skip to content

Sainsbury Laboratory

Read more at: How circadian clocks maintain robustness in changing environments
Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus in Green Mother Machine. A freeze-frame of a timelapse movie. Cells are entrained in the chip. Image by Sasha Eremina.

How circadian clocks maintain robustness in changing environments

Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus in the Green Mother Machine. A freeze-frame of a timelapse movie. Cells are entrained in the chip upon exposure to 12 h darkness and then observed under free-running, continuous light conditions (medium LL, 20 μmol m−2 s −1 ). Phase contrast images are shown in the background in grey...


Read more at: New study reveals how circadian clocks maintain robustness in changing environments
Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus in Green Mother Machine. A freeze-frame of a timelapse movie. Cells are entrained in the chip. Image by Sasha Eremina.

New study reveals how circadian clocks maintain robustness in changing environments

Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus in the Green Mother Machine. A freeze-frame of a timelapse movie. Cells are entrained in the chip upon exposure to 12 h darkness and then observed under free-running, continuous light conditions (medium LL, 20 μmol m−2 s −1 ). Phase contrast images are shown in the background in grey...


Read more at: Cambridge Engineering brings mathematical beauty to life at the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Department of Engineering Design and Technical Team members, From left, Kynan Wright, Thomas Glenday, Dan Boutell, and Barney Coles. Image by Charlotte Hester.

Cambridge Engineering brings mathematical beauty to life at the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The Department of Engineering’s Design and Technical Services team will bring mathematical beauty to life with a Fibonacci spiral wall, designed and built for the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (20-24 May, 2025). We have been able to push the boundaries of traditional fabrication...


Read more at: The Pollinator Patch at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025
Illustration of the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge Blooming Numbers exhibit for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025. Illustration by Melanie Sadler.

The Pollinator Patch at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025

Illustration of the planned Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge Blooming Numbers exhibit for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025. Melanie Sadler designed The Pollinator Patch to showcase the incredible diversity of plants that can be grown in a small area to support bees, butterflies, and other important pollinator species ...


Read more at: New research reveals key mechanisms behind cell division 
Root meristem of Vicia faba cells in anaphase and prophase stages of mitosis. Image from archive of Josef Reischig and licenced under CC BY SA 3.0 license as a part of Wikimedia Czech Republic's GLAM initiative.

New research reveals key mechanisms behind cell division 

Root meristem of Vicia faba (broad bean) cells in anaphase and prophase stages of mitosis. Image from archive of Josef Reischig and licenced under CC BY SA 3.0 license as a part of Wikimedia Czech Republic 's GLAM initiative. New research reveals key mechanisms behind cell division A breakthrough in the study of cell...


Read more at: Blooming Numbers: Unveiling the wonders of quantitative plant science at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025
Flowers like hibiscus use an invisible blueprint established very early in petal formation that dictates the size of their bullseyes – a crucial pre-pattern that can significantly impact their ability to attract pollinating bees.  Image by Edwige Moyroud

Blooming Numbers: Unveiling the wonders of quantitative plant science at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025

The Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge is thrilled to announce its participation in the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where it will unveil an interactive plant science exhibit, Blooming Numbers , as part of the new GreenSTEM section highlighting research, innovation and technologies. The exhibit will take...


Read more at: Groundbreaking insights into the genetic toolkit underlying plant adaptation to land
Marchantia polymorpha growing between pavement cracks. Image by Sebastian Schornack

Groundbreaking insights into the genetic toolkit underlying plant adaptation to land

Groundbreaking insights into the genetic toolkit underlying plant adaptation to land Sequencing the genomes of over a hundred liverworts has uncovered ancient plant adaptation mechanisms, with researchers pinpointing genes linked to temperature and rainfall changes. Researchers at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of...


Read more at: Seedlings salute the sun by coordinating multiple mechanical and chemical processes
Light induced apical hook opening

Seedlings salute the sun by coordinating multiple mechanical and chemical processes

Research into the mechanisms underlying the uncurling of the apical hook in illuminated Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings shows inner side hook cells show differential irreversible extensibility; auxin and pH gate growth but do not explain differential extension; subepidermal longitudinal force accelerates opening and CMT reorientation; and light-triggered depletion in auxin signaling is gated by wall properties.


Read more at: Exchanges at the haustorial interface
Phytophthora palmivora hyphae under the epidermis with haustoria projecting from below into living Nicotiana benthamiana epidermis cells.  Image by Alex Guyon.

Exchanges at the haustorial interface

BBSRC's Strategic Longer and Larger grants scheme supports project to pave way for broad-spectrum plant disease resistance by identifying key players in pathogen subversion Researchers from the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) are collaborating on a £5.91 million 5-year UK research project that will...


Read more at: Cyanobacterial circadian clock uses an AM radio-like mechanism to control cellular processes
Graphical abstract illustrating how the cyanobacterial circadian clock couples to pulsatile processes. The clock couples to RpoD4 through Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM).

Cyanobacterial circadian clock uses an AM radio-like mechanism to control cellular processes

Cyanobacteria, an ancient lineage of bacteria that perform photosynthesis, have been found to regulate their genes using the same physics principle used in AM radio transmission. New research published in C urrent Biology has found that cyanobacteria use variations in the amplitude (strength) of a pulse to convey...