News

The Sainsbury Laboratory joined plant breeding organisations, horticulturalists and other plant experts in the 'Festival of Plants' at the Cambridge Botanic Garden. Researchers from SLCU participatef in a range of events and exhibits timetabled throughout the day, including pop-up plant science demonstrations, short talks about their research and a…

A group of 30 A-level pupils spent an afternoon at the Sainsbury Laboratory as part of their participation in Newnham College’s ‘Women in Science’ residential course. The girls were given a challenging task by academic visitor Alexis Peaucelle, and rose to the occasion magnificently. They were given seedlings from various lines of Arabidopsis plant…

Plants are “masters of biochemistry”. This was one of the conclusions reached by the 30 teenagers who visited the Sainsbury Laboratory for a morning of science challenges. Working in collaboration with Science and Plants for Schools, the Sainsbury Laboratory hosted the event as part of a week-long programme run by the Sutton Trust, designed to give…

When is a plant ‘nature’ and when is it ‘science’? Why is plant science a priority? How do national norms influence a multinational discipline like science? These were just some of the issues discussed with a group of Anglia Ruskin University social science students visiting the Sainsbury Laboratory.After a tour of the Plant Growth Facility and the…

The Sainsbury Laboratory was pleased to collaborate with Science and Plants for Schools on a ‘Train the Trainer’ event. Aimed at PGCE biology tutors and others involved in teacher training, Train the Trainer highlighted a wide range of new plant science based practicals and online resources suitable for secondary school use.Over the course of two d…

'Plants for the Future', Monday 19 March, 2012As part of the Science Festival, Ottoline Leyser gave a free talk to over 100 people at the Sainsbury Laboratory. Her talk highlighted the importance of understanding how plants manage their own resources to regulate their growth and development as we increasingly turning to plants to replace fossil fue…

On 19 May, the Sainsbury Laboratory, along with 14 other plant research institutions, welcomed the public to ‘Plant Power’, an outreach day hosted in the grounds of the Botanic Garden. Hundreds of members of the public welcomed the chance to learn about plant development and breeding, the latest research on biofuels and many other aspects of curren…

A group of international undergraduates from the Pembroke-Kings Summer School visited the Sainsbury Laboratory to take part in a computational biology workshop run by Henrik Jönsson and members of his group. Even though most of the participants were not reading biological or computer science, they cheerfully took on the challenge of spending the af…

The Laboratory was pleased to host the second Train the Trainer event in collaboration with Science and Plants for Schools. Aimed at PGCE biology tutors and others involved in teacher training, Train the Trainer highlighted a wide range of new plant science based practicals and online resources suitable for secondary school use. The delegates spent…

The Lab collaborated with the Department of Plant Sciences, Science and Plants for Schools and the Botanic Garden in delivering a morning of activities for pupils attending the Sutton Trust Summer Schools. The pupils had in common the likelihood of being the first people in their families to attend any university and a strong interest in biological…

The Laboratory was pleased to welcome a group of science pupils from Wyke 6th Form College in Hull. They had a tour of the Laboratory and Plant Growth Facilities and had a discussion with staff from Science and Plants for Schools on the design of scientific posters for school classrooms. It is hoped that the pupils came away with the message that p…

Over the course of two days, the Sainsbury Laboratory welcomed 30 A-level and B-tech biology pupils from Sawtry Community College. They took part in a workshop on the ABC model of flower development, led by Siobhan Braybrook and Devin O’Connor. The pupils were introduced to the ABC model and then given examples of mutant phenotypes.  They worked ou…

22-23 May 2012The Sainsbury Laboratory hosted an academic symposium focusing on the dynamics of plant biology. Featuring early career scientists from around the world as speakers, the event attracted audiences from across Cambridge as well as researchers from other universities.A timetable of the talks is below:Tuesday 22 May, 201213:20 - 13:30Welc…

Arun Sampathkumar has been awarded the prestigious € 2,500 Jeff Schell prize for outstanding research undertaken during his PhD at The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology. Arun investigated the biosynthesis of cell walls during his PhD and was the lead author on the paper ‘Live cell imaging reveals functional association between act…

26 June 2012The Sainsbury Laboratory hosted a one day physical biology symposium highlighting ways in which collaboration between physical scientists and biologists can aid research.