Welcome to the MRC WIMM blog, a blog aimed at a scientifc, but non-specialist, audience. All posts are written by members of the MRC WIMM!
The 2021 MRC WIMM Christmas Decorating Competition
In this festive item, we look at how MRC WIMM researchers turned their science into decorations as part of the 2021 Christmas decorations competition.
One-stop shop for science at the IF Festival 2021
October 2021 saw the MRC WIMM’s first in-person Public Engagement event since March 2020. The IF Oxford Festival aimed to engage people from across Oxford with current academic research. Gulnar Abdullayeva, a DPhil student in the Bodmer Group, volunteered at the MRC WIMM stall. In this piece she describes her experience.
Cracking the 3p21.31 COVID-19 mystery.
Damien Downes, the senior Postdoctoral Scientist in the Hughes’ Genome Biology Group, shares the story behind identifying LZTFL1 as an effector gene at a COVID-19 risk locus, work which was published in Nature Genetics today.
Have yourselves a Merry Little WIMMas
17 December 2019
In this festive post, we look at how MRC WIMM staff and students once again turned their science into decorations, as part of the 2019 Christmas decorations competition.
The Trojan Octopus
6 December 2019
Martyna Lukoseviciute, a PhD student in Tatjana Sauka-Spengler’s group, shares the story behind her winning image of an octopus embryo and the unexpected lessons she has learnt from it.
Childhood ALL: Same same but different!
For Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Dr Andi Roy explains current challenges in the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and how research at the MRC WIMM is trying to tackle them.
The challenges of being a postdoc
To mark Postdoc Appreciation Week Lise Chauveau, Chair of the MRC WIMM Postdoc Association, reflects on the challenges of being a postdoc, and explains how the association is developing initiatives to support and encourage this peer group.
Machine learning meets microscopy - Subjectivity dethroned
How can we remove subjectivity from science, whilst keeping the human in the loop?
CRISPR-Cas9 – what’s left to know?
23 July 2019
Dominic Owens, PhD student in the De Bruijn group at MRC MHU, recounts how puzzling results and a fortuitous lab meeting uncovered unexpected outcomes of CRISPR editing and changed the direction of his research.
From The Gambia to Oxford
Post Doctoral Researcher Caitlin Naylor discusses her experiences living and working at MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM.
Two for the price of one: active and passive immunity from trials of experimental vaccines
Therapeutic antibodies can be isolated from healthy volunteers exposed to the Ebola vaccine, but not Ebola virus itself.
An interview with Professor Angela Vincent
27 February 2019
In our second interview based in the MRC WIMM’s ‘An evening with’ events, we spoke to Professor Angela Vincent, Emeritus Professor of Neuroimmunology at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Angela kindly spoke to us about her research on antibodies and their role in neuromuscular diseases, and shared her thoughts with the next generation of scientists.
From veterinary medicine to the MRC WIMM
Student Matt Dickinson discusses how he took the unusual decision to do a PhD in medical research following a degree (and practice) in veterinary medicine- and discusses the unexpected benefits of career changes.
A WIMMter Wonderland
17 December 2018
In this festive post, we look at how MRC WIMM researchers turned their science into decorations as part of this year's Christmas decorations competition.
An interview with Professor Walter Bodmer
28 November 2018
‘An evening with’ are informal events where established scientists with a connection to the MRC WIMM spend an evening with our students and staff, discussing their career and sharing their thoughts with the next generation of scientists. In this new feature in our blog, we interview the scientists who have kindly given their time to join this event, starting with Professor Sir Walter Bodmer, FRS, Emeritus Professor and Head of the Cancer and Immunogenetics Laboratory in the Department of Oncology.