On the 18 July, the Institute of Life Sciences (IfLS) had the great pleasure of hosting distinguished geneticist, Nobel laureate and Executive Director of The Francis Crick Institute, Sir Paul Nurse, as keynote speaker at the Stem Cells & Organoids Symposium 2024.
Clockwise, from top left: Prof Andrew Lotery in conversation with Sir Paul Nurse; Abdulbasit Yakubu, Siddhi Chugh, Dr Salah Elias, Sir Paul Nurse, Dr Nicole Prior, Grazia Battaglino; some of the speaker team: Dr Swati Midha, Dr Xiaohao Cai, Prof Max Crispin, Dr Emily Brookes, Prof Andrew Lotery, Sir Paul Nurse, Dr Dipanjan Bhattacharya, Dr Owen Rackham, Dr Kif Liakath-Ali, Dr Salah Elias, Dr Nicole Prior, poster winners; Joshua Green Jenkinson and Ella Proudley.
Sir Paul presented research in fission yeast that challenges our understanding of the control of cell division, showing that progress through the cell cycle is driven by the amount of the key regulator, CDK1, rather than qualitative interactions of an array of different proteins.
In conversation with Professor Andrew Lotery, Sir Paul reflected on his career, the importance of resilience and valuing different approaches to discovery science and the next big challenges in life sciences.
Offering important advice to early career researchers, Sir Paul said, “Being a researcher is an amazing career…it is a privilege…but it is tough psychologically. You need a resilience. An intense curiosity will get you through those difficult times, combined with the support of your colleagues.”
Led by Dr Salah Elias and Dr Nicole Prior, the symposium sessions were chaired by early career researchers: Grazia Battaglino, Siddhi Chugh, Dr Jennifer Dewing and Abdulbasit Haliru Yakubu, who introduced Sir Paul Nurse.
Many congratulations to Ella Proudley (Winner) and Joshua Green Jenkinson (Highly Commended) for their posters, and to all who presented at the event.
Read more about Sir Paul Nurse’s research.