News

BioTryp TherapeuticsBioTryp Therapeutics is a spin-off company from the Department of Genetics, developing novel oral antibiofilm therapies for bacterial infections, with an initial focus on urinary tract infections (UTIs). Bacterial biofilms are communities surrounded by an extracellular matrix, providing structural protection against antibiotics …

We are delighted to share the news that Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith has been appointed as the Executive Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).Anne holds the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics, as well as being the Pro-vice Chancellor for Research and International Partnerships at the University.Anne will ta…

The Department of Genetics is delighted to report that Amie Baker, Chief Building and Facilities Manager, was announced as a winner of the 'Innovating and Improving' award at the Professional Services Recognition ceremony on Monday 11 December 2023.The award recognised Amie's hard work in developing new methods to deal with delicate fly tubes and s…

Rosana Collepardo-Guevara, Professor of Computational and Molecular Biophysics, Department of Genetics and Yusuf Hamied Department of ChemistryRosana is one of the 4 Cambridge scientists to receive a consolidator grant from the European Research Council.“We will investigate the transformative hypothesis of phase transitions in genome organisation, …

International Prize for Biology 2023The Department of Genetics is delighted to announce that Professor Richard Durbin has been awarded the 39th International Prize for Biology by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, which this year focused on the Biology of Genomes.The award recognises Richard’s development of innovative foundational tec…

We are extremely pleased to announce that the Genetics Green Team, led by our Sustainability Champions Amy Bains, Emily Kempin and Liam Browne, have successfully achieved both Bronze and Silver awards from LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework).  This is a tremendous achievement and we thank the huge effort they put into the submission. …

03 April 2023: Department of Genetics celebrated 'National Fly Day'. To begin the day, Dr Felipe Karam-Teixeira presented a talk on the history of researchers using drosophila as a model organism and how different current department members are linked to those who first began working with them.This was followed by Simon Collier presenting different…

Image: Confocal image showing presynaptic terminals from motor neurons of Drosophila larva. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen is labelled with GFP::HDEL (green) and plasma membrane is labelled with CD4::tdTom (magenta). Loss of function of Rtnl1 leads to a loss of ER tubules while keeping the regions of the network with higher luminal space (i.e., c…

The Department of Genetics is delighted to report that our Professional Services Team were announced as winners of the 'Working as a Team' award at the Professional Services Recognition ceremony on Monday 12 December. The award recognised an outstanding level of service in the face of the considerable challenges associated with keeping an ageing bu…

The Department of Genetics congratulates Dr Felipe Karam Teixera on being selected as a member of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme 2021. Felipe will join a network of 130 current and 368 former members of the programme. Starting in January 2022, Felipe and 25 other new young investigators will have access to a variety of networking opportuniti…

Buchanan Medal Buchanan medallist 2021The Buchanan Medal 2021 is awarded to Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith FMedSci FRS for her pioneering work in epigenetics, her interdisciplinary work on genomic imprinting, the interplay between the genome and epigenome, and how genetic and environmental influences affect development and human diseases.Professor F…

Many congratulations to Ariella Weinberg-Shukron, a new HFSP Fellow inthe Ferguson-Smith lab, who has just been awarded the Israel NationalPostdoctoral Award for Women in Science, a prize in recognition ofoutstanding scientific achievements to date.  Well done, Ariella!

Welcome!Based on the Downing Site in the city centre, the Department of Genetics is a small and friendly department. With world-class research groups and teaching staff, our Natural Sciences inter-departmental teaching encourages Part II students to explore and develop their learning in new and exciting areas.  Take a look at our Undergraduate Webp…

Last year the closure of schools and restricted access to research labs across the UK put a stop to many of the research placements that would normally take place in the summer. These placements play an important role in providing students with experience of what a career in research is like, before deciding what to do next.To help provide access t…

Anne Ferguson-Smith has accepted the invitation to take on the role of interim Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research for the University of Cambridge.  Whilst taking on this opportunity, Anne will be stepping down as Head of Department in January 2021 for the calendar year.  During this time, Anne will continue to be active in the Department of Genetics,…