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New advanced research facility completed

Posted on 16 February 2021

The University's newest research space, built to provide an advanced electron cryo-microscopy facility as well as new, state-of-the-art equipment for protein crystallography and high-field NMR spectroscopy, was completed on campus west in December.

The Eleanor and Guy Dodson building is named to pay tribute to the pivotal role played by Eleanor and the late Guy Dodson in establishing the world-renowned York Structural Biology Laboratory (YSBL) within the Department of Chemistry, which was recognised recently by the conferment of a 2019 Queen’s Anniversary Prize.

The project was funded by grants from the Wellcome Trust, the BBSRC, the Wolfson Foundation and York Chemistry graduate Dr Tony Wild.

The building will enable YSBL's world-leading research into the molecular structure of biomolecules by providing optimal conditions for electron cryo-microscopy. Examples include the work of Professor Fred Antson's team on understanding how viruses protect their genetic material so it can be transmitted within the body and between hosts, and that of Dr Jamie Blaza's team (for which he has been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship) on the enzymes that provide pathogenic bacteria with the energy they need to cause disease.