The LMB Through the Years project celebrates the LMB’s 60th anniversary. A selection of twelve staff and alumni, from across the decades, were interviewed by science writer Kathy Weston about their time at the LMB and what it has meant to them. Each interviewee has also chosen an object to represent their time at the LMB, giving an unusual insight into the many facets of life at the LMB.
Sjors Scheres: from blobology to the resolution revolution
Sjors discusses why moving to the LMB put him in the right place at the right time, his strategy for recruiting new group leaders and the collaborative project that has rekindled his passion for wet-lab biology.
Lori Passmore: a tale of tails
Lori tells us about her research into poly(A) tail formation, how newly-qualified PhD students can sometimes be the most informed people in the lab, and how her 'interesting complexes' folder helped her start her own research group.
Rebecca Voorhees: From the US to the LMB (and back again)
Rebecca covers her PhD in Venki Ramakrishnan's group, how she later applied her structural training as a postdoc in Manu Hegde's group, and the (seperate) romantic and sporting benefits of the Cambridge college system.
Pat Edwards: technician extraordinaire
Pat discusses her early days with Hugh Huxley, prepping human brain tissue, long periods in the dark room while trying to crystallise rhodopsin, and why she thought at one point of becoming an aerobics instructor.
Lesley Drynan: essential services – running the Biological Services Group
Lesley tells us how she came to the LMB as a research assistant and what it was like to switch into a different career track. She gives us a behind the scenes look at how a top-ranked animal facility works to take the best possible care of its inhabitants, both furry and otherwise.
Gillian Griffiths: a PhD with César Milstein
Gillian covers the valuable lessons she learnt as a PhD student with César Milstein, including the problems that can arise from a bench space by the door. We also hear how César and his wife Celia looked after their "immunology family" and Gillian's memories of the day César's Nobel Prize was announced.
Greg Winter: the genesis of therapeutic antibodies
Greg talks about his progression from what he describes as an apprenticeship to a master craftsman to his development of the first humanised mouse antibody. We learn how Greg’s antibody work began and his thoughts on what the LMB’s “secret sauce” is.
Nigel Unwin: from spider silk to torpedo rays
Nigel talks about what drove him to find an unusual use for spider silk, a train trip to Naples to collect lizards, his first encounter with the torpedo ray acetylcholine receptor, and the foundation of the LMB’s Neurobiology Division.
John White: mapping the mind of a worm
John’s innovative solutions for biological problems made him a pivotal figure in the early C. elegans field. He describes the early years with Sydney Brenner, and how he collaborated to design one of the most useful bits of kit that the LMB has ever produced: the confocal beam-scanning microscope.
John Walker: an unexpected cellular revolution
John talks about his long and fruitful friendship with Fred Sanger, life in PNAC in the early years, and how his decision to focus on ATP synthase wasn’t entirely popular. We also find out what it’s like to work on one thing for a very long time and discover what happens when you’re too busy gardening to take a call from Stockholm.
Joan Steitz: a risky project comes good
Joan looks back on life and friendships at the LMB, the career choices (or lack of them) for women scientists in 1960s America, and why such a plum postdoc project hadn’t been snapped up by the flocks of ambitious men surrounding her. We learn about stereotype threat and the advice Joan gives to young women starting out in science.
Mark Bretscher: solving the genetic code with Crick and Brenner
Mark discusses his first encounter with Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner, some of the work on the triplet code, the move into the new Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the epic series of Nobel parties in 1962.