Congratulations to Dr. Ben Gale, who graduated from the University of Reading on December 12th 2008. We wish him every success in his future.
We would like to welcome Helen, Laura, Lynsey, Maria and Omalade to the HeliX Group. They are joining us as part of their respective final year programmes, and we are looking forward to working with them!
Dr. Yu Gan has left the HeliX group to pursue a career with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC). She will be missed by all, and we wish her every success in her new job.
Prof. Christine Cardin has just returned from a visit to Kreisberufsschulzentrum Ellwangen, where Prof. David Cardin is a visiting professor. The Department of Chemistry at the University of Reading also has an exchange programme with Kreisberufsschulzentrum Ellwangen through the Leonardo Programme, and so the HeliX group is delighted to welcome Anika and Johanna, who will be joining us until February 2009. Professors Cardin and Dr. Wolfgang Fähnle were interviewed by Schwäbische Post about the excellent links being set up between these institutions.
Prof. Christine Cardin and Dr Yu Gan have just returned from the XXI Congress of the International Union of Crystallography in Japan. Prof. Cardin presented the Helix Group's work on "Molecular Recognition and the DNA Holliday Junction".
We have got some news from Susy, Isabel, Nick and Anna about their latest adventures!
Ben Gale passes his PhD Viva!
The viva took place on 20th June 2008, and it was examined by Dr. Gary Parkinson and Prof. Mike Drew. Dr. Gale is expecting to attend the December Graduation ceremony.
Chemistry Department Research Day 2008
On this year's research day, Abeer and Sayima both have given excellent talks. Abeer presented the Fluorescence work she has done with Prof. David Lilley in Dundee. Sayima summarised her PhD work on lysozyme crystal habit control and co-crystal projects.
Professors Christine Cardin and David Cardin have both been honoured to be appointed Guest Professors in China
In May 2008, Chris and David visited the South China University of Technology in Guanzhou in China where they both were honoured to be appointed Guest Professors in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. This news has also been reported on the University bulletin. Chris and David then visited Yu's hometwon Kunming in South West of China. More photos can be found here.
Yu Gan passes her PhD Viva!
The viva took place on 12th Oct 2007, was examined by Prof. Stephen Neidle and Prof. Mike Drew. The thesis was entitled "DNA Conformational Changes induced by metal cations, organic ligands and sequence variation."
Chemistry Department Research Day 2007
On this year's research day, Arun gave a talk on computational studies he has done with ligand binding of DNA G-quadruplexes and Holliday junctions. Abeer and Sayima presented their work at the poster sessions which attracted many interests.
New Grant is awarded!
A joint international grant has been awarded to Prof. Christine Cardin and Prof. John Kelly at the University of Dublin. This grant will support studies on ligand binding modes of DNA G-quadruplexes and Holliday junctions for three years.
2007 European Crystallography Meeting in Marrakech
Prof. Christine Cardin and Yu Gan attended the European Crystallography Meeting in Marrakech, at which they presented a poster entitled 'Crystallography with a dual source diffractometer at Reading'
2006 European Crystallography Meeting in Leuven
Prof. Christine Cardin and Helix Group PhD student Yu Gan attended the European Crystallography Meeting in Leuven. Christine chaired the session of talks on Nucleic Acids and Yu presented a poster entitled 'DNA as Anti-Cancer Target: Structural Studies by X-ray Crystallography'
The participants in the Nucleic Acids session of the ECM (L to R): Christine Cardin (Chair), Patrick Cramer, Matthias Bochtler, Gary Parkinson (speakers) Philippe Dumas (Co-chair), Koen Robeyns and Akio Takenaka (speakers). More pictures.
School of Chemistry Research Day
Anna Brogden was awarded a prize for her talk at the School of Chemistry Research Day held in June 2006. To see pictures of this event please click here.
Prof. Christine Cardin Attends China-UK Workshop on Synchrotron Science
Sayima Ahmed gives Award Winning Presentation
A Helix Group student achieved a striking success at the British Pharmaceutical Conference, held in Manchester on 26-28th September. Sayima Ahmed, an MSc student making her first ever conference presentation, was awarded a prize for her talk entitled 'Protein Crystal Engineering for Drug Design', in a section called 'New Developments in the Pharmaceutical Sciences - Presentations by Young Scientists'.
Christine Cardin made Professor of Crystallography
Dr. Christine Cardin, head of the Helix Group, has recently been promoted to the position of Professor of Crystallography within the School of Chemistry.
Akio Takenaka visits the Helix Group
In March, Prof. Akio Takenaka of the Tokyo Institute of Technology visited the Helix Group to discuss his work on DNA structure.
Christine Cardin and Akio Takenaka outside the School of Chemistry, University of Reading
Yu Gan wins Another Prize for her Poster
Helix Group PhD student Yu Gan won the Best Student Poster prize at the Synchrotron Radiation User Meeting 2004 with a poster entitled 'Influence of Metal Ion Coordination on the d(GCATGCT) Quadruplex Structure'. This follows the success of both Yu Gan and Ben Gale in winning poster prizes at the meeting of the South West Structural Biology Consortium in March 2004.
Yu Gan's poster, 'Influence of Metal Ion Coordination on the d(GCATGCT) Quadruplex Structure'
(click on image to download, 7Mb)
European Crystallography Meeting
Dr. Christine Cardin and Dr. Nick Hopcroft attended the European Crystallography Meeting in Budapest. Nick presented a talk entitled 'Conformational Variation of the DNA Holliday Junction' in the session on Biomolecular Assemblies, chaired by Prof. Vilmos Fulop.
Nick Hopcroft (left) with the other participants in the 'Biomolecular Assemblies' session of the ECM; the Chair Prof. Vilmos Fulop and Co-Chair Prof. Anders Liljas (back row), and speakers Fred Dyda, Puck Knipscheer, Prof. Akio Takenaka and Nikos Pinotsis (front row).
