Biosciences Research Newsletter 2013

NewsletterBringing you the latest news from the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent 2013

School of Biosciences

Inside this edition2 Welcome

3 Breaking News

7 Undergraduate News

8 Celebrating success

9 Events and symposia

12 Art for science’s sake

Undergraduate newsPage 5

Celebrating successPage 7

Events and symposiaPage 8

Breaking newsPage 3

2 University of Kent School of Biosciences

Welcome to the second of ourannual newsletters chroniclingthe success of the School ofBiosciences in 2012.

Amidst the Olympics, the Diamond Jubilee andWimbledon euphoria, Biosciences have beenworking hard to continue to deliver the highestquality in research, teaching and enterprise. Lastyear saw the bringing in of nearly £2 million inBBSRC money alone as well as significantenterprise activity including patents filed,Innovation awards and a Knowledge TransferPartnership grant.

Our publication record continues to grow and this could not be more timely with the impendingResearch Excellence Framework submission. This year we will have the opportunity to put our bestfoot forward and present the very best of our research and enterprise activity in a nationallycompetitive process.

We are pleased to note that our teaching continues to win awards and that our outreach activity goesfrom strength to strength. We were also honoured to welcome a number of eminent speakers to ourDepartment, not least of whom was Nobel prize winner, Sir Paul Nurse. Finally as you’ll notice fromthe penultimate page, we have the builders in! The interior of the School is really starting to takeshape now and we look forward to welcoming colleagues, visitors and students alike.

Here’s to an equally successful 2013!

Professor Darren GriffinDeputy Head of School

Welcome

Selected top publicationsin 2012Kotiadis V, Leadsham J, Bastow E,Gheeraert A, Whybrew J, Bard M,Lappalainen P, Gourlay CW (2012)Identification of new surfaces of Cofilin thatlink mitochondrial function to the control ofmulti-drug resistance. Journal of CellScience 125, 2288-2299.

Blackburn E, Zona S, Murphy ML, BrownIR, Chan SKW, Gullick WJ (2012) Amonoclonal antibody to the human HER3receptor inhibits Neuregulin 1 beta bindingand co-operates with Herceptin in inhibitingthe growth of breast cancer derived celllines. Breast Cancer Research andTreatment 134: 53-9.

Cottier F,Raymond M, Kurzai O, Bolstad M,Leewattanapasuk W, Jiménez-López C,Lorenz MC, Sanglard D, Váchová L,Pavelka N, Palková Z, Mü�hlschlegel FA(2012) The bZIP Transcription Factor Rca1pIs a Central Regulator of a Novel CO(2)Sensing Pathway in Yeast. PLoS Pathogens8(1) :e1002485..

Rossman JS, Leser GP, Lamb RA (2012).Filamentous influenza virus enters cells viamacropinocytosis. Journal of Virology.86(20):10950-60.

Chu D, von der Haar T. The architecture ofeukaryotic translation. Nucleic AcidsResearch (2012) 40(20):10098-106.

Deery E, Schroeder S, Lawrence AD, TaylorSL, Seyedarabi A, Waterman J, Wilson KS,Brown D, Geeves MA, Howard MJ,Pickersgill RW, Warren MJ. (2012 ) Anenzyme-trap approach allows isolation ofintermediates in cobalamin biosynthesis.Nature Chemical Biology 8(11):933-40.

Wass MN, Barton G, Sternberg MJ. (2012)CombFunc: predicting protein function usingheterogeneous data sources. Nucleic AcidsResearch 40:W466-70.

David A, Razali R, Wass MN, Sternberg MJ(2012). Protein-protein interaction sites arehot spots for disease-associatednonsynonymous SNPs. Human Mutation.33(2):359-63.

Biosciences 2012photographycompetitionA total of 34 images weresubmitted to the Biosciences2012 photography competitionthemed “Bioscience throughmy lens”. See back page formore examples.

The winning image entitled,“Pigments of life” was taken byDr Evelyne Deery

BBSRC successesDarren Griffin Professor of Genetics wassuccessful in his £535,556 application “Genomeassembly. chromosomal organization andcomparative genomics of multiple bird species:beyond “catalogues of genes” – a joint effort withDr Denis Larkin of the University of Aberystwyth.

Martin Warren, Professor of Biochemistry alsowas successful in his £481,242 applicationentitled “Development of cobalamin surrogatesas probes and carriers through synthetic andchemical biology approaches.” The project isbased on the work of post-docs in ProfessorWarren’s lab Evelyn Deery and Martin Lawrenceand co-applicants include Dr Mark Howard,Professor Martin Michaelis and Professor RichardPickersgill (Queen Mary, University of London).

We were delighted to learn that our newcolleague Dr Wei-Feng Xue has been awarded£428,736 from the BBSRC for a project entitled“Quantitative investigations into the molecularmechanisms of amyloid fibril fragmentation.”

Mark Smales Professor of Mammalian CellBiotechnology successfully bid for February£324,213 from the BBSRC for a project entitled“Investigation and manipulation of mTOR cellularsignalling to generate novel CHO host cells withhigh growth and productivity characteristics.”

Recently two of these grants have beenhighlighted in a recent issue of the Times Higher.

In addition, many other awards were madebringing the total of funding for the year inexcess of £2 million.

University of Kent School of Biosciences 3

Breaking News


Breaking News

Innovation, creativity andenterprise wererecognised at theUniversity of Kent’sannual Innovation Awardsin October 2012.Members of Kent’sbusiness community andrepresentatives of otherpartner organisationswere welcomed byUniversity Vice-ChancellorProfessor Dame JuliaGoodfellow to the event,which was held at theCanterbury InnovationCentre.

Professor Darren Griffin won both the impact andcollaboration awards for the impact of his work ina number of areas of genetics research and hiscollaboration with The London Bridge Fertility,Gynaecology and Genetics Centre and JSRGenetics Ltd.

In addition, Professor Mark Smales was highlycommended for the collaboration with LonzaBiologics on the development of Predictive Toolsfor the Isolation of Highly productiveRecombinant Cell Lines.

Innovation Awards 2012BBSRC Sparking ImpactAwardDr Gary Robinson, Senior Lecturer andCommercialisation Manager at the Schoolof Biosciences, has successfully secured anaward on behalf of the University of £100kfrom the BBSRC.

The award has been made to supportpartners that are strategically aligned withBBSRC, in accelerating and increasing theachievement of optimal impact from BBSRCinvestments. This Award of £100k willenable the school to fund the highly variedand small scale knowledge exchange andcommercialisation (KEC) activities requiredat the earliest stages of progressingresearch outcomes towards impact.

The BBSRC anticipates learning more as tohow this funding will contribute to theexcellent impact achieved by the institutionover the coming year.

Biosciences contractresearch start-upacquired by majorEuropean companySuccessful biotech start-up Cangenix,which is based at the University’s School ofBiosciences, has been acquired by Argenta,part of Galapagos NV’s service division,one of Europe’s largest contract researchorganisations.

Cangenix was launched 15 months agowhen Professor David Brown, formerly ofPfizer, was appointed chair of StructuralBiology at the University. It offerscrystallography – a structure-based drugdesign tool – and biophysics services to thepharmaceutical and biotech industry.Bioscience research students also benefitfrom the company’s cutting edge expertise.

Professor Brown said: “I’m hoping there willbe opportunities to forge even stronger linksbetween the University and Argenta in theDrug Discovery area.

Cangenix will continue to operate at theSchool of Biosciences premises, offeringstructure based drug design contractresearch through Argenta. But I’m hopingalso that we will be able to widen linksbeyond Biosciences to other areas ofsynergy within the University.”

Collaboration withCytocell

A new collaboration between the University ofKent and the Cambridge based companyCytocell has led to the successful application forKTP (knowledge transfer partnership) funding.The KTP scheme attracts funding from bothindustry and government (in this case BBSRCand Technology Strategy Board) to developprojects of a mutually beneficial nature. In thiscase, technology developed in Darren Griffin’slab involving animal chromosome probes is to bedeveloped into a product line by the company.Overall the grant is worth £193,961 and Kent(BSc and PhD) graduate Dr Gothami Fonsekawas selected as the associate who will deliverthe project. As the picture shows Gothami wasvery pleased about her new position.

Leverhulme FellowshipAward

Professor Mick Tuite has been awarded a oneyear Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowshipbeginning September 2012. This will allow Mickto return to the laboratory to carry out a seriesexperiments as part of a project entitled “Thenatural history of yeast prions”. The aim of theproject is to see if yeast prions also exist in ‘wild’strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and otherSaccharomyces species and will involveresearch at Kent plus research visits to the USAand Portugal.


Summer vacation internships for 2nd yearundergraduates provide valuable laboratoryexperience for students whilst being mentoredwithin an active research group. However, theycan also contribute significantly to laboratoryresearch, as was found over the summer of 2012when Biochemistry student, Harriet Crawley-Snowdon, engaged in an eight-week placementwithin the Howard and Williamson laboratories.

Harriet was charged with assessing a newmethod for measuring protein reductionpotentials using NMR spectroscopy; an idea thatcuriously revealed itself to Dr Howard whilst hewas engaged in jury service earlier in the year.Harriet spent her placement time making proteinsand studying them using the Schools 600 MHzspectrometer and she proved the new techniqueworked very well and was more efficient thanexisting methods.

Samantha Taylor from the Howard laboratorycompleted the project in autumn 2012 and on 22January 2013 the work was published online inthe prestigious Royal Society of Chemistryjournal, Chemical Communications. Also,Samantha’s contribution was supported throughthe PVC-Research Fund from Professor JohnBaldock and was equally important to completethe project in a timely manner. Congratulations toHarriet and everyone involved in the project fromthe Howard and Williamson laboratories inBiosciences.

S.L.Taylor, H.Crawley-Snowdon, J.L.Wagstaff,M.L.Rowe, M.Shepherd, R.A.Williamson andM.J.Howard (2013). Measuring protein reductionpotentials using 15N HSQC NMR Spectroscopy.Chem. Commun (Camb). Accepted manuscript.DOI:10.1039/C3CC38952A.

The paper can be found here:http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/cc/c3cc38952a

Undergraduate summer vacation project seeds high-impact paper


The School in the news

Breaking News

Free advice on reducing cancer riskReducing the risk of cancer will be the themeof a free information evening... Other speakersinclude Bill Gullick, Professor of CancerBiology at the University of Kent, medicaloncologist Mark Hill and Martin Wiseman,medical and scientific advisor for the WorldCancer Research Fund.Kent Messenger (Sittingbourne Edition)14/09/2012

Biochemistry gets animatedRecent graduates of the computer generatearts and animation degree at University for thecreative arts, Rochester, were asked to createcomputer generated films to explain biologicalprocesses in a fun and easy to understandway. They worked with the school ofBiosciences at the University of Kent. Kent Messenger (Sittingbourne Edition)20/01/2012

Propitious Prions“It’s been a raging debate,” said ProfessorMick Tuite, who studies yeast prions at theUniversity of Kent in the United Kingdom andwas not involved in the study.www Scientist (us) 16/02/2012

The end of the male gene pool maybe overrated...Scientists looked at the genes of the rhesusmacaque and chimpanzee, which split fromthose of human 25 million years ago. ...”If youdraw a straight line, the Y chromosomesdemise would come four or five million yearsfrom now,” said Darren Griffin, Professor ofGenetics at the University of Kent.The Guardian 23/02/2012

Scientist Dr Katie Fowler is doing herbit to prevent flying pigsPigs might fly at the moment – but that could allchange thanks to the pioneering work of oneformer Paddock Wood schoolgirl. Dr KatieFowler is a part of a ground-breaking team ofscientists spearheading research into In VitroFertilisation (IVF) treatmentwww This is Kent (uk) 21/05/2012

Smoking vaccine blocks nicotine inmice brainsProfessor of genetics at the University ofKent, Darren Griffin, said the findings were“impressive and intriguing with great potential”but cautioned there were still...www BBC News (uk), 28/06/2012

Men who want to delay fatherhoodtold to freeze sperm as olderDarren Griffin, genetics Professor at theUniversity of Kent, said older fathers shouldnot panic as the risk is still small – there arethree billion letters in the human DNA code andthe number of mutations found was only in thedozens – while the risk from older mothers was‘far more potent and measurable’.The Daily Mail 22/08/2012

Why don’t men have a menopause?Some new findings on the effect of older menfathering children has emerged from a studyof genes of Icelandic parents and children.Professor Darren Griffin, Professor ofGenetics at the University of Kent, explainedwhat was found from around 80 parents andtheir children having their genome sequencedfor a study. “We’ve known for a while that thesperm of men can decline with age,” he says.“What we didn’t know is the extent to which itspassed on to the offspring.” www Bbc (uk) 23/08/2012

Vitamin variants couldcombat cancer asscientists unravel B12secretsIn a development that may lead to newdrugs to treat cancer, scientists at theUniversity have discovered the process bywhich a key vitamin (B12) is made in cells.

A team at the University’s School ofBiosciences led by Professor Martin Warrendevised a method that allows them to studyhow the individual steps for vitamin B12construction are pieced together. B12 is anessential nutrient that plays an importantrole in the formation of red blood cells andthe maintenance of the nervous system.Deficiencies are associated with anaemia,cardiovascular disorders and dementia.

Using techniques of the new discipline ofsynthetic biology, researchers engineered aconveyor belt of molecular machines for theconstruction of the vitamin within bacteria.By varying the length of the assembly line,they were able to unravel how the vitamin ismanufactured.

Significantly, the team were also able to altersome of the molecular machines on theconveyor belt and change the form of thevitamin that is made. It is hoped that thesenovel variant forms of the vitamin will act asimportant new drugs to treat diseases suchas cancer and infections such astuberculosis (TB).

The team’s research paper An enzyme-trapapproach allows isolation of intermediatesin cobalamin (vitamin B12) biosynthesis ispublished in the current edition of thejournal Nature Chemical Biology, the leadingscientific journal in the field.

Professor Warren, who is Head of theSchool of Biosciences, said: ‘This is a reallyimportant step forward. Vitamin B12 is anutrient that is only made by bacteria and isnot present in plants. Therefore a significantproportion of the world’s population,including vegetarians, are at risk of B12deficiency. ‘Our work will assist in thegeneration of better ways of making moreof this vitamin available and is alsopermitting us to make new compounds thatwill literally allow us to throw a spanner inthe works of infections such as TB anddiseases such as cancer.’

Dr Mark Wass joined theSchool of Biosciences inOctober 2012. He obtainedhis first degree in NaturalSciences at CambridgeUniversity in 2000 followedby a Masters in Computingat Imperial College London.After a few years working inIndustry as an IT consultant

Mark studied for a PhD with Professor MikeSternberg at Imperial (2004-2008) andcontinued onto a post-doctoral position in thegroup. In 2011 Mark was awarded a FEBS LongTerm Fellowship to work in the group of Alfonso

Valencia at the CNIO (Spanish National CancerResearch Centre, Madrid, Spain).

Mark’s research interests are in StructuralBioinformatics, particularly the analysis andprediction of protein function, structure andinteractions. He is also interested in using suchapproaches to analyse genetic variation andidentify the functional effects that are associatedwith disease.

Biosciences will be expecting 4 more membersof academic staff to join the School over thesummer, thus bringing a range of new expertisein exciting areas of the biosciences.

Welcome new colleagues


Undergraduate News

One of the unique challenges of a sciencedegree is the balancing of academic contentwith practical training. Our practical classesallow students to develop their scientificknowledge and understand their practicalsignificance. They also provide hands-onexperience with cutting-edge scientificequipment and key techniques used in thebiological sciences. However, in a subject thatmoves as quickly as the biological sciences,where rapid advances mean that techniques areconstantly reinvented, universities need toensure that they are delivering a training that is inkeeping with the demands of employers.

The School of Biosciences has always respondedto such challenges and reinvents its curriculumconstantly. Our students recognise this,consistently ranking us highly for overall studentsatisfaction in the National Student Survey. It isalso gratifying, but perhaps no surprise given ourstrong focus on practical skills training, that Kentranks very well for Graduate Employability: 9th in2012 and 12th in 2013 (out of almost 100institutions) according to the Guardian GoodUniversity Guide. Nevertheless, the high esteem inwhich we are held by students, graduates andemployers needs to be maintained.

Dr Kay Foster, our outstanding Director ofLearning and Teaching, saw an opportunity toupdate our practical skills training in the currentacademic year. We have always had a strongfocus on practical skills in all of our degreeprogrammes, but this year Dr Foster sought tointegrate a range of skills within an extendedproject, rather than separate practical classes.She developed an Autumn term extended projectin the second year in which students wouldexpress, purify and characterise a protein. Indoing so, this would give students a trueexperience of research culture, where they solvetheir own problems and make their own decisionson experiments. They would also benefit from theworld-leading expertise in protein science at theUniversity of Kent so that their experiments wouldbe based on the most modern, cutting edgetechnology available to science.

The first task was to talk to our research staff andidentify a range of proteins that students couldwork with. “I put out a request to research staff inthe School of Biosciences. The range of proteinsI was offered was incredible, ranging fromenzymes involved in alcohol metabolism toantibody-directed treatments for colorectalcancer. I was then able to work with expert staff

within our research laboratories to developsuitable procedures that would allow students toproduce and purify the proteins and also toestablish their biological functions.”

“Students have been able to gain experience ofresearch at a very early stage of their universitycareers”, Dr Foster explained. “But in doing so,they have also gained a range of practical skillsthat are widely used in academic and industrialresearch environments. So as well as thetransferable research skills that employers value,they are also able to add a range of cutting edgetechnical skills to their CVs”. In doing so,students have also recognised that the work hasprepared them very effectively for their final yearof study in which they undertake an extendedresearch project.

Sometimes the best element of working in auniversity is that academic staff can learn asmuch as the students. “That is how it should be”,said Dr Foster. “I have gained a tremendousamount from the reinvention of our second yearpractical training. We can always learn moreabout a subject. This is precisely what we expectof our students. We expect it of ourselves too!”

Developing excellence through practical training


The School of Biosciences has celebrated anew international milestone: the first PhD studentsupervised by a Kent member of staff, while atan overseas institution, graduated in November2012. Dr Abdullah Al Mutery graduated with aPhD in Genetics after successfully completinga thesis on the genome of the Gyr falcon, thenational emblem of the United Arab Emirates.Dr Al Mutery was supervised by ProfessorDarren Griffin in collaboration with the CentralVeterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) in Dubai,where most of the lab work was undertaken.

Biosciences will be continuing to expand itsportfolio, thus providing external students frommany other countries the opportunity to studyand graduate at PhD level.

The School of Biosciences has always been veryproud of its international reputation. We haveundergraduate students, postgraduate students,short term visitors and and staff from all cornersof the globe, bringing a cosmopolitanatmosphere to the learning environment thatbenefits us all.

Recent developments have increasedopportunities available to our students. A stronglink with the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia haspermitted Study Abroad opportunities in the FarEast, while four students have now undertakenexciting Sandwich Year placements at theNational Centre for Genetic Engineering andBiotechnology (BIOTEC) in Thailand. Recentdevelopments in North America have led to anumber of vibrant student exchanges withinstitutions in California, Virginia andMassachusetts. We are in the process ofdeveloping further partnerships in the USA,Hong Kong and Istanbul, adding further choiceand flexibility to our degree programmes.

Celebrating success

Did you know?UCAS applications to the School ofBiosciences have increased year-on-yearsince 2005, and this year alone has seen anincrease in applications of 29% comparedto last year. This is a strong endorsement ofthe School’s strong performance in nationalleague tables, the recognised quality of ourdegree programmes and our excellentrecord of graduate employability.

Award-winningteachingThe recent Kent Union Teaching Awardssaw three staff making the shortlist for allthree categories of award: Best Teacher(Dr Peter Klappa), Fantastic Feedback(Dr Peter Nicholls) and postgraduates whoTeach (Alex Moores, a PhD student whowas recognised for her work in assistingstudents with practical work). A further16 members of staff were recognised bystudents for the quality of their teaching,each receiving a prestigious mug! Thisrecognition is in addition to the NationalTeaching Fellowship awarded to Dr DanLloyd by the Higher Education Academythat selects the best 50 university teachersannually from nominations across the UK.Dr Lloyd remains one of only 25 NationalTeaching Fellows in the UK within theBiological Sciences, and one of only 5across the University of Kent.

Kent around the world


Events and symposia

Stacey Symposium2013 to include launchof Stacey FundTo commemorate the late Professor KenStacey, the School of Biosciences hasinitiated the ‘Stacey Symposium’. This is anannual event, this year the 3rd StaceySymposium will be held on 8th April 2013.At the Symposium we invite back formerstudents and staff to give talks on a chosentheme, the theme for the 3rd Symposiumwill be A career beyond the laboratory. Theaim is to illustrate the range of careers ouralumni have followed and we hope willinspire current students to think broadlyabout their career opportunities once theyleave Canterbury. We also invite a widerange of alumni to the event.

In addition to the formal proceedings of theday, we will also be using the Symposium tolaunch the Stacey Fund. This fund –supported by donations from KentBiosciences’ alumni – will provide currentstudents with the opportunity to broadentheir horizons during their undergraduate orpostgraduate studies through workexperience during the vacations.

Former members of the School, studentsor staff are invited to attend

Wain Medal Lecture 2012Congratulations to Dr Edward Tate from theDepartment of Chemistry, Imperial CollegeLondon and winner of the 2012 Wain Medal.The Medal presentation was preceded by alecture entitled “Using chemistry to targetprotein modification in disease” which tookplace in Woolf Lecture Theatre on theCanterbury Campus. The large audiencecomprising the Wain family, students, staff,local schoolchildren and public memberswere treated to an excellent lecturedescribing Dr Tate’s groundbreakingresearch.

The Wain Medal isawarded annuallyin memory ofProfessor LouisWain to a youngscientist workingat the interface ofchemistry andbiology.

September saw the first MBP2 day of the 2012/13academic year, with record numbers of studentsqueuing to take part in this school-led researchproject. MBP2 (the Myelin Basic Protein Project)was conceived in 2008 by Dr David Colthurst,biology teacher at the Simon Langton GrammarSchool for Boys and a former postgraduatestudent in the School of Biosciences.

MBP2 is one example among the School ofBiosciences’ outreach portfolio that hasdemonstrable impact. Since conception of theproject, the numbers of students studying biologyat the Simon Langton has more than doubled.

The project has also raised awareness ofmultiple sclerosis, with increasing numbers ofstudents acting as occasional volunteerhelpers or fund-raisers for the MS SocietyCentre neighbouring the school. MBP2 has nowgone on to inspire similar projects bySchool/University partnerships acrossEngland, under the Wellcome Trust funded“Authentic Biology” programme. The School ofBiosciences also recently applied for aGuardian Higher Education award based ontheir involvement in this pioneering project.

Record turnout for Biosciences Outreach


Events and symposia

Nobel Laureate Sir Paul NurseOn 10 July 2012, Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse was given a warmwelcome by students and staff when he delivered our 20th AnnualPostgraduate Symposium lecture. Sir Paul is the current Presidentof the Royal Society, London, and was awarded the Nobel Prize forPhysiology or Medicine in 2001 for his genetics research onprotein molecules and their impact on cells. He is currentlyDirector and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick Institute.

Earlier in the day, Sir Paul was made an Honorary Graduate of theUniversity at the morning Congregation ceremony in CanterburyCathedral.

Fresh from the ceremony, Sir Paul, presented awards to ourundergraduate students lucky enough to have been nominatedfor prizes in recognition of their hard work, academic excellenceand contribution to the school.

New Master’s programmeThe MSc in Drug Design will run for thefirst time in September 2013. Theprogramme has been designed byProfessor David Brown, formerly Director ofStructural Biology at Pfizer, bringing a strongindustrial focus and insight into the drugdiscovery process. The MSc in Drug Designis the newest in our excellent suite ofpostgraduate taught programmes in CancerBiology, Reproductive Medicine,Biotechnology and Bioengineering, andScience, Communication and Society.

Doctor DoctorCongratulations to the following studentsfor successfully negotiating their vivas andbeing awarded their PhDs.

Christopher Alexander

Abdullah Al Mutery

Luisa De Sordi

Ifeoma Ezeigwe

Marc Feary

Vassilios Kotiadis

Stephanie Magub

Wesley Naeimi

Mohammad-Reza Nasiri-Avanaki

Ricardo Neto Marchante

Danielle Owen

Nagulan Ratnarajah

Alan ScottAt the end of July and after minutes of training,members of the Kent Fungal Group assembledfor the very first KFG Olympiad. With four‘nations’ represented at the Olympiad, Psimoa(team leader Mick Tuite), Barbudos (team leaderCampbell Gourlay), Psiprus (team leader Wei-Feng Xue) and Saudi Haarabia (team leaderTobias von der Haar). The opening ceremonywith the ‘dry ice’ torch brought tears to theeyes.... Competition for the 12 ‘gold’ medals onoffer was always going to be tough – and so itproved to be. The opening event – the ‘100(yellow) tip sprint’ proved to be a thriller with theon form Emma Bastow (team Psimoa) taking thegold in new national record time. Throughout theafternoon there were some remarkableperformances including two golds for visitingstatistician Vasilios Giagos in the ‘Guess the cellnumber’ and ‘Weigh off’ events, wherebioscientists were expected to do well. The onlyteam event, the ‘pipette relay’, was won byBarbudos with an impressive last minute surge.

After three hours on intense world classcompetition, with 5 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronzemedals, team Psipmoa headed the medals tableas the last event, the ‘Petri dishcus’ wascompleted with the gold deservedly going toPsimoan Dan Smethurst.

KFG Olympiad 2013


Both of the buildings that house Biosciences arein the process of a major upgrade to create abetter working environment for staff andstudents. It is estimated that the total spent willbe around £2 million. The work includes repairsto services and fire-stopping work and has nowprogressed to all corridors being stripped andrefurbished, with walls, floors, ceilings, cupboarddoors, fire-doors undergoing a completemakeover. The balustrades of the mainstaircases have been replaced with a metal andglass design and we look forward to theextensive remodelling and refurbishment ofentrances and their foyers. Completion timeis expected to be March 2013.

Upgrades to the Stacey and Ingram Buildings


Art for science’s sake

DPC 114563 02/13

The Biosciences 2012 photography competitionthemed “Bioscience through my lens” saw imagesof outstanding quality in the entries. Here are someexamples, including the winners whose imagesconveyed the many facets of Biosciences.

From upper left to lower right are: Evelyne Deery,“Pigments of life”; Wesley Naeimi, “D.I.Y lasermicroscopy”; Tobias von der Haar, “Colours ofBiology”, Tarun Singh, “Lab”, Dimitrios Ladakis,“The Crystal Maze”, Samantha Lynn, “Reflectivecylinder”; Kevin Howland, “The BiomolecularScience Facility in ‘model’ form”; and SusanneSchroeder, “When things go wrong”.

Biosciences 2012 photography competition

School of Biosciences

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Art meets science As part of a project that uses art to explorescientific findings and processes, theSchool of Biosciences hosted a workshopin which artists from across the UK spenta day undertaking scientific experimentsusing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR),a cornerstone of genetic technology. Sixartists, coupled with six scientists, led to astimulating day of mutual discovery andsharing of ideas.

The remarkably simple process of PCRis to be represented by these artists in agallery exhibition to be held in the SidneyCooper Gallery in November 2012, andstudents from the School of Bioscienceswill be assisting with planning, support andrunning the exhibition. Communicatingscience has been a very important part ofthe scientific culture within the school andwe are looking forward to exploring howart can express scientific ideas andpractices to the general public in thisexciting exhibition.

Documents

Biosciences Research Newsletter 2013