Lisa's Lab Book

Biology of Aging - Gordon Conference

In July thanks to funding from Alzheimer's Research UK I attended this conference, see if you can spot me in the photograph above. A few days of excellent science and the chance to meet and talk in depth with scientists all thinking about Aging (of course we are all 'doing' aging too!). I met some great people and listened to some outstanding talks. Steve Horvath, Cynthia Kenyon, Vera Gorbonova, Jadwiga Giebultowicz and others all gave inspirational and thought provoking presentations of their work and ideas. The conference was organised well in the Alpine village of Les Diablerets (The Little Devils). We enjoyed some long walks in the sun, dodging most of the thundery rain showers, along the rivers and and streams in the company of Swiss mountains and their associated cattle. Later in the same week a couple who went missing 70 years ago emerged perfectly preserved in the ice from the glacier near this village - a side effect of climate age is the resolution of 'missing persons' on the mountain. I returned home struck with awe at the range of approaches and strange organisms used in the field of ageing. Of course we had presented our bat work which is to be ready for publication soon giving us some new insights into the ageing process.

Chocolates and cheeses filled all the spaces in my bag as a souvenir of a memorable event.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New research by a Nottingham academic linking the neurodegenerative disease Parkinson’s to changes in a protein in brain mitochondria is to receive support from a prestigious US funding agency. Dr Lisa Chakrabarti, at The University of Nottingham, will receive $75,000 for a one-year research project from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), which is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s and funds promising research that could result in new treatments to slow, stop or reverse the progression of the disease. Dr Chakrabarti said: “We are trying to look at mitochondrial biology from a totally different perspective, which could have important implications for Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. The funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation will help us to confirm whether some of the protein changes we see in Parkinson’s are related to disease course.” http://exchange.nottingham.ac.uk/research/parkinsons-study-receives-fu...

Nial O'Boyle - The scientists in the lab - a series

Nial O'Boyle -BBSRC DTP Scholar I’m from Northern Ireland and grew up on a mixed livestock farm. Qualified as a vet around 20 years ago and I’ve spent 10 years working in the UK, mainly dairy practice, and also spent 10 years in the USA, managing large dairy farms and beef feedlots. I’m interested in learning more about metabolic physiology in the dairy cow. My interests have transitioned to keeping up with the interests of my 4 kids, which range from Anime to football. I have retired from most team sports now, but reluctantly train for the odd marathon.

Meeting the Guy Foundation

From left to right: Peter Hobson, Alistair Nunn, Alister Davis, Niall Holmes, Ifigeneia Kalampouka, Rhys Mould, Geoffrey Guy, Alasdair Mackenzie, Mark Fromhold, Lisa Chakrabarti, Frankie Rawson and Melissa Mather On Tuesday February 6th this year Geoffrey Guy and people from his foundation came to visit us in Nottingham. the meeting had been arranged with our great collaborator in Engineering, Melissa Mather (on the right of the photo above). Geoff had met Mel at a House of Commons showcase where her poster describing our work on quantum biology and mitochondria caught his interest. Frankie Rawson (right back) talked about his work on quantum tunnelling, Mark Fromhold (next to Frankie) presented his interests in gravitational and magnetic fields. And Nial Holmes (in the centre of Einstein's blackboard!) was able to show our visitors his magnetic shielding facility. Our meeting was held in the Physics department at University Park Campus. The room contains a blackboar...