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Explore the 2023-2024 Review

Highlights from 2023-2024

Five interlocking images representing highlights from the Institute in 2023-2024. From left to right: Pride flag, research image, researchers in the lab, yeast growing on an agar plate, imaged C. elegans worms.
ÐßÐßÊÓƵ looking at a document together in the lab with their colleagues behind them
Excellence

Institute receives £48m strategic investment from BBSRC

Strategic BBSRC funding supports the Institute to undertake three core programmes of work: epigenetic control across the life course, cellular responses to stress, and immunity, resilience and repair. All three programmes have a strong focus on the mechanisms that drive ageing and will provide new insights into age-related disease that the Institute will progress with biotech, pharma and clinicians.

Collage of images from a public dialogue event
Impact

Public dialogue first to collect views on 14-day rule

As part of the Human Developmental Biology Initiative, the Institute’s Public Engagement team and members of the Epigenetics research programme participated in public dialogues to collect opinions and attitudes towards embryo research. This foundational piece of work was an initial step towards wider UK public engagement on this topic and provides direction to future public consultations and research.

 

Yeast being picked off an agar plate
Discovery

Yeast study shows ageing trajectory set in early life

The Houseley lab showed that the content of diet in yeast, rather than caloric intake, influences yeast health in later stages of their lifecycle. While their results cannot be directly translated into humans, these findings show that healthy ageing can be achieved by optimising diet if changes are made at an early stage in life.

 

The Athen Swan Silver Award logo
Who we are

Athena Swan Silver Award renewed

In 2024, the Institute received a renewal of its Silver Athena Swan Award. Activities at the Institute include establishing the UK’s first Roving Researcher position, continued provision of excellent childcare, promotion of cultural understanding in collaboration with Muslim staff, and training around the impact of inclusive language.

Rows of syringes labelled with 'vaccine'.
Discovery

Combining expertise for better vaccines

The Institute and the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in New Zealand are collaborating to investigate how ageing affects the germinal centre response to mRNA vaccination, supported by a BBSRC International Partnering Award. By combining expertise from the Linterman and Turner labs with the Malaghan Institute’s vaccine platform, the project aims to improve mRNA vaccine effectiveness for older people.

 

Attendees and a panel at an engagement event
Sharing our science

Public engagement joins forces with YouthSTEMM

The Public Engagement team have expanded their ‘BioInspire’ programme by partnering with the YouthSTEMM Award, sponsoring 60 young people and providing webinars, workshops and in-person experiences to support them to achieve their award.

 

The PRIDE flag
Who we are

LGBTQ+ Network established to support colleagues and allies

Established by staff in 2023, the LGBTQ+ Network aims to raise awareness and the profile of LGBTQ+ issues and staff in the workplace, help remove barriers to inclusion and ensure that there are visible role models at different levels of the organisation. The network has organised coffee mornings and events for LGBTQ+ staff and allies.

Two Nursery representatives receive an award from a third person.
Excellence

Award winning nursery team

The Institute’s Nursery team were recognised in the Cambridge Regional College’s Apprenticeship Awards 2024 as Employer of the Year (Care, Health and Early Years category) for their support of apprentices who join the Nursery team as part of their training. The Nursery has supported a total of eight apprentices from CRC and other training providers since welcoming their first apprentice in 2016.

The Institute community outside Babraham Hall
Who we are

Institute reviews workplace culture

The Institute undertook a series of activities, workshops and surveys to agree an organisational definition of ‘team science’, evaluate workplace culture and set a vision for how the Institute can be a place for everyone to thrive. The Institute Culture Consultation project culminated with the production of a roadmap for team science with ‘quick win’ activities and longer-term deliverables spanning the next five years.

Balls of cells (blastoids) derived from human embryonic stem cells
Impact

Scientists contribute to stem cell-based embryo models guidelines

Peter Rugg-Gunn, group leader and Head of Public Engagement, and Kathy Niakan, honorary group leader, helped develop the first ever UK guidance and an oversight process for the generation and use of stem cell-based embryo models in research. The guidelines were developed by a working group of experts from a range of institutions across the UK, representing world-leading expertise in developmental biology.

Two researchers and a group of 4 school students in discussion
Sharing our science

30th Schools’ Day sees record number of students experience lab life

The Institute celebrated its 30th Schools’ Day in 2024 – an annual event where researchers guide secondary and sixth-form students through hands-on lab projects and showcase the variety of careers in science. The 30th year saw the most schools and students attending from the event’s history, and the highest proportion of students from schools in areas with historically lower access to similar opportunities.

 

Representatives from the Green Labs team at the Institute
Who we are

Green Labs team make strides in sustainability

The Institute achieved a Platinum Award from the SOS-UK Green Impact programme in 2023 and 2024 in recognition of activities across the Babraham Research Campus including revamping the bike repair station, upgrading inefficient ultra-low freezers, sending over 100 items of equipment for reuse via the UniGreen scheme, and planting hedges and sowing wildflower seeds on campus.

Comparison of two C. elegans worms with cellular staining

ÐßÐßÊÓƵ discover tissue-specific protection against protein aggregation

Della David and her team discovered a safety mechanism that acts to lower levels of protein aggregation in C. elegans pharyngeal muscles, but is not active in body-wall muscles. By further understanding how some tissues employ protective protein control pathways, the research may help develop future strategies that prevent protein aggregation in vulnerable tissues during ageing.

 

An aerial view of the Babraham Research Campus
Impact

An ecosystem for innovation

A new Campus impact study found that the powerful combination of the Institute’s strategic research focus, state-of-the art facilities and prowess in innovative methodology development, together with the Campus’s translational culture and collaboration opportunities is a defining factor in what the Campus can offer to companies

 

The logo for the Technician Commitment
Who we are

Institute receives Technician Commitment Impact Award

The Institute received a Technician Commitment Impact Award, recognising three years of work to increase the visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technician skills and roles. The Technician Commitment steering group and cohort members have published the action plan for the next three years at the Institute.

Attendees at the first UK Proteostasis Network meeting.
Impact

Institute launches UK Proteostasis Network

The UK Proteostasis Network was launched by the Institute at an inaugural conference in May 2024. With over 170 attendees, representing a diversity of research areas and roles, the event was a chance for the new community of UK-based researchers working on proteostasis-related areas to exchange research news, expertise and knowledge.