Gyorgy Szabadkai’s team receives Wellcome Trust Pathfinder Award to study mitochondrial subtypes of breast cancer

Gyorgy Szabadkai (UCL Department of Cell and Developmental Biology) together with Robert Stein (UCLH, UCL Cancer Institute) and Mariia Yuneva (Francis Crick Institute) and Kevin Bryson (UCL Computer Sciences) as CoI, has received a Wellcome Trust Pathfinder Award to develop a mitochondrial gene expression based biomarker to inform on chemosensitivity of luminal breast tumours. The grant will…

MitOX 2016 – bookings now open

The Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology invites you to MitOX – an annual meeting in Oxford on Tuesday 6th December, 2016. A range of mitochondrial associated research areas will be discussed including; genetics, physiology, neurosciences and cancer. Speakers: Thomas McWilliams (Dundee ) – Illuminating mitochondrial turnover and architecture in vivo Edmund Kunji (Cambridge) –…

Nick Lane is awarded The Michael Faraday Prize in 2016 by the Royal Society

The 2016 Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture is awarded to Nick Lane from UCL CfMR for excellence in communicating science to UK audiences. Congrats, Nick! The prize lecture is to be given in February 2017. Look for announcements in this place!

Nick Lane’s ‘Vital Question’ on Bill Gates’s ‘gatesnotes’ blog

‘This Biology Book Blew Me Away’ ‘In The Vital Question, Nick goes on to show how energy can help explain why life is the way it is. He makes a persuasive case that complex life must have the traits we see today.’ ‘He is one of those original thinkers who makes you say: More people…

Launch of a new UCL CfMR undergraduate course is under way

Mitochondrial biology, bioenergetics and metabolism in human disease. Course code: CELL 3007. To be run by Michael Duchen and Gyorgy Szabadkai …

Origin of Life – Oceans of the Solar System

Dr Nick Lane (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) and Professor Andrew Coates (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory) feature on the BBC’s Horizon to discuss how the hunt for oceans in space is marking the dawn of a new era in the search for alien life… Watch on BBC Two’s Horizon.

Genetic mutations linked to Parkinson’s Disease

Research led by Dr Helene Plun-Favreau (UCL Institute of Neurology) has discovered how genetic mutations linked to Parkinson’s disease might play a key role in the death of brain cells, potentially paving the way for the development of more effective drug treatments. In the new study, published in Nature Neuroscience, a team of researchers from…

Nick Lane: Is complex life a freak accident?

By George Wigmore, on 31 January 2012 “In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” While the above Douglas Adams quote may aptly describe the prevailing universal sentiment, we still continue to search the skies with SETI for…

Britton Chance dies November 16th 2010

Britton Chance was one of the truly great pioneers of 20th century mitochondrial bioenergetics. Way ahead of his time, he had an enormous influence on the field as a whole and on many individual careers as well, and he will be much missed. For biography please see: http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1900s/chance_britton.html

Nick Lane wins 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books

Dr Nick Lane (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment) has won the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books. In his book Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution (published by Profile, 2009), Dr Lane charts the history of life on Earth by describing the ten greatest inventions of life, based on their historical impact,…