Reflecting on the Inaugural Symposium of the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology
Last week, the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology held its inaugural symposium, bringing together researchers to explore the fundamental rules of life through cell and structural biology.
We held our Inaugural Symposium of the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology (CMCB), based in the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London. 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.
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, and Prof. Mark Leake who provided valuable insights into the biophysics of mesoscale bio-liquid droplets in bacteria. Our panellists - Dr Elena de Vita, Dr Caroline Roney, Dr Rosalind Hannen and Prof Angray Kang engaged us in a lively 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 making this a dynamic, vibrant day. There were fantastic contributions from academics, postdocs, PhD students and our technical staff during the poster sessions and discussions.
Congratulations to our Poster prize winners: Dr Alessandro Agnarelli and Ms Charles Clarke.
We are especially grateful to our Head of School, Prof Caroline Brennan and our Director of Research Prof. Isabelle Mareschal for their continuous support.
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.