The group had an amazing few days at the Physical Chemistry retreat at Firbush (Loch Tay). Lots of interesting science discussed in a relaxed environment. Topics ranged from "the worst mistakes in science", to "can dragons fly?", and "why are eggs fluorescent?". We also had great weather for the outdoor activities. 

We had a great time at the Photonex conference finding out about the exciting research happening around Scotland at the moment. It was fantastic hearing our collaborators Brian Patton and Marti Colom present their research, and find out what Juan Varela from the Klenerman Group in Cambridge will be doing in his new role as a PI at St. Andrew's.

We are happy to welcome Maggie to our group for the summer. Maggie is a medicinal chemistry student, and will be working on a project looking at antibodies designed for lipid-binding proteins. 

On the 26th May, the ESMB team completed the Edinburgh Marathon in a time of 3h50. Alex took the first leg, completing 8.3 miles in an impressive 1h8m, he then had a short wait for Blair who was running to start his leg after having transport issues getting to the relay point. He did 5.5 miles in 1h2m (including getting to the transition). Mathew then did his 8 mile leg in 51m before handing over to Owen to bring home the glory by running 4.4 miles in 48m. 

Our work with Marc Vendrell on a range of new fluorophores for imaging metabolites has been featured on BBC news, and other media outlets. The work allows the metabolites that cells "eat" to be imaged, and could be used to differentiate between healthy, and cancerous cells. 

We're happy to have contributed to a new method for screening aggregation inhibitors for alpha-Synuclein, the protein associated with Parkinson's disease. The work was done in collaboration with Professor Manfred Auer's group in the School of Biology, and involves growing small protein aggregates on the surface of beads, which can then be imaged and analysed in an automated fashion. The paper was published in Analytical Chemistry.

We're excited that our work with Dr. Marc Vendrell and the Dynafluors group has been published in Angewandte Chemie. The work describes a new class of fluorophores that can be used to tag metabolites for imaging in live cells. In the work, we used TIRF microscopy to image lactate within normal and hypoxic cells. Single particle tracking enabled the diffusion co-efficients of the lactate to be measured. 

We are extremely grateful for the kind donation from Dr. Jim Love to the Edinburgh Single-Molecule Biophysics Group. The donation will partly be used to upgrade one of our microscopes to enable us to do live cell imaging of cultured neuronal cells. This added capability will greatly enhance the work that we can do in the group.

We're looking forward to Kelly Wood joining the ESMB in April. Kelly is part of the SOFI CDT scheme, and will be doing her PhD between our group and the Dynafluors group headed by Marc Vendrell in the QMRI. 

On April 28th, Mathew will be running the London Marathon to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK, and the Alzheimer's Society. These charities provide support for vital research in neurodegenerative diseases, and each donation to them will bring us closer to fully understanding these disorders and generating a cure. Please sponsor Mathew: