There were many happy faces when former employees of the Arrhenius Laboratory met outside the Magneli hall on the Friday afternoon, November 10. The Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics' research groups and administration were showcased through a poster session and a poster competition had been arranged, where the visitors could vote on which poster they liked the most.

Guided tours brought back happy memories

DBB offered the guests guided tours of the department and in the Magneli hall part of the research and infrastructure at SciLifeLab in Solna was presented.

The Neurochemistry corridor was guided by Professor Anna Forsby. Anna spoke briefly about the Department of Neurochemistry’s history, they merged with the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2018, and about the 7 research groups that operate in the corridor. Liam Moran, PhD student, showed a cell slice electrophysiology experiment, an experiment where you try to investigate the electrical behaviour of individual cells within a brain slice. The visitors watched how Liam tried to find a neuron to record, in order to learn more about the neurons’ activity. “It was fun to show the guests the experiment and see their excitement”, said Liam.  

Professor Pål Stenmark took the visitors to level 4 and level 5 of DBB. He spoke about how much the practicalities of biochemistry have changed since the 1970s and how much the department has grown. Moreover, that DBB is now very strong in the area of structural biology. The visitors got to see, among other things, centrifuges, the crystallization room and the isotope lab.

Level 3 of DBB was shown by Professor Andreas Barth, where visitors could see a laboratory and the NMR room. One of the guests described the tour as "a reunion where many happy and fine memories were shared".

In the Magneli hall, Dr. Marta Carroni and Professor Arne Elofsson presented part of the infrastructure and research that takes place at SciLifeLab. Dr. Carroni, who is head of the Cryo-EM facility and responsible for the national Cryo-EM group, talked about the facility that is used by Stockholm University, researchers from the rest of Sweden as well as Norway, Finland and also other EU countries. Professor Elofsson talked about his research on protein structures and the use of the AlphaFold2 method.

Recognition for the passion of pushing boundaries

Back outside Magneli hall, the winners of the poster competition were presented. The 26 entries competed in the three categories; “Best overview”, “People's choice” and “Cutting edge”.

The justification in the category "Best overview" read, "The poster was easy to understand and had an appealing layout where a good overview of the group's research and a clear presentation of the group was given". The winners were Dr. Marta Carroni's group. "It feels great to receive the prize of best summary poster during the 50 years of Arrhenius Laboratory celebration where you design a poster trying to reach a broader audience and showcase the research done at Arrhenius" said Lisa Engelhardt, one of the members of Dr. Carroni's group.

Honorable mention in the category “Best overview” went to the Economy Group at DBB's administration. The competition committee agreed that the poster had a good overview and provided important information that everyone in the department should take part of. The Economy group also won the category "People's choice".

"We are thrilled to have received the most Cutting edge Poster Award and to get these projects going in the lab. This recognition fuels our passion for pushing the boundaries of knowledge and technology and highlights the importance of innovative projects.", said Marek Bartosovic who together with his group, won in the category “Cutting edge”. Honorable mention went to Juliette Griffie and her group. Both groups are innovative and can revolutionize their fields as they combine different theoretical and practical methods.

Svante Arrhenius and the Arrhenius laboratory

The Arrhenius laboratory is named after physics professor Svante Arrhenius, who was the principal at Stockholm Högskola, 1897–1902. Professor Arrhenius, who was also a chemist, was the first Swede to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903.