Latest research
Clathrin: maintaining cell health in geometric style
By Dr Corinne Smith, reader in structural biology and biophysics, and director of the Research Technology Platform in Advanced Bioimaging at the University of Warwick. Dr Smith was recently awarded a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship for her work on clathrin. I am intrigued by a protein called clathrin. It consumes my interest … Continue reading
What if you shared your food with others?
By Diane Fresquez, an American food science journalist living in Brussels, and the author of ‘A Taste of Molecules: In Search of the Secrets of Flavour’. Diane will be chairing the RSB’s event, Come Dine with the Future, in Cardiff on Wednesday 30th November. From food waste to expanding waistlines, we are experiencing a global food … Continue reading
Visit to an animal research facility
By Dr Laura Marshall MRCVS MRSB, science policy manager at the Royal Society of Biology Kings College London (KCL) invited RSB representatives to its Guy’s Campus recently, for a tour of their animal research facilities. This was one of a series of visits, organised through Understanding Animal Research, to help explain what happens at the … Continue reading
The water vole: can we save ‘Ratty’?
By Merryl Gelling, post-doc researcher at WildCRU and Mammal Society Council member. Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. There can be no denying that the water vole, although physically fairly small, has the biggest ‘cute’ factor of all our UK mammals. At first glance they … Continue reading
Securing the future of Scottish Wildcats
By Vicky Burns, Scottish Wildcat Action Read blogs about the other mammals in the #UKMammalPoll and vote for your Favourite UK Mammal. Scottish wildcats are now critically endangered. Once a common sight throughout Britain, hunting, habitat loss and, more recently, introgressive hybridisation means there are now less than 300 left in the wild. The biggest … Continue reading
Innovation: a new way to fight antimicrobial resistance
By Tamar Ghosh, Lead for the Longitude Prize, Nesta The UK members of the European Federation of Biotechnology and the Learned Society Partnership on AMR are hosting a Policy Lates event on Monday 10th October as part of Biology Week: Tackling antimicrobial resistance crisis – what roles will regulation and innovation play? Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) … Continue reading
Can we give new biotech the green light?
By Gabriele Butkute, science policy assistant at the Royal Society of Biology and the Biochemical Society The human population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050. There are pressing questions about how to ensure a healthy diet for everyone while preventing overuse of natural resources or poisoning of the land, sea and air. Biotechnology … Continue reading
STR Trek: the Next Generation
By Dr Lisa Smith, senior lecturer in criminology, University of Leicester and Professor Mark Jobling, professor of genetics, University of Leicester. Listen to Sir Alec Jeffreys being interviewed by Professor Alison Woollard FRSB at the RSB’s fundraising event in May 2016. Today, thanks partly to TV’s CSI franchise, everyone is familiar with the DNA profile … Continue reading
The fight against multidrug resistant bacteria
By Arthur Neuberger, PhD student at The University of Cambridge Being selected to present my research at the House of Commons in London as part of SET for Britain 2016 was both an exceptional honour and a unique opportunity to raise awareness of potentially the biggest threat to human health that our global society faces … Continue reading
The macro-problem of microplastics
By Matt Turley AMRSB, NERC-funded PhD student at the University of Brighton and policy intern at the Royal Society of Biology The presence of plastics, particularly microplastics, in the environment has received increasing attention in recent years, with the UK government launching an inquiry last month (closing 15 April). Microplastics are particles of plastic smaller … Continue reading