News

This week the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology (CMCB), based in the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences - Queen Mary, Queen Mary University of London held our Inaugural Symposium. We welcomed many guests from within and outside QMUL with a shared interest in understanding the rules of life using cell biology and structural biology across domains of life.

Many thanks to our amazing keynote speakers: Prof. Xiaodong Zhang, FRS who took us on a fascinating structural journey into ATPase driven bacterial transcription initiation & Prof. Mark Leake who provided valuable insights into the biophysics of mesoscale bio-liquid droplets in bacteria. Our panelists - Dr Elena de Vita, Dr Caroline Roney, Dr Rosalind Hannen and Prof Angray Kang, engaged us with an exciting panel discussion on Engineering Biology for Cellular Adaptation in a Changing World chaired by Dr Peter Thorpe.

We also enjoyed research talks from our Centre members representing various stages of career: Dr Vladimir Volkov, Ms Anum Kursheed, Dr Danylo Gorenkin, Dr Christoph Engl, Dr Moontaha Mahbub, Mr James Rayner, Dr Ivan Kadurin, Dr Natalia Bulgakova and Dr Charalampos Rallis. Our session chairs Dr Francesca Chandler, Dr Lin Su and Dr Vito Manella did a fantastic job keeping the sessions on time.

Our heartfelt thanks to all our colleagues who attended and helped make this a dynamic, vibrant day. There were fantastic contributions from academics, postdocs, PhD students and our technical staff during poster sessions and discussions.

Congratulations to our Poster prize winners: Dr Alessandro Agnarelli and Ms Charles Clarke.

Especially grateful to our Head of School, Prof. Caroline Brennan and our Director of Research, Prof. Isabelle Mareschal for their continuous support and backing.

Finally, special thanks to Dr Aravindan Ilangovan who organised this event with support from Dr John Viles, Dr Christoph Engl, Prof Conrad Mullineaux, Dr Mark Van Breugel and Dr Vidya Darbari.