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Congratulations to Karim Labibwho has been promoted toSenior Group Leader following ameeting of a Senior Appoint-ments Committee on the 3rdAugust.

Views were solicited from inter-national leaders in his field andthere was overwhelmingsupport for his promotiondemonstrating his excellentreputation and internationalstanding.

Karim’s research has led to theidentification of a new and excit-ing complex called GINS whichis required for DNA replication.

His lab extended these studiesto show that GINS is part of alarge multi-protein complexwhich he has termed the ‘Repli-some Progression Complex’.

This work is very much at theforefront of his field and has re-sulted in outstanding publicationsin the highest quality journals.

PPaatteerrssoonn IInnssttiittuuttee ffoorr CCaanncceerr RReesseeaarrcchhThe University of Manchester,

Wilmslow Road, Withington, Manchester M20 4BXTel: 0161 446 3156. www.paterson.man.ac.uk

PPaatteerrssoonn IInnssttiittuuttee ffoorr CCaanncceerr RReesseeaarrcchhThe University of Manchester,

Wilmslow Road, Withington, Manchester M20 4BXTel: 0161 446 3156. www.paterson.man.ac.uk

Paterson Institute for Cancer Research is a Research Institute within The University of Manchester and is core funded by Cancer Research UK

Director’s Update

The Performance Review Panel has finishedits deliberations for the 2005/06 review year.The purpose of the panel is to ensure thatstaff are assessed fairly and consistentlyacross the Institute. Currently staff areawarded one of three categories for theirperformance: ‘needs to improve’, ‘good’ and‘exceptionally good’.

This year the panel has upgraded seventeenmembers of staff from ‘good’ to ‘exception-ally good’. This is in addition to the 16 ‘ex-ceptionally good’ gradings given by GroupLeaders and Managers. I am delighted to re-port that no ‘needs to improve’ wereawarded by either the panel or by GroupLeaders and Managers.

The panel awarded seven Additional Salary

Progressions (consolidated bonuses), re-jected one and awarded five non-consoli-dated bonuses. Three members of staff wererecommended by the panel to be re-bandedto higher salary bands. One re-banding hasalready taken place and was successful anddates are being arranged for the other two.

As you are aware, a new contribution basedmechanism will be implemented next year tosupport the new CRUK Pay and Grading Sys-tem. This will replace the existing perform-ance review system.

We are arranging for Towers Perrin (the con-sultants used by Cancer Research UK whohelped to design the new Pay & Grading sys-tem) to facilitate a focus group for staff todesign the new contribution assessmentforms that will be used next year. Once I havedetails of the dates of the focus group I willemail all staff to request a small number of

volunteers to work with the consultants.Once the new form has been agreed by CR-UK, training will be provided in the New Yearfor all staff, managers and panel members.

I would like to thank the panel members whohave put in an incredible amount of time andeffort to the panel this year. They are: GroupLeader representatives – Prof Iain Hagan andDr Crispin Miller, Service Unit Rep – StuartPepper, Associate Scientist/Post Doctoral Fel-low Rep – Dr Caroline Wilkinson, ScientificOfficer Rep – Stella Pearson, Union Rep –Lynn Disley. Scientific support staff are repre-sented by Professor Jenny Varley and Admin-istrative and non-scientific support staff arerepresented by me as Chair and the panelwas very ably supported by Anna Pearson,HR Manager.

Pippa McNichol

I would like to extend my congratulations toKarim who was successful in his applicationfor promotion to a Senior Group Leader inthe Institute. It is really fully deserved – heis a great credit to the Institute and exempli-fies our commitment to support researchthat is at the international forefront. Makingthe transition between being a postdoc andrunning your own laboratory is often hardand not one that previous experience hasnecessarily trained us well for. It is true thatin an Institute such as ours, the support we

give can greatly facilitate this transition.However, the expectations at the Instituteare also very significant and so the pressureis felt from the start. Karim’s approach anddedication to developing his research pro-gramme and his independent, internationalreputation has been exemplary. Following hispromotion Karim will be expanding his groupover the next year or two.

Following our current recruitment round wehave made offers to two outstanding scien-tists and I am very hopeful that they will joinus later this year. Another round of recruit-ment will begin shortly with the aim of iden-tifying additional potential recruits by the endof the year.

The Manchester Cancer Research Centre isprogressing well. One of the key groupswhich inform the research strategy and di-rection of the Centre is the JointMCRC/Christie Research Strategy Group.This is the group that will coordinate the re-search activities of the different componentsof the Centre – set priorities for future de-velopment and recruitment and ensure that

an integrated approach is taken so that thepotential of the Centre can be maximised. Anumber of the Institute senior scientists (IainHagan, Caroline Dive and Peter Stern) are inthis important group. A number of fundingbids involving the Institute and the MCRChave recently been successful. A bid to be-come an Experimental Cancer MedicineCentre (ECMC) was successful and provides£2.2M funding for translational research in-frastructure support over the next 5 years.A significant beneficiary of this funding isCaroline Dive’s CEP group, where the fund-ing supports the laboratory analysis of earlyphase clinical trials. In addition, a Clinical Re-search Infrastructure grant has been awardedwhich provides funding for expansion of thePhase I clinical research facility (DerekCrowther Unit) and support for the devel-opment of clinical proteomics. This involvesa capital investment of over £3M and will en-sure that the Unit will be one of the largestin the world.

Nic JonesDirector

Performance Reviews

One of the main consequences of becominga senior group leader in the institute is thatI finally ran out of excuses for not writingsomething for the newsletter…so here goes!Time has flown by since I first arrived at thePaterson in July 2001, and of course therehave been many changes in the institute sincethen, with seven more groups joining andothers leaving along the way.

Setting up a group for the first time is one ofthose “interesting” experiences that youlearn a lot from but are glad not to have torepeat, and I’ve very much enjoyed the factthat my group has been fairly stable for thelast few years. But now things are starting tochange quite quickly, and I suppose the groupwill be rather different by this time next year. Masato Kanemaki joined the Paterson twoweeks after I did in 2001, made a huge con-tribution to the lab, and finally went back toJapan last month to begin a long-term job atOsaka University. Aga Gambus and VanessaMarchesi submitted their PhD theses in thepast weeks, and will both be moving on in thecoming months, Aga to Scotland, and Vanessato Italy. And then we’re recently had a veryproductive collaboration with Georges’ andValerie’s group, resulting in the birth of ahealthy baby boy (many congratulations toAlberto and Flor!).

When we first started work here, the ideaof the group was to search systematically fornew cell cycle proteins in budding yeast, tak-ing advantage of the fact that we knew theidentity of all the essential proteins of un-known function. We didn’t really knowwhere this would lead us, but we were luckyto find nine new cell cycle proteins in thisway, and we’ve spent most of our time work-ing with four proteins required for chromo-some replication, and more recently oneprotein required for cytokinesis.

Chromosome replication is a fascinatingprocess that is fundamentally important forthe stable inheritance of the genome, is es-sential for cell proliferation, and is known tobe defective in many cancer cells. Despitebeing arguably the oldest field in molecularbiology - you could say that it all started with

Watson and Crick’s second paper on thedouble helix in 1953 – it’s still poorly under-stood in eukaryotic cells. It’s a tremendouslyconserved process, and is likely to occur inan almost identical manner whether we’retalking about human cells or yeast. But wenow know that chromosome replication in-volves much more than just DNA replication,and in eukaryotic cells this makes everythingeven more complicated (and interesting)than we might have guessed from earlierstudies with prokaryotes. Replication mustsomehow reproduce all the complex epige-netic patterns of chromatin modificationsthat regulate gene expression throughoutthe genome, at the same time as producingas close to a perfect copy of the chromoso-mal DNA as possible. Eukaryotic cells takeall of this very seriously, and so we nowknow that there are complex regulatorymechanisms that monitor the progress ofDNA replication forks and maintain their in-tegrity when things go wrong.

By studying the novel proteins identified inthe screen that was carried out by Masato,Alberto and Vanessa, we found that a largecomplex of proteins is built at DNA replica-tion forks around the DNA helicase that is

responsible for the progression of the repli-cation machinery. It seems that the manycomponents of this complex will play keyroles in mediating much of the interestingregulation of chromosome replication thatgoes toward maintaining genomic integrity,and understanding how this all works will bethe main interest of my group for some yearsto come.

In the meantime, Alberto began a new line ofwork for my group a couple of years ago, tostudy another protein found in our screenthat is required for the last part of the cellcycle – the process of cytokinesis whereby acell finally divides into two after mitosis. Thiswork has gone very well and represents theother main area that my group will study forthe next few years.

It seems like an exciting time to be in the in-stitute, especially with all the new plans forthe MCRC, and I’m looking forward to thenext five years, especially now that I’ve donemy bit for the Newsletter…

Karim Labib

Cell Cycle

Cell Cycle Group (from left to right): Karim Labib, Masato Kanemaki, Aga Gambus, Ben Hodgson, Vanessa Marchesi, Ricky Van Deursen, Hiroko Morohashi, Alberto Sanchez Diaz

The Estate function in the Paterson is evolv-ing; two new members of staff arrived in July,which after months of very little support hasalready resulted in a much more responsiveservice.

They have been employed as building serviceengineers; Tony Woollam has joined us fromthe University of Manchester, & GrahamHooley from ADT.

Tony has spent many years in a maintenanceenvironment including the steel & healthcareindustries. Graham has had a varied careerand has spent the last couple of years at ADTin the building management industry.

Their roles in the institute are diverse; theycould be effecting repairs to the buildingmanagement system one minute, plungingtoilets the next (phew).

They are responsible for carrying out theprogrammed preventative maintenance ofthe building systems, including ventilation,heating, cooling, domestic hot water, electri-cal & mechanical plant, plus reactive mainte-nance, diagnosing & rectifying day to dayproblems within the PICR & KK.

Staff experiencing difficulties with Estate is-

sues should log the problem on the EstateFault Report system, which can be found onthe front page of the Paterson’s intranet.

Once a report has been filled in, it is quiteeasy to get feedback on how the problemhas been dealt with,

• Open the fault report

• On the right hand side of each fault report there is a flag

• Clear: - still awaiting attention, green: - in progress, further work or parts required, a tick: - indicates it is completed.

• The status/resolution on the report canalso be informative as to how the work isprogressing or completed.

We are also setting up Quarterly Estate UserGroup meetings to help improve the service,and the first meeting will be held on 4thOctober at 2pm in the conference room,where Group Leaders/scientific officers orrepresentatives are welcome to attend to airtheir concerns/views/problems with theservice in their areas. We will take all con-structive suggestions on board within budgetconstraints.

As some of you may already know, I’m theOperations Manager for the MCRC. I’ll beworking closely with the rest of the team tohelp establish the new centre by developingproject plans, helping to staff the MCRCstand at the NCRI conference, managing thedifferent Boards and groups that have beenset up and providing Nic and Pippa with man-agement support.

For the last 6 years I’ve worked for CR-UKin London. My role focussed on co-ordinating

the Pay and Grading project but my respon-sibilities also included running two salary re-view panels (SPSAP & SSAP) and managingthe PhD Studentship schemes.

Anyway, CR-UK sent me off in style with a‘Manchester Survival Kit’ that included,amongst other things, a Man City scarf,Coronation Street mug and stiletto handbag(don’t ask!) so I’m sure I’ll fit in perfectly uphere!

Steve Alcock

Esther Walker

Focus on Estates

A Welcome Addition to the Team

Tony Woollam & Graham Hooley

Paterson Spotlight

In each issue of the Newsletter, we feature amember of staff who will take the 'Spotlight'and answer a list of questions that we haveput together. The next lucky individual to befeatured is Mike Hughes of Flow Cytometry.

What is your favourite part of theUK?My armchair

What is the most important lessonthat you have learnt from life?The best things I have, I don’t deserve.

What is your favourite book?The Bible

What is your favourite film?Either Ben Hur (the end always makes mecry) or Trading Places which makes me laugh.

If you had to change careers tomorrow, what would you do?I would replace Monty Panesar in the Eng-land Cricket team. I would also need to batat number 3.

What three things would you savefrom your burning house?My collection of old photographs, my mem-ory key containing my family history infor-mation and part of my stamp collection.

What is your greatest fear?I don’t have any fears (except maybe heights);not even death.

How would you like to be remembered?“He served others well.”

If you could change one thing in yourpast, what would it be?I wouldn’t change anything. I’m happy the wayeverything has worked out.

What would be your perfect meal?Lamb Chops and Chips followed by treaclesponge and custard. Now you know why Ineed to go running.

What trait do you most deplore in others?Hypocrisy or more seriously a hatred of cus-tard.

If you had to spend £1,000,000 tomorrow, what would you do with the money?I would buy tickets for all the Patersoncricket fans to see the Ashes this winter andgive the rest to charity (if there’s any left).Don’t worry, the Flow Cytometry unit wouldkeep running as Jeff isn’t a cricket fan.

Which words or phrases do you mostoveruse?“It’s alright”. “What’s up now.” (According tomy family)

What is your idea of perfect happiness?Heaven. The best is yet to come.

What keeps you awake at night?Nothing at all.

Please come into the Institute for a fewhours on Saturday November 4th beforethose bonfire parties begin to warm up aswe are hosting our annual Cancer ResearchUK supporters Open Day and your help isreally needed. The day will be starting at10.00am when over 100 Committee mem-bers, shop helpers and individual supportersfrom Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lan-cashire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and NorthWales will arrive for coffee and fundraisingpresentations in the morning. Lunch will startaround noon when all members of the Insti-

tute and our guests can mingle together be-fore the tours begin at 12.45. I am hopingthat all laboratories and facilities can mount20 minute demonstrations about their work.Groups of 10-12, led by our trained guides,will arrive at 30 minute intervals and eachdemonstration might expect 4 groups in theafternoon. Don’t worry if you run over time,our guides are asked to politely but firmly in-dicate this!

Over the years we have proved extremelygood at informing but not baffling our sup-porters with the science we perform. Atthese annual events, our guests are alwaysimpressed with the dedication and enthusi-

asm of Paterson workers. They are inter-ested in how their often hard-earnedfundraising money is spent and will ask lotsof questions. Our aim is to fire their enthu-siasm to raise even more money for CancerResearch UK.

I need your help so please e-mail me withyour offer of support. Start thinking aboutyour area’s demonstration and who will manit. Guides are always needed and those non-scientists who have acted as guides in previ-ous years have always found it an amazingexperience, learning more about the work ofthe Institute in one afternoon than in thetime that they have worked here.

Remember, Remember the 4th of November

Graham Cowling

Staff News

Congratulations to:

Catherine Bentley (Cancer Studies) and husband Graeme on the birth of a second strapping son Francis William on 4th August 2006.Francis weighed in at a very healthy 10lb 8oz (ouch!) and is a welcome playmate for big brother Aidan.

Jim Gillies (RTI) and his wife Liz on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl Caitlin Aisha (5lbs 12oz) on 17th August 2006.

Flor Perez-Campo and Alberto Sanchez-Diaz on the birth of their first child, a son, on August 22nd. Mum, Dad and baby alldoing fine!

Sacha Howell, Sarah Danson and Aga Gambus who have all recently passed their PhDs here at the Institute.

Eyad Elkord (Immunology) whose article in Immunology in February 2005 was included in the ‘Highlights of 2005 for the ImmunologyJournal’ and this is based on its citation, as can be seen at the following link:http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0019-2805&site=1

Andrew Greaves (son of Martin Greaves from CEP) completed the 60 mile Manchester to Blackpool cycle ride to raise moneyfor Christies Against Cancer on Sunday, 16th July. Andrew, who is studying for his A-levels at the Deanery Sixth Form College in Wiganis not a very experienced cyclist but he managed to finish the distance in 3½ hours which is pretty good going – an average of 17 mph– and he also managed to raise £80 in the process!! Andrew was accompanied by his ‘old Dad’, who made sure that on such a hot dayhe drank and ate enough in order for him to get to Blackpool in not too much distress. Very well done!!

Grateful thanks are extended from the Newsletter Committee to Steve Royle (IT) for all his efforts in producing some great photosfor the Newsletter each issue, very often at short notice. May we also take the opportunity to thank everyone else (too numerous tomention) who has supplied us with photos for past issues, whether it be of individuals, groups of people, buildings or technical equipment– we really appreciate your contributions.

A warm welcome to:-

Juliana Bales Scientific Officer CEPRuth Board Clinical Fellow CEPFouziah Butt Scientific Officer CEPCatia Caetano Placement student CarcinogenesisAlastair Greystoke Clinical Fellow CEPStephen St George-Smith Quality Assurance Scientist CEPAndrew Lloyd Central Services Assistant Central ServicesDavid Moore Postdoctoral Project Manager CEPNatalia Rukazenkova Placement student CarcinogenesisCatherine Smedley Central Services Assistant Central ServicesNicole Yan Placement student Medical Oncology

A very big welcome to David Jenkins who joined the Finance Team in July 2006 as Purchasing Ad-ministration Officer assisting Denise in all aspects of Procurement. He has settled in really well and al-ready we can’t imagine how we managed without him. He is responsible for turning all your requisitionsinto orders on the new University Finance System (an achievement in itself). He is working closely withDenise in all areas of Procurement so please contact him if you have any queries regarding orders,sourcing of goods, etc.

David relocated to Manchester from Leeds earlier this year where he worked at Bombardier in Wake-field as an Accounts Assistant. He is looking forward to continuing his studies towards a diploma in Pur-chasing and Supply. David can be contacted on 446 3145 or email djenkins@picr.man.ac.uk.

Student Report

Writing this article has brought back won-derful memories of the past four years; andhow that time has flown! For the past threeyears I have been working towards a PhD onthe microarray analysis of embryonic stemcells, supervised by Peter Stern and CrispinMiller. Before leaving however I’ve beenasked to share some of my experiences dur-ing my time here.

In January 2002 I applied for what was thenthe new four year PhD course, consisting ofthree rotations in the first year followed bythree years of thesis research. What I didn’tknow at that time was that my introductionto graduate study would be a fairly hazy cou-ple of days in Ambleside and involve arm-wrestling in the early hours of the morning.

After recovering from the colloquium Istarted my first rotation in Iain Hagan’s labstudying the mechanisms of mitosis. How-ever, after three months it was apparent thatyeast research, even with its beer-related

charm, was not for me. The project gave mea great insight into how useful yeast is as amodel organism and I still find myself fer-vently defending its merits to any non-believ-ers.

My next move was into Jamal Zweit’sPositron Emission Technology group. Theproject I worked on was radiochemical syn-thesis in microfluidic reactors. Again, this wasfascinating and we were fortunate enough todevelop it to a proof of concept stage, whichresulted in two publications. Wanting to stickwith the technology/mathematical theme ofthat rotation, I then moved into microarraywork with Crispin Miller and Rob Clarke.This involved validating some of the targetsfrom one of Rob’s microarray studies. Thereal time PCR experience I gained has sinceproved indispensable during my PhD re-search.

The rotations provided me with three mainthings: a broad understanding of cancer re-search at the Paterson, lab skills, and invalu-able advice from the many different people Iworked with in that year. One of the real ad-vantages of being on the rotation system, inmy view, is meeting so many people in oneyear, and the inevitable trips to the Red Lion(or the establishment that was the GoldenLion) after finishing for the day.

Towards the end of the third rotation I be-came aware of a new project using microar-rays to study embryonic stem cells and the5T4 oncofoetal antigen. This was a novel andexciting area of study which I have pursuedfor my PhD. Two people whom I am in-debted to for their help during the earlystages of my PhD are Chris Ward (nowbased at the University) for his help in thelab and Claire Wilson (now at Epistem) forher bioinformatics expertise.

My time in Manchester has been great fun,and much of my time when not in the lab orthe Red/Golden Lion has been spent in a

sporting pursuit in one form or another. Thisstarted with the 5-a-side night at the Ar-mitage Centre. Many since departed mem-bers of the Paterson would spend one houra week gasping for breath, or in the case ofKarim Labib darting round non-stop. Be-tween autumn 2003 and summer 2005 themajority of my spare time outside the labwas spent training and competing with theManchester University Boat Club. Despitethe early mornings, dodging fireworks on theBridgewater canal and the Manchesterweather it was all worth it for the results and(more importantly!) the social side.

I’ll be leaving the Paterson in October, butwill take with me great memories of arm-wrestling, bar-crawls and the students, post-docs and group leaders who have made mytime here really enjoyable. Thanks!

Graeme Smethurst

all at sea

happy at the bench

Breast cancer is the second most commoncancer in the UK, with over 41,000 newcases being diagnosed each year, accountingfor almost one in three of all cancer cases inwomen, with 300 men also being diagnosedwith the disease each year.

Fortunately, due to earlier detection andbetter treatment than ever before, themortality rate of this disease has dropped bya fifth over the last decade. This achievementhas been helped by the work of CancerResearch UK, and the money raised by thecharity’s supporters.

This October, Cancer Research UK is aimingto raise even more money for research intobreast cancer with Breast Cancer Awarenessmonth; a whole month of fundraising

activities and events raising money for breastcancer research.

Start thinking pink by organising your own‘pink’ fundraising event for Breast Cancer,such as a pink party, an auction night or pinkdress day at your work, school or club.

As part of the month, Cancer Research UKis holding ‘All Walk Together’ events in Octo-ber; sponsored walks right here in the localarea. These walks, of varying lengths, arebeing held through attractive parkland, withstunning views, making them an idealfundraising activity for the whole family toget involved with.

The walks are being held in three differentlocations across the North West region:

• Tatton Park, Cheshire,10km walk, Sunday 22nd October 2006, 11.30am start

• Heaton Park, Manchester,5km or 10km walks, Saturday 28th October 2006, 11am start

• Williamson Park, Lancaster,6km walk, Sunday 29th October 2006, 11am start

Entry before the event is £6 for adults and£3 for children or under 18s.

To register for the walks, or to register yourfundraising event, visit www.cancerresearchuk.org/breastcanceror contact your local Cancer Research UKoffice on 08701 60 20 40.

Relay for Life is a unique event that providesthe community with the opportunity to cel-ebrate the lives of those who have beentouched by cancer, whilst raising vital fundsfor Cancer Research UK.

The Relay lasts for 24 hours, and always takesplace overnight at a park, running track orfield. Teams of 8-15 supporters take turns towalk around a ‘track’ for the duration of theevent. The whole community is invited tocome along on the day to give support andparticipate in the ceremonies that take place.

This year the charity has held successfulRelay for Life events in Cheadle, Salford andAshton-Under-Lyme, contributing to the£152,760 that these events have raisedacross the western region, and next year weare aiming to raise even more for vital re-search.

To find out more about Relay for Life or getinvolved with organising one of these uniqueevents visit www.cancerresearchuk.org/relay

or call the local Cancer Research UK officeon 08701 60 20 40.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Relay for Life

relay for life survivors reception

As I’m sure you are all aware there have beena few changes to the portering personnelover the past few months.

Unfortunately we lost Ken, our ever-cheerfulafternoon porter to retirement - after hisheart bypass he decided not to return towork. More recently we have also seen theretirement of Colin and Gordon. In losingthese 3 we lost almost 25yrs of portering ex-perience and 75% of our portering team. Aswe knew that the lads would be leaving, Iproposed a plan of restructuring the portersand lab services to create a ‘central servicesteam’.

The idea behind this is that the lab aides andnew porters became trained as central serv-ices employees and are trained in all aspectsof the service (both portering and lab aides)so that they can cover when the need arises,such as during holiday and sickness absence,in either department.

Maurice Cowell has joined us as the newCentral Services Assistant Manager and he isfully responsible for the service in my ab-

sence. We are also joined by two new centralservices employees in Catherine Smedleyand Andy Lloyd.

Catherine and Andy are being trained in thebasics of portering and lab services - workingin the porters area in the morning and thelab services area on the 3rd floor in the after-noon, thus hopefully freeing up more timefor the lab aides to come into the labs.

The eventual idea is that lab aides will be ableto offer more to their labs, and spend moretime there than on the 3rd floor. As servicessuch as the media and plate pouring take off,it may mean that lab aides who specialise inthese areas have to spend more time on thatservice, but now if the lab needs more help,then others will be trained in their lab sothey can be on hand to assist. We certainlyhope that there will be better cover pro-vided than in the past.

With the new members of staff, we are nowable to offer more from the service providedby the porters, such as a delivery system forthe onsite freezers and two glassware collec-tions; an additional one in the afternoon aswell as the existing morning collection. I cer-tainly hope to increase these services and

spend more time with the labs, finding outand facilitating their needs more appropri-ately from a lab aide point of view. This maymean changes; from having lab aides poppingdown for an hour or two every day insteadof set times in a week, to having them helpout around the lab more from an experimentpoint of view.

I would also like to increase/hold more itemsin stores and see it used to greater effect bythe labs, as well as increasing and addingmore to the services we provide.

Basically over the next year or so we wouldlike to see some changes in central servicesto greatly facilitate the needs of the Institute.I certainly hope with the new changes, cen-tral services will become an even more effi-cient and reliable service.

Martin Chadwick

Central Services Update

The Central Services team - left to right, Phil Jackson, Maurice Cowell, Alex Barber, Martin Chadwick, Catherine Smedley, Andy Burns, Tony Dawson, Corinne Hand, Jenny Brettell, Fran Hockin and Christine Whitehurst - not pictured: Andy Lloyd

I have been asked to write this piece to giveyou all an insight into what we get up to inthe Molecular Biology Core Facility on an av-erage day. I am going to focus on the roleplayed by myself and Michelle in providing theday-to-day services within the facility;minipreps, sequencing, genotyping and quan-titative real-time PCR.

I joined the facility in 2003 to provide the se-quencing and genotyping services. During mysecond year I started looking at various as-pects of quantitative real-time PCR and insummer 2005 I began to focus on that full-time. Michelle joined us in August of that yearto provide the sequencing and genotypingservices, with the added joy of looking afterthe minipreps.

A typical day is structured around theminiprep and sequencing services. These aretimed so that users can get their preps backin time to sequence them the same day. Thefirst job of the day is to collect the culturesfrom the shaker, check for any which haven’tgrown and centrifuge them. We usually hopethere are not more than 96 as this meanstwo lots of centrifugation and two runs onthe robot! The smell from the cultures canbe quite overpowering first thing, so it is bestnot to have too much wine on a work night!While the cultures are spinning we get therobot ready for the run.

Another job for the morning is to check theprevious day’s sequencing and put the resultsinto the appropriate folders for you to find.Once the cultures have finished spinning, themedia is discarded and the BioRobot 8000does the rest, at least that is the theory! Reg-ular users of the service will know that wehave had a rather “rocky” relationship withthe robot. We had various problems gettingit to do as it was told, as soon as our backswere turned it would start stacking randombits on top of each other or dropping things!We were beginning to consider offering theengineer a bed in the lab! We did manage toresist the temptation to hit it with a big ham-mer while Stuart wasn’t looking. All this cul-minated in Michelle doing the minipreps byhand for a few weeks around last Christmas.Luckily, she didn’t resign and after some ne-gotiations with Qiagen we now have a work-ing robot and a consistent service. The prepsare returned to users by 11:30 giving twohours to get them ready for sequencing.

The deadline for sequencing is now 1:30 andwe start processing the samples after lunch.Everything is carefully scheduled to fit aroundlunch and tea breaks! The sequencing serviceruns pretty smoothly, we just have to sendout the occasional “mystery sequences”email if someone hasn’t filled in the book orspend some time interpreting the handwrit-ing on the tubes! After PCR and clean-up, thesequencing reactions are usually ready to goon the 3100 by 4pm. The 3100 can process96 samples by the time we arrive for workthe next day, any more are completed across

the day, the maximum wecan do is 144 in 24 hours. Togive you an idea of through-put, in June this year weprocessed 1076 miniprepsand 1694 sequencing reac-tions.

In addition to these serv-ices, we also provide agenotyping service. Michellereceives the genotypingsamples on a Thursday, doesDNA extractions, PCRs andanalysis and usually has theresults back within a week.This service can be de-manding; we receive as

many as 300 samples requiring up to four dif-ferent PCRs. On top of that, there is also anMHV testing service which is busier thanever. All this is fitted around the other serv-ices keeping Michelle pretty busy.

Quantitative Real-Time PCR is one of ourexpansion areas. Although we have had a ma-chine on site for several years now, demandfor this technique is increasing. To keep upwith this we acquired a 384 well block forour 7900. Anyone looking at the wells of a384 well plate would realise that pipettinginto it and remaining sane would be almostimpossible, a perfect excuse for buying somecool robotics! We have a handy (and cute!)little robot from Eppendorf. Like all robots,it has the occasional tantrum but performspretty well. It also seemed to be a hit on theopen day! We also have a library of labelledprobes from Exiqon for use in qPCR reac-tions covering most of the human and mousegenomes. The majority of my workday is nowsplit between helping users with their qPCRprojects and doing development work, I amlearning more about the technique all thetime. We aim to offer users help and guid-ance through every aspect of their projectfrom experimental design to data analysis. Ispend a lot of time discussing projects, givinglessons on the robot and helping set-up ini-tial experiments.

This is an aspect of the job I really enjoy as Iget an insight into what people are workingon. We have some ongoing projects of ourown too, including a joint project with Bioin-formatics. A new and exciting area we arelooking at is MicroRNA profiling using qPCR.We are in the early stages of evaluating somenew assays from ABI and this is something Iwill be spending a lot of time on in the nearfuture.

As you can see, there is plenty going ondown here and there is always somethingnew on the horizon! We are a pretty friendlybunch so please come and see us if youwould like to know more about any of ourservices.

Emma Saunders

Robot Wars - A Day in theLife of the MBCF

Emma standing with the 3100 sequencer on her right and the Biorobot 8000 on her left

This month I wanted to clarify the interpre-tation of what constitutes a formal or infor-mal meeting, specifically who should bepresent at an informal meeting between amanager and member of staff. All managersand others responsible for the supervision ofstaff are reminded that they will be requiredto adhere to the following principles:

• If you wish to talk to a member of staff about an area of concern connected to their employment, for example, capability, absence or conduct issues, but do not feel that the use of a formal procedure is required, the Institute would expect that this is done on a one to one basis.

• There may be instances where you feel that it is essential or beneficial that a third party, possibly another colleague directly involved in the situation, is involved in all or part of the meeting. In all such cases, it is expected that you will confer with the individual regarding the appropriateness of the other person’s involvement and that agreement is reached prior to the commencement of the meeting.

• It is not expected that a member of the HR Department would be present at such meetings until a formal stage of any procedure has been reached. However, managers requiring advice and guidance can obtain this by contacting the HR Adviser in advance of any meeting. In all

cases where a member of the HR Department is present, the individual concerned should be offered the chance to be accompanied by a Trade Union representative or colleague.

Any questions regarding the above informa-tion should be directed to Anna Pearson, HRAdviser on ext 3231 orapearson@picr.man.ac.uk who will be happy to help.

Anna Pearson

HR UpdateInformal Meetings

Forthcoming Seminars

2266tthh SSeepptteemmbbeerr 22000066 aatt 44ppmm Viesturs Simanis - ISREC, Switzerland

1100tthh OOccttoobbeerr 22000066 aatt 44ppmm Vincenzo Costanzo - DNA Damage and Genomic Stability Laboratory, London Research Institute

13th October 2006 at 12noon Prof. Kostas Kostaelos - University College London. NNaannootteecchhnnoollooggyy iinn tthhee SSeerrvviiccee ooff CCaanncceerr TThheerraappeeuuttiiccss aanndd DDiiaaggnnoossttiiccss

17th October 2006 at 4pm Dr Christine Harrison - University of Southampton

24th October 2006 at 4pm John Diffley - Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, Clare Hall Laboratories

31st October 2006 at 4pm Paul Harkin - Queens University, Belfast

7th November 2006 at 4pm Erik Sahai - CRUK London Research Institute

14th November 2006 at 4pm Aymen Al-Shamkhani - Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton

21st November 2006 at 4pm Pascale Zimmermann - Department of Human Genetics, K.U. Leuven, The NetherlandsRRoollee ooff SSyynntteenniinn EEnnddooccyyttiicc RRoouutteess iinn tthhee SSiiggnnaalllliinngg FFuunnccttiioonn ooff SSyynnddeeccaannss aanndd DDuurriinngg DDeevveellooppmmeenntt

5th December 2006 at 4pm Peter Angel - DKFZ, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany

Forthcoming Seminars at the Paterson Intitute.All seminars start at 4pm and are held in the Holt Lecture Theatre unless otherwise stated.

Please check the website for full listings - www.paterson.man.ac.uk/education/seminars.jsp

News about progress on the ManchesterCancer Research Centre (MCRC) will bepushed out to an international audience nextmonth when the development team decampsto Birmingham for a few days.

The occasion is the second National CancerResearch Institute Cancer Conference,which aims to build on the success of lastyear when 1,700 delegates from the UK, Eu-rope and the USA attended.

An exhibition stand (Hall 3, Stand 6) will bestaffed at the event from October 8 to 10,with members of the MCRC team giving outliterature and other material to promote theaims of the new Centre and highlighting thekey message: “Creating a world leader in thefight against cancer by 2015”. The literaturewill include a generic MCRC booklet whichwill be available over the next few weeks.

Those taking part include Pippa McNichol,who has the dual role of Director of Oper-ations for the MCRC as well as being Oper-ations Director for the Paterson; EstherWalker, who recently became the MCRC’s

Operations Manager after transferring fromCancer Research UK; and David Wiggins,who is working part-time for the MCRCproject as a communications consultant. Theexhibition effort is benefiting from the designexpertise of Mark Wadsworth, the MCRC’s(and Paterson’s) designer and web developer.

The Conference is an opportunity to arouseinterest amongst the cancer research com-munity in the concept of the MCRC, andhow it will bring together the expertise andambitions of the partners – The Universityof Manchester (including, of course, the Pa-terson Institute plus other cancer-related re-search within The University), the ChristieHospital NHS Trust and Cancer ResearchUK.

Paterson Director Professor Nic Jones, theinaugural Director of the MCRC, sees theConference as just one of the ways whichwill be used over coming months to start toraise the profile of the new Centre.

“At Birmingham we will have a captive andinterested audience, and while it’s still earlydays with the MCRC development we canstart to talk about our goals and some of theprogress we have made.

“Key to the MCRC’s success will be engagingthe research community and attracting theresearch stars of today and more junior teammembers who will be the stars of tomor-row”.

David Wiggins

MCRC Takes a Stand

If you are attending the NCRI CancerConference you might also beinterested to note that the PatersonInstitute is sponsoring a lecture onMonday 9 October starting at 09.10:

“Dissecting tumour suppressorgene networks in vivo”,

by Scott W Lowe, Watson School ofBiological Sciences, Cold SpringHarbor Laboratory, USA.

PPaatteerrssoonn IInnssttiittuuttee MMaaiilliinngg LLiisstt

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