Achievements

Oct

2023

Josie Ferreira awarded the Wellcome Career Development Award

ISMB’s Josie Ferreira was recently awarded the Wellcome Career Development Award.

The CDA is an 8 year award for Josie to start her own research group at the ISMB, based in UCL. Josie’s award proposal was titled “How does the malaria parasite transform its unique cytoskeleton to ensure disease transmission?”

Josie’s research uses in situ structural biology techniques to study the parasite that causes the most severe form of malaria in humans, Plasmodium falciparum. In her previous work, she studied an essential cellular component; the parasite’s microtubule cytoskeleton. Studying this within the native parasite cell, revealed that P. falciparum has microtubules which are evolved to undertake specific roles in different life cycle stages. These microtubules have structures that are strikingly different from the well-studied canonical microtubules in vertebrates. This work highlights the extreme adaptations that this parasite has undergone and exposes unique biology in P. falciparum which has diverged from that of its host. Her lab will continue with this work, dissecting the structure, role and biological significance of the non-canonical microtubules, focussing on those which are required for the transmission of the parasite from its human host to the mosquito vector.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Josie for her achiement.

Sep

2023

Vilde Leipart awarded Alf Bjørseth’s Inspiration Award

Vilde Leipart has been awarded Alf Bjørseth’s Inspiration Award for her doctoral work, entitled “Understanding the structure-function relationship of honey bee Vitellogenin”. Her research examined the protein vitellogenin in honey bees by using artificial intelligence – an article summarising her research was published in the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Full article of Vilde’s award can be read here.

Vilde is currently a postdoc working in Christine Orengo’s and Franca Fraternali’s labs, continuing her work on Vitellogenin with the aim to boost honey bee health.

Dec

2022

Trainspotting within the cell’s antenna

New research, published in Cell, illuminates the molecular “trains” that transport cargoes essential for human health and development.

Virtually every cell in the human body grows an antenna-like structure on its surface, which is used to receive vital signals from the body and the outside world. Perturbations in this process cause a wide range of human disorders spanning loss of eyesight, cystic kidneys, breathing problems, and infertility, among other conditions.

New research from the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology has shed new light on the molecular “trains” that underpin this process, and how they misfunction in disease. Using cryo-election microscopy, a powerful technique for determining the three-dimensional shape of biological molecules, the team was able to see the structure of the proteins that make up the trains and how they carry their vital cargoes. Cell biology experiments showed that the range of cargoes transported by the trains is even wider than anticipated. The findings will help researchers to interpret patient mutations in the proteins that cause disease and design new experiments.

This research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and BBSRC with co-first authors Dr. Sophie Hesketh and Dr. Aakash Mukhopadhyay and co-senior authors Dr. Katerina Toropova and Dr. Anthony Roberts, was published in Cell on 2 December 2022: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)01422-2

Jan

2021

EMBO Fellowship Successes!

Dec 2020: Postdoctoral EMBO fellowships awarded to ISMB postdoc Sander Van der Verren and former ISMB PhD student Joshua Hutchings.

ISMB’s Sander Van der Verren has been awarded a prestigious and highly competitive EMBO fellowship to work at ISMB in Giulia Zanetti’s laboratory. The fellowship will support structural studies of the human COPII coat complex and its regulatory factors. COPII mediates vesicular transport of proteins out of the Endoplasmic Reticulum, and its regulation in humans is important for secretion of a wide range of cargoes, including the most abundant secretory proteins: collagens. As part of the Birkbeck cryo-EM lab, Sander will use cryo-tomography and single particle cryo-EM techniques to understand how regulatory factors TANGO1 and cTAGE5 assemble and interact with the coat to promote collagen secretion.

Sander says: “I am honoured to have been awarded an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship and look forward to tackle outstanding questions in the membrane trafficking field.”

A Zanetti lab recent alumnus, Josh Hutchings, was also successful in securing an EMBO fellowship. His postdoctoral studies in Elizabeth Villa’s lab at UC San Diego will focus on in situ characterisation of the LNK complex.

Sep

2020

Prof. Sanjib Bhakta wins prestigious Microbiology Society 2020 outreach prize

The Microbiology Society Outreach Prize 2020 was awarded for the charity project ‘Joi Hok’, which uses educational intervention as a means of spreading awareness of tuberculosis.

Professor Sanjib Bhakta, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry at the ISMB and ‘Joi Hok!’ founder Sreyashi Basu have been awarded the 2020 Microbiology Outreach Prize by the Microbiology Society, for effectively bridging the gap between laboratory science and public health research with their project ‘Joi Hok!’, a community tuberculosis (TB) awareness programme.

The programme’s aim is to alter the perception of TB among the local community in Kolkata, India, through a network of local artists, musicians and health professionals. A series of routine interdisciplinary workshops were introduced in semi urban and rural schools around the city over a span of 6 months.

Sanjib Bhakta commented: “TB has progressively worsened with the advent of antibiotic resistance, hence there is urgent need to review and deal with the disease not only as a medical concern or even public health problem alone, but also as a socio-economic challenge.”

Sreyashi Basu commented: “we used traditional folk-art and music as a creative tool to engage and educate underprivileged youth on the influence of local stigmas and antibiotic resistance in the context of TB. We have been fortunate to see a discernible impact amongst the masses whereby the transfer of knowledge from children to household members has resulted in an increased awareness of TB in the community and encouraged patients to adhere to anti-TB treatment regimens .”

Professor Mark Harris, General Secretary of the Microbiology Society, said: “The Microbiology Society Prizes panel felt that the ‘Joi Hok!’ tuberculosis awareness programme demonstrated an inventive and exciting approach to informing the public about an important disease. The novelty of the programme was its innovative use of traditional art and music to raise awareness of tuberculosis in rural India, with potential to positively influence treatment and control in a country that has the highest global incidence of this devastating infection – a worthy winner of the Microbiology Society Outreach Prize 2020.”

The Microbiology Society is a membership charity for scientists interested in microbes, their effects and their practical uses, and is one of the largest microbiology societies in Europe. The Microbiology Outreach Prize is awarded for an outstanding outreach initiative, that shows innovation, originality and a sustained impact over time.

The Joi Hok programme uses traditional art and music to raise awareness of Tuberculosis in rural India.

Sep

2020

Prof. John Christodoulou awarded the British Biophysical Society’s 2020 Sosei Heptares Prize

Congratulations to Prof. John Christodoulou (jointly affiliated between UCL and Birkbeck in the ISMB), on being awarded the British Biophysical Society’s 2020 Sosei Heptares Prize for Biophysics. The prize is in recognition of Prof. Christodoulou’s original and influential contributions to the advancement of biomolecular NMR and the biophysical analysis of protein folding on the ribosome.

John is serving as the director of the NMR facility at the ISMB and has been a driving force behind high-calibre structural biology at the ISMB for more than twelve years.

Jun

2020

Prof. Bonnie Wallace wins the RSC Khorana Prize 2020

Congratulations to Professor Bonnie Ann Wallace for winning the Royal Chemical Society’s Khorana Prize 2020.

This prestigious accolade is awarded for her pioneering development of biophysical methods and bioinformatics tools to enable the characterisation of ion channel-drug molecule complexes. The Khorana Prize is the latest marker of esteem reflective of a highly successful career, as Bonnie also received the RSC Interdisciplinary Prize 2009 and the Biochemical Society’s AstraZeneca Award 2010.

Further details about the award are available here.

Mar

2020

Dr. Giulia Zanetti awarded Biochemical Society Colworth Medal

Congratulations to Dr. Giulia Zanetti on being awarded the 2021 Colworth Medal by The Biochemical Society, in recognition of her contributions to membrane trafficking.

Further details about the award are available here.

May

2019

Gorjan Stojanovski and Hugo Villanueva win prizes at ISMB Graduate Symposium

Congratulations to Gorjan Stojanovski and Hugo Villanueva, who were awarded prizes for their research presentations at this year’s ISMB Graduate Symposium. The Symposium was held in the Clore Management Centre at Birkbeck on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th April.

Gorjan, from Professor John Ward’s group, presented on ‘Applying bacterial competition to evolve novel antibiotics.’

Hugo, from Dr. Renos Savva’s group, presented on ‘Refactoring phages as repurposed nanomachines.’

Dec

2018

Birkbeck Department of Biological Sciences receives Athena SWAN Silver Award

The Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck has been awarded an Athena SWAN Silver Award by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), upgraded from its previously held Bronze Award. The award recognises the department’s commitment to achieving gender equality across the institution and the progress that it is making in this area. It is valid until April 2022.

The ECU presents Athena SWAN awards to recognise and reward commitment to gender equality in higher education. Its Charter was established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education and research.
In 2015, the charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law, and in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students. The charter now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.

The Department of Biological Sciences’ Athena SWAN Silver Award was formally presented at a ceremony at the University of Southampton on 10 December 2018.