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探秘英国的“诺贝尔工厂”

在过去的60年里,英国的分子生物学实验室已经获得了16个诺贝尔奖,堪称“诺奖收割机”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识:

antibody[ˈæntibɒdi] n.抗体

maverick[ˈmævərɪk] n.独行侠

cryo-electron microscopy n. 低温电子显微镜

Neurobiology[njʊərəʊbaɪ'ɒlədʒɪ] n.神经生物学

cerebral organoids[ˈserəbrəl] n.大脑类器官

circadian rhythms[sɜ:ˈkeɪdiən] adj.昼夜节律

suprachiasmatic nucleus[sju:præ'ʃɪəzmætɪk] [ˈnju:kliəs] n.视交叉上核

阅读马上开始,建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间,对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

Stable research funding drives Britain’s ‘Nobel factory’ (649words)

Clive Cookson

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When the King of Sweden presents Greg Winter with a Nobel chemistry prize for his antibody discoveries on Monday, he will be the 16th laureate from the UK Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

During the past 60 years no other lab in the world has been more successful than the LMB in proportion to its size at picking up the greatest award in science.

Jan Löwe, who took over as director this year after working at the LMB for 22 years, is confident that its extraordinary scientific productivity, which has led some to call the lab a “Nobel factory”, will continue for decades to come.

“This lab has always worked best as a slightly maverick institution,” Mr Löwe said. “Besides excellent science, we have stable core funding from the MRC. Our scientists have the freedom to work on long-term problems without having constantly to justify their research. Discoveries sometimes take decades to reveal their beauty and importance.”

Richard Henderson, who was LMB director from 1996 to 2006, came to the lab as a PhD student in 1966. Last year he won a Nobel Prize for his part in the invention of cryo-electron microscopy, a new way of imaging biological molecules. He is now working today to improve cryo-EM so that it becomes “the dominant technology for structural biology”.

He says that collaborative interaction between staff is one reason for the lab’s success. “We all go up to the canteen three times a day and enjoy suggestions from colleagues,” he said.

Sir Greg, this year’s LMB laureate, also praised the lab’s informality but said its funding model also helped researchers. The lab receives a block grant worth about £40m a year from the government through the MRC, freeing scientists from relying on outside funding for individual projects.

“I have been at other places where everyone has a sense of ownership of their own equipment, which makes collaborative working hard,” he said, before setting off to the Nobel celebrations in Stockholm.

Future Nobel Prizes could come from a host of other projects at the lab. Neurobiology is an area that Mr Löwe is particularly keen to promote as director. “I consider that now, for the first time, fundamental questions about how the brain works, such as the nature of memory, can be studied seriously through the methods of molecular biology,” he said.

For example, ground breaking research into cerebral organoids (unofficially known as mini-brains), led by Madeline Lancaster, is beginning to provide insights into brain diseases from Alzheimer’s to autism — as well as raising ethical questions about how far scientists should go in mimicking real brains in their labs.

“It is hard to imagine these small blobs of cells thinking,” she said, pulling a dish of organoids, each about 5mm across, out of an incubator. “They do not have sensory inputs or a blood supply but, yes, it is an issue that we need to consider as we develop organoid technology in the future.”

Other neurobiologists include Greg Jefferis, who is mapping all the connections inside the fly’s brain, and Mick Hastings who studies circadian rhythms — how all the molecular clocks distributed through the body are co-ordinated by a master clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the brain.

“People don’t realise that all their main organs have their own clocks,” said Mr Hastings. “When you change time zones, the central pacemaker has to drag along the other clocks across the body. That is why shift work is an important public health issue.”

Fiona Watt, executive chair of the MRC, which funds LMB, said “There is no doubt that stable long-term funding contributes to the magic of the LMB. When Greg Winter started his work, there was no way of knowing that it would lead to many new antibody-based drugs.

She added: “Scientific excellence comes from investing long-term in really talented people working in an attractive physical space.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容,完成以下自测题目:

1. Which of the follow award did Greg Winter win?

A.Nobel chemistry prize

B.Nobel mathematics prize

C.Nobel biology prize

D.Nobel physics prize

答案 (1)

2. Why did Mr Löwe describe the LMB as a slightly maverick institution?

A.Because LMB is based in Texas

B.Because no other lab in the world has been more successful than the LMB.

C.Because LMB scientists have the freedom to work on long-term problems.

D.Because LMB scientists always work on profitable projects.

答案 (2)

3. What is a cryo-electron microscopy?

A.A type of bacteria

B.A type of virus

C.A way of imaging biological molecules

D.A software

答案 (3)

4. Which of the following best describes circadian rhythms?

A.There are four seasons a year.

B.Shift work causes no health issue.

C.Human's main organs have their own clocks.

D.Stable long-term funding contributes to the magic of the LMB.

答案 (4)


(1) 答案:A解释:When the King of Sweden presents Greg Winter with a Nobel chemistry prize for his antibody discoveries on Monday, he will be the 16th laureate from the UK Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

(2) 答案:C解释:“This lab has always worked best as a slightly maverick institution,” Mr Löwe said. “Besides excellent science, we have stable core funding from the MRC. Our scientists have the freedom to work on long-term problems without having constantly to justify their research. Discoveries sometimes take decades to reveal their beauty and importance.”

(3) 答案:C解释:Richard Henderson, who was LMB director from 1996 to 2006, came to the lab as a PhD student in 1966. Last year he won a Nobel Prize for his part in the invention of cryo-electron microscopy, a new way of imaging biological molecules.

(4) 答案:C解释:“People don’t realise that all their main organs have their own clocks,” said Mr Hastings. “When you change time zones, the central pacemaker has to drag along the other clocks across the body. That is why shift work is an important public health issue.” C7jVcVge8MsoW/vwchShtp+ERxrg3vxa+hDsd8Kqa4DjNFBWEVigFEcpTbSQZRot

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