LMB / About / Archive / Exhibitions / Curios of 60 Years of the LMB

Archive

Pink text title against a pale marbled background. There are 5 images below the title: a white knitted piece, a pale green object, a metal cylinder with wires, metal rods, a twisted blue structure

In an exhibition celebrating 60 years of the LMB, an assortment of curios – unusual and intriguing items – was gathered together to give a glimpse into the life and work of the LMB. From scientific models to restaurant menus, Nobel Prize telegrams and a special lab coat, visitors could find out more about the LMB from some of the objects made and collected through the decades.

Also on view was a rare amateur film of the first couple of years of the LMB, including one of the Lab’s earliest Nobel celebrations. Taken by former LMB student Hans Boye, it shows footage from inside the original 1962 building and some of the scientists working there at the time, including Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Sydney Brenner, Francis Crick and Aaron Klug.

Several of the items were loaned to the exhibition by LMB scientists. One of the most striking was a pair of models of tau protein filament, the component responsible for many neurodegenerative diseases. The models, made over 30 years apart, are remarkably similar in overall shape. However, with the earlier one representing a 20 Å (low-resolution) structure and the later a 2 Å (high-resolution), the detail is significantly different, as is the choice of material used to make the models – balsa wood was a key material for earlier model making, whereas today we can use 3D printing.

Page of black text on white page listing programme of symposium talks
The annual “Lab Week” was started shortly after the opening of the LMB after a suggestion by Francis Crick. The idea was that everyone could hear what everyone else was doing, discuss problems, solutions and promote collaborations. The annual talks continue to this day.
Wooden plaque with a metal key with letters LMB on the top
The symbolic ‘Key of the Laboratory’. The first key, dated 28 September 1979, was given to Sydney Brenner when he took over as Director of the LMB from Max Perutz. A symbolic key has been passed from Director to Director ever since.
Page with patterns in red and black ink
A 1974 computer generated Patterson map of human deoxyhaemoglobin, generated on an IBM370/165 machine and using the FORTRAN language, which had been introduced under pressure from the scientific users.
Metal wire rack housing various tubes
Dideoxys and aliquots, from Fred Sanger’s work on the dideoxy method of sequencing DNA. The method was published by Fred Sanger, Steve Nicklen and Alan Coulson in 1977.
Exterior of building at a three-quarter angle with a woman walking in the foreground to the left of the building
The LMB building, Addenbrooke’s Hospital site, 1962.
Yellowed paper with type-printed text
Telegram announcing the awarding of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, to Max Perutz and John Kendrew, 1962.
Gold metal bell with a gold plaque placed in front of it
Seminar bell, 1970s. Bought and donated by Francis Crick, because he kept missing lectures. The bell is rung around the building 5 minutes before the start of LMB seminars.
Wooden box frame with layers of glass with different pattern formations on each layer
In 1977, Nigel Unwin produced the first low-resolution 3D map of a ribosome – using crystalline sheets of ribosomes which develop in the oocytes of the lizard Lacerta sicula during its winter hibernation period. The 3D tetramer structure is represented in a glass layered contour map.
Cross-section of a wooden structure
Tau filament model 1985. 20 Angstrom balsa wood model made by Claudio Villa, for Tony Crowther.
Blue spiralled structure
2 Angstrom 3D printed model of a tau filament, 2017, from Sjors Scheres.
Blue structure as seen from above
A model showing a paired-helical filament from Alzheimer’s disease brain, 2017, from Sjors Scheres – the work featured on the front cover of Nature.
White lab coat with ‘LMB’ written over the pocket, and various chemical stains, on a wooden hanger
Max Perutz’s lab coat. Removed from his office after his death in 2002.
Box structure with transparent plastic bases, white rods, and a metal base, housing spiralled silver metal rods and some smaller yellow metal roads
Byron’s bender wire model of bacteriorhodopsin, 1980s. The model is made from one continuous metal rod bent at each amino acid. The first 3D model of bacteriorhodopsin (purple membrane) was obtained by electron microscopy in the 1970s by Richard Henderson and Nigel Unwin.
Brass metal tube on a stand, with one open end showing circuits and wires encased within
A photomultiplier detector, from Chris Johnson, used to collect fluorescence from protein samples that were subjected to small temperature jumps achieved on a microsecond time scale using high voltage resistive heating. The housing and support as well as the associated amplification electronics were custom made by the Mechanical and Electronics Workshops at the LMB.
Light green cylindrical model which is split into segmented parts
‘Gap Junction’ model from Nigel Unwin, c.1980. The protein oligomer in the junctional membranes, the ‘connexon’, is a cylinder composed of six subunits which are tilted around its axis. Analysis of two different subunit configurations suggests how the connexon might regulate the passage of small molecules between cell interiors. The model was made in the LMB’s Mechanical Workshop.
Cream white knitted rectangle, folded over itself to show the double-helical cable pattern
DNA double helix knitting, 2003: a stylised double helical cable pattern, showing how 50 years after the discovery of the DNA structure, the double helix has become a design icon.
Page of black text on white page listing programme of symposium talksWooden plaque with a metal key with letters LMB on the topPage with patterns in red and black inkMetal wire rack housing various tubesExterior of building at a three-quarter angle with a woman walking in the foreground to the left of the buildingYellowed paper with type-printed textGold metal bell with a gold plaque placed in front of itWooden box frame with layers of glass with different pattern formations on each layerCross-section of a wooden structureBlue spiralled structureBlue structure as seen from aboveWhite lab coat with ‘LMB’ written over the pocket, and various chemical stains, on a wooden hangerBox structure with transparent plastic bases, white rods, and a metal base, housing spiralled silver metal rods and some smaller yellow metal roadsBrass metal tube on a stand, with one open end showing circuits and wires encased withinLight green cylindrical model which is split into segmented partsCream white knitted rectangle, folded over itself to show the double-helical cable pattern
Next