Day 126 of #LMB365 was taken ahead of a recent meeting where members of HR, Finance, the Divisional Administrators and other support staff get together to share news and discuss ways to improve how things work across the LMB to support our scientists. Their invaluable support helps ensure the smooth running of the LMB, allowing scientists to concentrate on what they do best…
LMB 365 – Day 126
LMB 365 – Day 125
LMB scientists use mouse models of human diseases in their research where there are no suitable alternatives. The image for day 125 of #LMB365 shows a genetically modified mouse with a black and white patchwork coloured coat. This mouse is known as a chimera and results from the injection of genetically modified embryonic stem (ES) cells derived from a black mouse, into a donor blastocyst from a white wild type mouse. This technique provides LMB researchers with physiologically relevant mouse models of human diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer and asthma, with the aim of identifying a new therapy or cure.
LMB 365 – Day 124
The LMB was delighted to welcome a team from Leeds to visit recently as they cycled around the UK on a charity microscope tour to raise £20k for International Justice Mission, a charity tackling modern slavery. This image for day 124 of #LMB365 was taken after their refreshment stop at the LMB where they were hosted by the LMB EM facility, Lori Passmore, Sjors Scheres and Wanda Kukulski.
LMB 365 – Day 123
The image for day 123 of #LMB365 shows the Ty3 retrotransposon capsid. Like retroviruses, Ty3 builds a capsid, replicates its nucleic acid, and inserts itself into new positions in the genome, but unlike a virus it never leaves the yeast cells in which it is found. Ty3 and the human virus HIV-1 diverged from a common ancestor that existed before the divergence of plants and animals 1.5 billion years ago. Surprisingly, Ty3 is also similar to a neuronal protein called Arc1. John Briggs’ group in the Structural Studies Division collaborated with the Sandmeyer lab who discovered Ty3 in the 1980’s, to determine the structure of the Ty3 capsid using cryo-electron microscopy and found that it has many similarities to the capsid of HIV-1. https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/04/26/1900931116
Your body clock cares about when you eat
John O’Neill’s group have identified insulin as a primary signal that synchronises the body’s circadian rhythm in response to meal times. More…
LMB 365 – Day 122
On this day in 1970, a landmark paper showing the 3D reconstructions of spherical viruses was published. On day 122 of #LMB365, an electron micrograph of human wart virus is shown, alongside a version with its surface lattice superimposed on top. Aaron Klug led a group of LMB scientists applying the technique he had developed just a few years early, of computing 3D density maps from electron micrographs, to spherical viruses. The tecnique produced clear reconstructions of the surface structures of viruses, and paved the way for 3D imaging by electron microscopy. Reference: R. A. Crowther, Linda A. Amos, J T. Finch, D J DeRosier, A. Klug. Nature 226: 421-425.