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Newsletter Bringing you the latest news from the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent 2011/2012 School of Biosciences Inside this edition 3 Kent Bioscience funding in top decile 3 Fellowship successes 3 New Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility from Wellcome Trust 4 Major awards from BBSRC and Technology Strategy Board 5 Undergraduate applications – the healthiest ever 5 Biosciences welcomes 5 new staff 5 New Look web site 6 Leading Scientists come to Kent 7 Entering the Social Media era 7 Top ten reasons to be a Bioscience student in Kent 8 Science on the buses School news Page 5 Visitors and symposia Page 6 Art for science sake Page 8 Research news Page 3

2012 Biosciences newsletter

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Page 1: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

NewsletterBringing you the latest news from the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent 2011/2012

School of Biosciences

Inside this edition3 Kent Bioscience funding in

top decile

3 Fellowship successes

3 New Nuclear Magnetic ResonanceFacility from Wellcome Trust

4 Major awards from BBSRC andTechnology Strategy Board

5 Undergraduate applications – the healthiest ever

5 Biosciences welcomes 5 new staff

5 New Look web site

6 Leading Scientists come to Kent

7 Entering the Social Media era

7 Top ten reasons to be aBioscience student in Kent

8 Science on the buses

School newsPage 5

Visitors and symposiaPage 6

Art for science sakePage 8

Research newsPage 3

Page 2: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

2 University of Kent School of Biosciences

Hello and welcome to the first ofwhat we hope will be a series ofannual newsletters chroniclingthe achievements of 2011 andlooking forward to 2012.

It is just over a year since the managementstructure of the School changed and several newcommittees have now had a year to bed in. In thisnewsletter we will let you know some of the majorachievements of the last year and update you withhow the school is progressing.

2011 was undoubtedly a hard and draining year.Nonetheless, the achievements of the School havebeen considerable. The grant income of the school has scored some notable successes includingawards to the Centre for Molecular Processing, a new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility thanks toWellcome Trust investment in the School and a large Enterprise grant (from the Technology StrategyBoard).

There have been numerous original peer reviewed research articles from the School including theones listed (left) – this is an amazing achievement for a school in which less that 20 staff are activelyproducing research papers. We welcomed the company “Cangenix” to the School, reorganised ourlaboratory space and introduced some exciting new teaching innovations including a new researchled undergraduate curriculum and two new Masters courses.

2012 will be crucial year in terms of getting our submission for the research excellence framework(REF) in good shape and we will be gearing up for a pilot exercise later in the year. With recruitmentbooming and five new academic staff, we are looking forward to a productive future.

I hope you enjoy this newsletter

Professor Darren GriffinDeputy Head of School

Welcome

Selected top publicationsin 2011McVicker G, Sun L, Sohanpal BK, Gashi K,Williamson RA, Plumbridge J, Blomfield IC. (2011)SlyA activates fimB expression and type 1fimbriation in Escherichia coli K-12. J Biol Chem:286 32026-32035

Phillips C, Roberts LR, Schade M, Bazin R, BentA, Davies NL, Moore R, Pannifer AD, Pickford AR,Prior SH, Read CM, Scott A, Brown DG, Xu B,Irving SL (2011). Design and structure of stapledpeptides binding to estrogen receptors. J AmChem Soc: 133(25):9696-9.

Adamek, N, Geeves, M A and Coluccio, L M(2011) Myo1c mutations associated with hearingloss cause defects in the interaction withnucleotide and actin, Cell Mol Life Sci 68, 139-150.

Gabriel AS, Thornhill AR, Gordon A, Brown APC,Taylor J, Bennett K, Handyside AH, Griffin DK(2011). Array CGH on first polar bodies suggeststhat non-disjunction is not the predominantmechanism leading to aneuploidy in humansJournal of Medical Genetics 48:433-437

Bloemink MJ, Melkani GC, Dambacher CM,Bernstein SI, Geeves MA (2011) Two Drosophilamyosin transducer mutants with distinctcardiomyopathies have divergent ADP and actinaffinities. J Biol Chem 286, 28435-43.

Hayes NV, Blackburn E, Boyle MM, Russell GA,Frost TM, Morgan BJ, Gullick WJ (2011).Expression of neuregulin 4 splice variants innormal human tissues and prostate cancer andtheir effects on cell motility. Endocr Relat Cancer.3;18(1):39-49.

Michaelis M, Paulus C, Löschmann N, Dauth S,Stange E, Doerr HW, Nevels M, Cinatl J Jr, (2011)The multi-targeted kinase inhibitor sorafenibinhibits human cytomegalovirus replication. CellMol Life Sci; 68:1079-90.

Chu D, Barnes DJ, von der Haar T. (2011 )The roleof tRNA and ribosome competition in coupling theexpression of different mRNAs in Saccharomycescerevisiae. Nucleic Acids Res; 39(15):6705-14.

Romeo CV, Ladakis D, Lobo SA, Carrondo MA,Brindley AA, Deery E, Matias PM, Pickersgill RW,Saraiva LM, Warren MJ. (2011 ). Evolution in afamily of chelatases facilitated by the introduction ofactive site asymmetry and protein oligomerization.Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 108:97-102.

Bali S, Lawrence AD, Lobo SA, Saraiva LM,Golding BT, Howard MJ, Ferguson SJ and WarrenMJ (2011) Molecular hijacking of siroheme forheme and d1 heme synthesis; elucidation of anew branch of tetrapyrrole synthesis. Proc NatlAcad Sci 108: 18260-18265

BREAKING NEWS...Male pride restored as Y chromosome wins a reprievehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/22/male-pride-x-chromosome-reprieve

Top photographyawards forBioscience staffPhotography awards for Bioscience staff on page 8

Page 3: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

University of Kent School of Biosciences 3

Even in these austere times Biosciencescontinues to beat the odds with good fundingnews in terms of our relative standing comparedto other Universities in the country. Recentfigures published with regard to the totalresearch spend on BBSRC grants, divided bythe total number of staff as reported in the lastRAE puts our own School of Biosciences easilyin the top 10%. This means that our total incomeper staff member is in the same league asManchester, Oxford, Cambridge and most of theother top universities.

The School is set to receive three major awardshaving led three multi-million pound applicationsto the BBSRC. In the first case, an idea fromEvelyne Deery and Andrew Lawrence hasresulted in the funding of a four year project,linked with Queen Mary (Professor Pickersgill),on a novel way to elucidate intermediates ofcomplex biochemical pathways. The project,which also involves NMR (Mark Howard) andkinetics (Mike Geeves), has importantimplications for system biology approaches to

metabolism. In the second project, Mark Smalesand Professor Anne Willis (MRC Toxicology Unit,Leicester) have been successful in a two-siteBBSRC proposal entitled ‘Defining novelmechanisms of mRNA translational control uponcold shock in mammalian cells’. This award,worth approximately £900,000 at FEC across thetwo sites, builds upon ground breaking workbetween these two groups that has shown howcold specific mechanisms control mRNAtranslation and protein synthesis in mammaliancells upon cold-shock at 27-32oC. This fundingwill allow these two groups to further define thecontrol of translation upon cold-shock inmammalian cells, significantly improving ourunderstanding of protein synthesis under suchconditions, potentially leading to newapproaches to improve protein production frommammalian cells and treatments for heart andbrain damage. In the final project, Martin Warrenand Professor Stuart Ferguson (Oxford) havebeen funded to study a novel pathway for thesynthesis of heme.

Kent Bioscience funding in top decile

Dr Dan Mulvihill has recently been awarded a 4 year Royal Society Industry Fellowship todevelop novel technologies to allow rapid live cellimaging. Over the four year period Dan will spendhalf his time working with his industrial partner,Cairn Research Ltd, a company that specializesin the design and production of apparatuses tocapture and record rapid changes influorescence signals. One of the projects heplans to work on is the development of anapparatus that can be plugged into any existingmicroscope and will allow the simultaneouscapture of multiple images through differentdepths of a cell. This will allow researchers tobuild instant 3D pictures of where a moleculelocalizes within a cell, to allow the real-time studyof how molecules move throughout the cell.

Dr Emma Hargreaves has also been awarded anEarly Career Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trustto work on a 3 year project within the Centre forMolecular Processing. During her studies Emmaintends to further unravel the links betweentranscription and mRNA translation inmammalian cells. Using a cross-disciplinaryapproach she will first determine thestoichiometry of key translation initiation factorsand their interacting partners and subsequentlyapply quantitative data to develop systemsbiology models of translation initiation. UltimatelyEmma plans to use the developed models tounderstand the biology underpinning thedynamic levels of eIFs in mammalian cells.

Fellowship Awards

Research news

New NMR spectrometerA new NMRspectrometer wasinstalled in June2011 following anaward of £456,741from TheWellcome Trust toupgrade thebiomolecular NMRfacility inBiosciences. Thenew spectrometer from Bruker UK willallow Mark Howard and his team to workwith much lower sample concentrations aswell as increasing functionality to includestudies of many novel biomolecules. Thespectrometer, that was custom built toMark’s requirements, has a uniqueCryoprobe that will observe hydrogen,carbon and nitrogen; considered astypical biological nuclei, but it also hasenhanced capabilities for phosphorous,fluorine and cobalt. Phosphorous providesaccess to nucleic acids, fluorine forenhanced pharmaceutical drug discoveryand cobalt for the study of vitamin B12proteins and metabolic intermediates.NMR spectroscopy provides detailedanalysis of the structure and dynamics ofbiological molecules and so providescritical understanding of how thesemolecules work.

VC Challenge Cup ResultAfter many rounds involving members ofstaff and students with bats, balls,shuttlecocks, ping pong not to mentionbroken fingers and hospital visits, team“Biocelona” finished in third place in theVC’s challenge cup. The Sports Centre arekeen to improve on the event for next year.Everyone clearly enjoyed taking part,hopefully that will enthuse more players tojoin in next year. Biocelona are keen beatour excellent third place result next time!

Page 4: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

In 2011, we took the decision to re-structure ourresearch groups and the way we presentourselves to the world. The former structureconsisting of three groups (Protein Science, Celland Developmental Biology, BiomedicalSciences) was getting somewhat out of dateand did not reflect the truenature of the synergies within theSchool. Research in the Schoolnow revolves aroundunderstanding and exploiting theimpact of Systems andProcesses in the Living Cell. Ithas a strong molecular focus inthree overlapping disciplines ofProtein Science, MolecularMicrobiology and BiomolecularMedicine. This allows us toharness technology and developground-breaking ideas in thefields such as biochemistry,genetics, molecular biology, andbiophysics. Fields of enquiryencompass a range of molecular

processes from cell division, transcription andtranslation through to molecular motors,molecular diagnostics and the production ofbiotherapeutics and bioenergy. The school nowconsists of 8 research groups and has a leadingrole in two interdisciplinary centres.

4 University of Kent School of Biosciences

Research news

Doctor DoctorCongratulations to the following students for successfully negotiating their vivas andbeing awarded their PhDs (some subject to minor corrections):

Katie Fowler

Man Shun Fu

Alem Gabriel

Samuel Godfrey

Sarah Hodson

Shu-Ju Hsieh

Dimitrios Ladakis

Simon Moore

Heresh Rezavandi

Susanne Schroeder

Claudia Solscheid

Jack South

Gemma Staniforth

Klement Stojanovski

Jane Wagstaff

Lynn Wales

Ming Wang

Re-badging of research groups

A four year grant from the technology strategyboard of nearly £1,000,000 was awarded toProfessor Darren Griffin and his team. Theproject is in collaboration with JSR Genetics aworld leader in superior pig genetics whoroutinely fly ~1000 pigs to stock overseas farmsin developing markets. This involves highproduction and logistical costs, environmentalpollution and difficulties with animal movementeg health, trade and husbandry. This project willintroduce a sustainable alternative through thegeneration and transport of pig IVF embryos. Itis hoped that it will lead to enhanced productionand significant reduction in transport costs andother adverse impacts such as those on theenvironment. In collaboration with the LondonBridge Fertility Clinic the team will adaptpreimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)technology to ensure a mostly female sex ratio,thus realising further monetary andenvironmental benefits.

The grant is one of the largest awarded via theEnterprise office and eclipses the total enterpriseincome for the Faculty of Science in the previousyear. After recently completing her PhD in theSchool, Kate Fowler will take on the role of post-doc on the project responsible for the day to daydelivery of the project aims.

Pigs might not have to fly

Big Ideas USA winners –3 PhD students Three of our PhD students, Caroline Tolley,Will Humphries (both from Peter Nicholls’lab) and Claudia Rathje (From Dan Lloyd’slab) returned from a successful trip toVirginia USA, having represented theUniversity of Kent as part of the ‘Big Ideas’competition. They did extremely well havingwon second place for their presentation,winning them total prize money of $5000.They received amazing feedback from thejudges and the other teams who were reallyimpressed with their idea and theprofessional way they gave theirpresentation. The students had a greatweek, having learnt so much and made tofeel so welcome by the people of Virginia.

Page 5: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

University of Kent School of Biosciences 5

School news

Bioscience applicationsare the healthiest everThe School, for the first time topped 1000applications by 16th January 2012 for itsundergraduate degree courses – its highestever. Growth has been particularly strongover the last two years; the total number ofapplicants in 2010 at the same stage was761 and the current figures represent a 36%rise on 2010, and a 14% rise on last year.

Admissions Officer Richard Willliamsonsaid “healthy application numbers areessential if we are to successfully competefor AAB+ students who do not countagainst our admissions target. We are likelyto receive another 300 applications or sofrom now until the end of July.”

Head of School Martin Warren said “Thestatistics reflect the School’s excellentshowing in the NSS and graduateemployment league tables. It is alsotestament to the attention to detail of theadmissions team.”

New look web siteIn 2011, the School launched its new website. The main image is one of a nettle leaftaken by Ian Brown and typically formingpart of a student practical class. Landingpages for undergraduate and postgraduatecourses as well as research is hoped toattract both students and researchcollaborators to Kent.

During the summer of 2011 several newmembers of the teaching staff joined the Schoolbringing a range of new expertise in excitingareas of the biosciences.

Professor Martin Michaelis:joined the School in July2011. Martin studiedpharmacy and completedhis PhD in pharmaceutics inFrankfurt am Main,Germany, working on drugcarrier systems includingnanoparticles andliposomes. He took aposition as postdoc at the Institute for MedicalVirology, Clinics of the Goethe-University,Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and started to work onthe identification and investigation of anti-cancerand antiviral drugs. From 2005, he joined thecharity “Hilfe für krebskranke Kinder Frankfurte.V.”, Frankfurt am Main, finally resulting in ajoined affiliation at the private research institute ofthe charity’s trust Frankfurter Stiftung fürkrebskranke Kinder (Dr Petra Joh-Forschungshaus) and at the Institute of MedicalVirology in Frankfurt am Main.

Dr Wei-Feng Xue: joined theSchool in April 2011. Hereceived his PhD degree inPhysical Chemistry onresearch regarding protein-protein/protein-ligandinteractions in Professor SaraLinse’s group at LundUniversity in Sweden (2006).He then took a postdoctoral position concerningthe mechanism and the biological impact ofamyloid assembly in Professor Sheena Radford’slaboratory at the Astbury Centre for StructuralMolecular Biology in the University of Leeds(2006-2011). His research interests includesupramolecular protein assembly, proteinfolding/misfolding, and amyloid disease/function.

Dr Mark Shepherd joinedthe School of Biosciencesin July 2011 as a Lecturer inMicrobial Biochemistry. Hestudied Biochemistry at theUniversity of Sheffield(1996-1999) and stayed inthe Department ofMolecular Biology &Biotechnology to undertake a PhD with ProfessorNeil Hunter FRS (1999-2003). He theredeveloped his interest in the enzymology andspectroscopy of chlorophyll and haembiosynthesis. After completing his PhD studies,

he conducted postdoctoral research withProfessor Harry Dailey at the University ofGeorgia (2003-2005). This was followed by amove back to the University of Sheffield in2005 to take up a postdoctoral position withProfessor Robert Poole. A subsequent positionat the University of Queensland (2010-2011)with Professor Mark Schembri focussed onnitric oxide stress in Uropathogenic E. coli

Dr Jeremy Rossman joinedthe School of Biosciencesin November 2011 as aLecturer in Virology. Hereceived a PhD in EmergingInfectious Diseases fromthe Uniformed ServicesUniversity (USA) for hisstudies on T lymphocytesignal transduction (2006). Following his PhD,he conducted postdoctoral research withProfessor Robert Lamb at the Howard HughesMedical Institute where he investigated themechanisms of influenza virus budding (2006-2011). His research interests include influenzavirus morphology, viral budding and advancedmicroscopic methodology.

Professor Dave Brown,formally Director ofStructural Biology andBiophysics at Pfizer, hasbeen appointed Chair ofStructural Biology inBiosciences. ProfessorBrown and four ex-colleagues from Pfizer willalso expand upon their previous research linkswith the University by launching a new start-upcompany, Cangenix, from its base on theCanterbury campus. The arrangement willmean that students and researchers within theUniversity’s School of Biosciences will be ableto exchange knowledge and collaborate withthe Cangenix team. Cangenix is a ContractResearch Organisation that offerscrystallography – a structure-based drugdesign tool – and biophysics services to thepharmaceutical and biotech industry.Throughout the process, Pfizer has supportedCangenix with an offer of equipment purchaseat a reduced rate and advice on the academiccourses Professor Brown will run. It has alsopermitted the team to retain its portfolio ofpharmaceutically relevant structural targets.The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent,said: ‘The University is delighted to welcomeboth David Brown as our new chair ofStructural Biology and Cangenix to ourCanterbury campus.”

Welcome New Colleagues

Page 6: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

Overall we had an excellent day of science andreminiscence and are very grateful to ChrisKnowles and the Vice-Chancellor for providingfinancial support for the event. We are nowbeginning to plan the 2012 event and so if youare in touch with any of your former Kentcolleagues please alert them of this opportunityto come back to visit us.

6 University of Kent School of Biosciences

Visitors and symposia

Last year the School celebrated the life and workof Professor Ken Stacey, the founding Professorof the then Biological Laboratory, by holding theinaugural Stacey Symposium. As the 2010 eventwas so successful we decided the symposiumwould become an annual event and onSeptember 16th we held the second StaceySymposium in the School. The aim of the StaceySymposium is to invite back alumni of the School,be they former undergraduate, postgraduate,postdocs or staff, to give a talk about the sciencethey have been doing since leaving Kent.

This year we decided the focus of the StaceySymposium would be “Kent women in(bio)sciences” and managed to convince eightof our former colleagues to give talks. Theseincluded Professor Anne Willis, a formerundergraduate and now Professor and Directorof the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University ofLeicester, Dr Lesley Thompson, a former postdocand now Director of the Research Base at theEPSRC, and Dr Naheed Kaderbhai from theUniversity of Aberystwyth and who graduatedfrom the very first cohort of Biosciences’undergraduates at Kent. The programme alsocontained talks by two of our current PhDstudents (Ilectra Adam and Steffi Magub) andEmma Hargreaves from the Smales’ lab who hasrecently been awarded a LeverhulmeFellowship.The day concluded with an overviewby Louise Naylor, a former Senior Lecturer in theSchool but now Director of UELT on campus.

A number of other alumni returned for the eventand we were delighted to see Robert Freedmanand Chris Knowles and also a number of formermembers of Chris Knowles’ research group. Inaddition, we were also honoured that severalmembers of Ken Stacey’s family also attendedthe Symposium.

Stacey Symposium 2011

This years Wainlecture was givenby Professor MollyStevens fromImperial College.She runs a largemultidisciplinaryresearch group thatfocusses on thesynthesis ofbiomedicalmaterials and theiruse in regenerative

medicine. Her lecture gave a fascinating insightinto applied science and in particular how recentadvances allow for the engineering of largequantities of human bone for transplantation.She is recognised as one of the top youngscientists in the country, where her basicresearch has led to successfulcommercialisation and the setting up of severalspin-out companies. Professor Stevens is clearlya dynamic individual, a top innovator and a majorintellectual. She proved herself to be a veryworthy winner of the Wain award.

At the end of April, Nobel laureate, Professor SirTim Hunt made a visit to the school as he hadkindly agreed to come and give a lecture on theBI610 Cell Cycle module. During the day he alsohad a chat with postgraduate researchers, anddiscussed with them what had inspired him toenter into a life of science and his personal careerhighlights. Finally at the end of the day Tim gavethe Vice-Chancellor’s lecture. During thisentertaining, educational and insightful openlecture, Tim described the links between the CellCycle and Cancer, and the experiments thatcontributed to him being awarded the Nobel prize.

Wain Lecture Sir Tim Hunt Lecture

Page 7: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

University of Kent School of Biosciences 7

Courses and marketing

MSc Reproductive medicine: Science and ethics.Reproductive medicine is one of the “growthindustries” of science. As the average age ofparents increases, the call for increasingly noveltreatments to aid reproduction is similarly on theincrease. In particular, around 1-2% of all babiesin the UK are born by IVF, with varying figures inmany other countries. Internationally,reproductive medicine generally, and IVF inparticular, is an area in which the UK is world-leading, indeed many other countries, eg in theMiddle East and Eastern Europe look to the UKfor education and leadership. Academicresearch into human reproduction andembryology is very popular as witnessed by theincreased numbers of related congresses andjournals covering this topic. The course is beingtaught in part by staff at the University of Kentand in part by collaborators eg colleagues fromthe London Bridge Fertility centre.

The MSc in Cancer Biology has been designedfor students who wish to gain an advancededucation and training in the biological sciences,within the context of a disease that affects alarge proportion of the population. Students aretrained in modern biological research skills thatcan be harnessed to further our understandingof cancer and improve treatment. They alsodevelop a range of transferable skills that areattractive to employers within the public andprivate sector. This programme incorporatesmodules that focus on the biology and treatmentof cancer, alongside advanced scientific skillstraining modules for application within andoutside the laboratory. Through a combination oflectures, small-group seminars and practicalclasses, students apply this training towards thedevelopment of new cancer therapies.

New MSc courses

This academic year, Kent Union has beenpiloting a new Teaching Awards scheme torecognise and reward those academics who arecommitted to delivering excellent teaching fortheir students. This is the first fully studentcreated and run teaching awards scheme at theUniversity. Fewer than 500 applications werereceived for the award, with a good helping ofBiosciences staff being amongst them, all thoselisted below received a mug by way of a ‘thankyou’ from the students. Peter Klappa, MartinWarren, Bill Gullick, Kay Foster, Mark Howard,Dan Lloyd, Peter Nicholls, Frances Mansfieldand Mick Tuite. Peter Klappa not only won thebest Union prize for ‘fabulous feedback’ but alsowas a very deserved winner of the universityFaculty Teaching Prize, which comes with anaward of £5000.

Award winning teaching

As part of the Research and Marketing Strategy,we have put together a “top ten” reasons ofwhat we think are our major selling points.Specific “top tens” for undergraduates andpostgraduates have been developed and thefollowing is an amalgamation and truncation ofthe two.

1 National Student Satisfaction: All degreeprogrammes consistently ranked in the top 10in England and Wales by the National StudentSurvey for ‘overall satisfaction’. BiomedicalScience ranked in the top 2 for five of the lastseven years. Biochemistry ranked 1st in 2010

2 Research-Led Culture with Strong industriallinks, real-research projects and a wide rangeof seminars and dissemination events

3 Global Research Excellence with £5 million inresearch funding, academic staff who areinternational leaders in their field and excitingareas of modern molecular science

4 Inspirational Teaching, internationallydistinctive, and innovative programmes ofstudy with highest possible scores (24/24) innational Teaching Quality Assessmentexercises

5 Supportive and Enthusiastic Staff Personaltutorial system and high practical content

6 First class Facilities including Newlyrefurbished teaching laboratories

7 Excellent Sports and Social Life

8 Attractive Campus and Location

9 Good Job Prospects – 8th in the UK in the2012 Guardian University Guide

10 Award-Winning Science Communication

Top ten

The School entered the social media age lastyear with Dr Peter Klappa leading the line withnew contributions on Facebook and Twitter

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/School-Of-Biosciences/205851959435612

Twitter: @bio_kent

Here are some of the top tweets of 2011

1 Finally! All the exam results are out :-)Congratulations to everybody, who achievedwhat they set out for. And for those of you,who didn’t – don’t worry, but NEVER give uphttp://goo.gl/LjPbV July 6 906 views

2 University of Kent makes top 30 inuniversities ‘Table of tables’http://goo.gl/bnys6 July 5 656 views

3 Spectacular Biology – when Arts meetbiology http://goo.gl/nLhWV a projectbetween the School of Biosciences andCreative Arts. July 4 638 views

4 VC’s Cup – School Sports Day kicks-offtoday at 1pm

The 3rd round of the VC’s Cup kicks-off attoday at 1pm down at the Pavilion (oppositePark Wood accommodation).With theweather being as nice as it is, why not popdown to the Pavilion and watch yourUniversity colleagues in action. June 27 636views

5 The Complete University Guide has namedCanterbury as the safest city for students inEngland and Wales http://bit.ly/qpiEZr July 7 620 views

Top tweets

Page 8: 2012 Biosciences newsletter

8 University of Kent School of Biosciences

Art for science sake

DPC 112674 02/12

Visitors to Biosciences willnotice a preponderance ofnew artwork adorning thewalls. The efforts have beenlargely those of AnnieHalliday who was artist inresidence in the School from2008 to 2009. During hertime in the School sheindulged her specialism of“science-art” producing a range of stunningimages. Many of these images were taken with acamera made from a large water barrels.Exposures of up to 16 hours capture time ratherthan freezing it, yielding unique tracings of activity.Others are stunning composite images drawingon inspiration from experiments or images goingon in the School. The artwork went up on the wallsin 2010 and 2011. Annie said “I was amazed tosee the advances in technical facilities andtechniques which have evolved since my earlycareer as a biologist, and which offered excitingimaging possibilities. Sources include digitalphotomicroscopy files, captured at highmagnification; digital snapshots from confocalmicroscopes, data, photograms; and drawnelements. Dr Dan Lloyd said ‘Annie’s collaborationwith the School has mined a rich seam ofscientific activities that take place on a day-to-daybasis.” Annie has continued her collaboration withresearchers in the School, to design the display ofresearch projects in the foyer of the Staceybuilding, and has recently been invited to facilitatea seminar on ‘Art and Science’ for the MSc coursein Science, Communication and Society.

Artist in residence Top photography awards forBioscience staffDr Wei-Feng Xue was named the Photographerof the Year by the Society of Biology for his eye-catching photograph depicting chestnut treeroots following the pattern of pavement stones ina garden in Hong Kong. All these images willfeature in a limited edition of the Society ofBiology’s 2012 calendar.

Dr Anthony Baines was awarded the RoyalPhotographic Society's second highestdistinction, Associateship (ARPS), on October12. He had to present a portfolio of 15 picturesthat were judged by a panel of Fellows of theRPS. The ARPS is awarded to a photographerwho can demonstrate not just complete controlof all the technical aspects but who hasdeveloped a personal style that suits the chosensubject. Anthony's portfolio was based aroundaviation photography, both ground-to-air and air-to-air and can be viewed on the RPS website at:http://www.rps.org/portfolios

In an increasing effort to reach out into the localcommunity an exciting initiative led by Dr DanLloyd and the Students on the MSc in Science,Communication and Society has brought theimagery of the School to commuters in Kent.Students from the MSc were asked to take imagesgenerated in the school and provide a short,cryptic caption that would be eye catching andinformative to the general public. The posters alsoused social media to deliver more information onthe science behind the image and the opportunityto comment and ask questions. Several of theresulting posters have been displayed on bus

routes throughout Kent and formed the basis of adisplay in the Gulbenkian cross-over gallery.

Dr Lloyd said “Many of the images captured inthe course of our scientific research inBiosciences could easily be viewed as pieces ofart. The aim of this project was to treat theseimages as art, and use this as a way to draw theviewer in to the science that created the image. Itwas a fascinating process for us and reallyencouraged the students to think ofcommunicating science in creative andimaginative ways”.

Science on the buses

School of Biosciences

Facebook and TwitterJoin the School’s Facebookgroup and follow us onTwitter and Wikidot.

School of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NJT: +44 (0)1227 823743 or 827580F: +44 (0)1227 763912

www.kent.ac.uk/bio/

Mark Downs, CEO of the Society with David Harris and Wei-Feng Xue (Right)

@bio_kent

www.facebook.com/pages/School-Of-Biosciences/205851959435612