Timeline
Highlights from the Astbury Centre (A icon) and global highlights relevant to the Astbury Centre (globe icon).
2020
The Astbury Centre continued to work hard during 2020 despite the COVID-19 crisis. Members obtained multi-user equipment grants, large programme grants and training grants, fellowships and celebrated the launch of two spin out companies.
Professor Sheena Radford awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to Molecular Biology Research.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for discovering one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.
2019
Walden et al., (Zeqiraj lab) report how the control of BRISC–SHMT2 assembly regulates immune signalling (Nature).
Malone et al., (Ranson lab) reveal the Cryo-EM structure of the spinach cytochrome b6 f complex at a resolution of 3.6 Å (Nature)
Ebo et al., (Radford lab) design an in vivo platform to select and evolve aggregation-resistant proteins. (Nature Communications)
The Astbury Centre celebrated its 20th anniversary with a one day symposium, visiting and current members gave talks and Simon Phillips (the first Astbury Director) returned to open the meeting.
2018
Iadanza et al., ( Radford lab) reveal new insight into the basis of amyloid polymorphisms of β₂-microglobulin fibrils (Nature Communications)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Frances H. Arnold for the directed evolution of enzymes and George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter for the phage display of peptides and antibodies
The second Astbury Conversation, “Allostery in Biology”, was held where keynote speaker Brian Kobilka (Nobel Prize 2012), Stanford University delivered a talk titled “Picture this: How modelling molecules builds our understanding of life”
2017
Patel et al., (Stockley lab) identify key regions of the HBV RNA pre-genome that mediate virus assembly (Nature Microbiology)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution
2016
Iadanza et al., (Radford lab) highlight lateral opening in the intact β-barrel assembly machinery using Cyo-EM (Nature Communications)
Schiffrin et al., (Radford lab) identify Skp as a multivalent chaperone of outer membrane proteins (Nature Structural and Molecular Biology)
The first Astbury Conversation, “Understanding Complex Macromolecular Systems from Sparse Data”, was held where keynote speaker Michael Levitt (Nobel Prize 2013), Stanford University delivered a talk titled “G protein coupled receptors: challenges for drug discovery”
2015
University of Leeds establishes £17m Astbury BioStructure Laboratory
Barnard et al. (AJ Wilson lab) describe selective & potent proteomimetic inhibitors of intracellular protein-protein interactions. (Angew Chem Int Ed)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for mechanistic studies of DNA repair
Patel N et al. (Stockley lab) reveal the density of encoded functions in a viral RNA. (PNAS)
2014
M McPherson & DC Tomlinson labs describe Adhirons as stable & versatile peptide display scaffolds for molecular recognition applications.
Tanner SJ et al. (Barr & Edwards lab) publish the crystal structure of the essential transcription anti-terminator M2-1 protein of human respiratory syncytial virus. (PNAS)
Karageorgis G et al. (Nelson lab) develop activity-directed synthesis, a novel bioactive molecular discovery approach. (Nature Chemistry)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner for “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”
Karageorgis G et al. (Nelson lab) discover bioactive scaffolds through activity-directed synthesis. (Nature Chemistry)
Prof Sheena E Radford elected an FRS.
2013
BBC archive recording ‘Bragg on the Braggs’ History of X-ray crystallography including contribution from Astbury Deputy Director Thomas Edwards.
2012
Kellosalo J et al. (Goldman lab) identify the structure & catalytic cycle of a sodium-pumping pyrophosphatase. (Science)
Williamson et al/ (Turnbull lab) describe the efficient N-terminal labelling of proteins by use of sortase. (Angew Chem Int Ed)
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to BK Kobilka & RJ Lefkowitz for studies of G-protein coupled receptors.
Prof Sheena E Radford appointed Astbury Director.
2010
Boyne JR et al. (Whitehouse lab) demonstrate that Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus ORF57 interacts with PYM to enhance viral intronless mRNA translation. (EMBO)
Prof Sheena E Radford elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
2009
Mankouri J et al. (Harris lab) show how hepatitis C virus inhibits a pro-apoptotic K+ channel as a mechanism for virus persistence. (PNAS)
Roberts AJ et al. (Burgess lab) Identify the AAA+ ring & linker swing mechanism of the dynein motor. (Cell)
British Association for Science event on Astbury past & present.
Nobel prize in chemistry awarded to V Ramakrishnan, TA Steitz & AE Yonath for studies of the structure & function of the ribosome.
Bill Astbury commemorated with Leeds Civic Trust plaque.
Astbury@10 symposium takes place.
2007
SEV Phillips, S Carr & J Hadden map the 3D structure of T7 endonuclease, one of a class of enzymes that makes us “unique”.
The first annual Astbury residential research retreat takes place in Kendal, Lake District.
The first annual Astbury lecture is delivered.
Prof Adam Nelson Appointed Astbury Director.
The Astbury centre is acknowledged as a research “Gold Peak”.
2006
Jahn TR et al. (Radford lab) discover that amyloid formation under physiological conditions proceeds via a native-like folding intermediate. (Nature Struct & Mol Biol)
Nobel prize in chemistry awarded to RD Kornberg for studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.
Whitehouse lab demonstrate how nucleolar trafficking is essential for nuclear export of intronless herpesvirus mRNAs. (PNAS)
2005
Formation of the Astbury Society.
2004
Biophysics & Bionanoscience interdisciplinary institutes are formed under the Astbury umbrella.
2003
Roderick Mackinnon & Peter Agre awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes.
Griffin S & Harris M discover hepatitis C virus P7 protein is an ion channel.
2002
McParland & VJ et al. (Radford lab) identify the structural properties of an amyloid precursor of β2-microglobulin. (Nature Structural Biology)
Capaldi AP et al. (Radford lab) discover the Im7 folding mechanism: misfolding on the path to the native state. (Nature Structural Biology)
Prof Peter Stockley appointed Astbury director.
1999
Wilmot et al. (Phillips lab) directly visualise dioxygen bound to a mononuclear copper centre during enzyme catalysis. (Science)
Prof Simon EV Phillips appointed Astbury director
Astbury formally constituted as a University of Leeds interdisciplinary research centre.
1998
Convery MA et al. (Phillips/Stockley labs) publish the crystal structure of an RNA aptamer-protein complex 2.8 Å resolution. (Nature Structural Biology)
1997
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to PD Boyer, JE Walker & JC Skou for the elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of ATP & the discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme.
I Wilmut, K Campbell & colleagues at the Roslin Institute clone Dolly the sheep.
1991
ACT North , JBC Findlay, SEV Phillips et al. discover the structure of the mouse major urinary protein.
1990
Astbury Department of Biophysics merges with the Department of Biochemistry.
1989
Phillips SE et al., (Stockley lab) publish the cooperative tandem binding of the met repressor of Escherichia coli. (Nature)
1986
Simon Phillips resolves the first 3D structure of an antibody-antigen complex.
1985
Nobel prize in Chemistry awarded to H Hauptman & J Karle for the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures.
1982
Sir A Klug awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry for the structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.
1976
ACT North & PE Nixon derive the structure of human lysozyme from hen egg lysozyme. Represents the first application of molecular replacement.
1973
Anthony CT North appointed as Head of Astbury Department of Biophysics
1972
Nobel prize in Chemistry awarded to CB Anfinsen for the folding of protein chains.
1962
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to F Crick, J Watson & M Wilkins for discoveries concerning the helical structure of DNA.
The first paper on the structure of hen egg lysozyme was published by C.C.F Blake, R.H Fenn, A.C.T North, D.C Phillips and R.J Poljak. This was the first 3D structure of an enzyme and the third of a globular protein, following the myoglobin and haemoglobin structures.
1961
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to MF Perutz & JC Kendrew for the first 3D structures of haemoglobin & myoglobin.
Reginald D Preston appointed head of Astbury Department of Biophysics.
1960
Donald E Nicholson publishes the first metabolic pathway chart
Astbury becomes 4th recipient of Duckett Jones Memorial Award for pioneering & continuing work on X-ray diffraction.
Donald E Nicholson publishes the first metabolic pathway chart.
1953
Astbury awarded American Society of European Chemists medal for his outstanding contribution to scientific relations.
Manton becomes first female head of the department/first female president of the Linnean Society.
Watson and Crick discover first correct double-helix model of DNA structure.
1951
Elwyn Beighton’s photograph of wet DNA fibres reveals the classic “black-cross” diffraction pattern and characteristic of helical molecules. Although never published, the photograph shows remarkable similarity to photograph 51 taken in the following year by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.
1945
Kathleen Lonsdale one of two women to be elected FRS in that year.
Irene Manton’s cytological work known worldwide for the structure of cilia & flagella.
1940
Bill Astbury elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
1939
Florence Bell awarded a PhD from the University of Leeds. Her thesis contained the first diffraction pattern from DNA fibres and revealed a key piece of information – that the spacing between successive nucleotides in the DNA strand was 3.4 Angstroms (Astbury & Bell (1938) X-ray studies of thymonucleic acid; Nature 141: 747-748).
Dame Kathleen Lonsdale performs pioneering work on the structure of the benzene ring in hexamethylbenzene.
1931
Astbury identifies two major recurring patterns of protein structure (α & β) & takes the first X-ray fibre diffraction pictures of DNA.
1928
WT (Bill) Astbury joins the University of Leeds.
1915
Nobel Prize in Physics (1915) awarded jointly to Sir William Henry Bragg & William Lawrence Bragg for services in the analysis of crystal structures by means of X-rays.
1908
Sir William Bragg joins the University of Leeds.
