for people to go and socialise, and to get good, reasonably priced food. Researchers were encouraged to visit the Canteen and it became the place to share ideas. Some people even credited this as one of the contributing factors to the LMB’s success.

Over the past few years members of the LMB have been watching the development of the new AstraZeneca building with interest. We have a camera on the LMB’s roof which has been taking timelapse photos since the project started. On day 40 of #LMB365 we have two photos captured by the camera a few years ago and again this month. It appears that the local birds are equally as interested in the work!