A Peak of Research Excellence at the University of Leeds

The Astbury Centre

The Astbury Centre brings together researchers from across the University - largely from physics, the biological sciences and chemistry - to allow interdisciplinary approaches to be harnessed to understand the molecular basis of life. The Centre has outstanding expertise and research infrastructure in chemical biology, biophysics and all of the major techniques in structural molecular biology. Together, these approaches are combined with analyses of biological function with the ultimate aim of understanding the molecular basis of biological mechanisms in living cells. Our members address major questions associated with biological mechanisms in areas as diverse as membrane proteins; protein folding and assembly; viruses; and motor proteins. The Astbury Centre hosts 4-year PhD programmes funded by the Wellcome Trust and BBSRC that recruit students with the wide range of expertise that may be used to address fundamental biological questions.

Blue Plaque for pioneer of protein and DNA structure determination

Professor Adam Nelson has unveiled a blue plaque to commemorate the pioneering work of Prof William Astbury FRS. Prof Nelson, director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, revealed the Leeds Civic Trust plaque at the former Astbury family home at 189 Kirkstall Road on 26 November. The plaque is sponsored by the Thackray Museum who are currently holding an exhibition celebrating the life and work of Prof William Astbury FRS as part of the Royal Society's Local Heroes scheme. Astbury, who worked at the University of Leeds from 1928-1961, first discovered the secondary structure of proteins while using X-ray diffraction experiments to study wool fibres. He was also the first to use X-ray data to propose a structure for DNA in 1938, 15 years before the definitive double helix structure was determined. Astbury was a strong advocate that you had to start with chemistry and physics if you were going to understand the molecular tricks of nature - a field of research that he was probably the first to name 'molecular biology'. William Astbury's son, grandson and great-grandson were present at the ceremony which was followed by tea across the road at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club stadium in Headingley.

In conjunction with the plaque unveiling, Dr Bruce Turnbull appeared on the BBC Radio Leeds breakfast show that morning. Bruce described how Astbury's X-ray studies on wool, hair and poached eggs underpin our understanding of many phenomena from hair perming to Alzheimer's disease.

An exhibition titled 'Hair-splitting images - how William Astbury's X-ray vision changed the world', is on view at the Thackray Museum until Sunday 2 January 2011.