Congratulations to Eric Miska who has been elected as a member of EMBO. He is amongst fifty-five life scientists this year, who have been selected from around the world who EMBO would like to recognise for their excellence in research.

Congratulations to Professor Tony Kouzarides who was elected Thursday 19th April as fellow of the Royal Society.

The Biomedical Society Committe voted unanimously to award this year's Novartis Medal and Prize to Tony Kouzarides. The medal is awarded annually in recognition of contributions to the development of a branch of biochemistry.

Twelve of the Institute's fourteen groups were in the green last month, with the Kouzarides lab as outright winners. Pines and Piddini Labs were close runners up. The Gurdon Institute's Energy Saving Pilot is available here.

The EMBO Journal, May 2012 The process of cell division must be tightly coordinated with the segregation of chromosomes to ensure that both daughter cells inherit a perfect copy of the genome. The correct positioning of the chromosomes before division is ensured by a structure called the central spindle. The Mishima Lab propose a novel mechanism for the long-term regulation of this structure, involving dynamic interplay between a core component of the central spindle, centralspindlin and key regulators ARF6 and 14-3-3. Here they show that such regulation is critical for the completion of cytokinesis and the maintenance of genome stability. More...

Research Horizons, Issue 18
By investigating the existence of an unusual four-stranded structure of DNA in human cells, Steve Jackson in collaboration with Dr Raphaël Rodriguez and Professor Shankar Balasubramanian have opened to the door to novel cancer therapeutics and a new era for personalised medicine. More ...

Cell Stem Cell, April 2012 Specification of primordial germ cells (PGCs) is coupled with unprecedented epigenetic reprogramming, which includes extensive chromatin modifications and global DNA demethylation. Using a cell-based assay, the Surani Group now show that Prdm14 and Klf2 can accelerate and enhance DNA demethylation and X reactivation towards a ground state of pluripotency. Prdm14 apparently induces competence for reprogramming, and potentially PGC specification. More ...

Trends in Genetics Mar 2012 The process of epigentic reprogramming is a key event in order for primordial germ cells and zygotes to acquire cellular potency and generate the myriad differentiated cell-types of an adult. Researchers in the Surani Lab have recently proposed that epigenetic reprogramming occurs through multiple parallel mechanisms which confers a degre of redundancy and robustness to this fundamental process. Understanding the mechanisms that drive reprogramming could contribute to our ability to manipulate cell fates for regenerative medicine. More ...

Nature Neuroscience, Feb 2012 The Livesey Group have developed a robust, multistep process for human cortical development from pluripotent stem cells. Human ES cell and iPS cell differentiation to cerebral cortex recapitulates in vivo development, generating all classes of cortical projection neurons in a fixed temporal order. This system enables functional studies of human cerebral cortex development and the generation of individual-specific cortical networks ex vivo for disease modeling and therapeutic purposes. More ...

Science Translational Medicine, Feb 2012 Researchers in the Livesey Group have used to stem cells (derived from skin cells) from donors with Down's syndrome to observe the development of Alzheimer's diease over a much shorter time period than was previously possible. Articles available at BBC News and the Wellcome Trust discuss thie impact of this Science article.