Lori Anne Passmore is a Canadian/British cryo electron microscopist and

structural biologist Structural biology is a field that is many centuries old which, and as defined by the Journal of Structural Biology, deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every le ...

who works at the Medical Research Council (MRC)

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

(LMB) at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. She is known for her work on multiprotein complexes involved in gene expression and development of new supports for cryo-EM.

Education

Lori Passmore graduated from the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1999. She obtained a PhD in 2003 from

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

for research supervised by

David Barford David Barford is a British medical researcher and structural biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Cambridge, UK. Education Barford studied Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and then went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy ...

at the

Institute of Cancer Research The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Mar ...

. She performed ''in vitro'' biochemical characterisation of the activity of the

anaphase-promoting complex Anaphase-promoting complex (also called the cyclosome or APC/C) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that marks target cell cycle proteins for degradation by the 26S proteasome. The APC/C is a large complex of 11–13 subunit proteins, including a culli ...

(APC) and used cryo-EM to study the APC structure.

Career and research

Passmore worked as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the MRC-LMB. She worked with

Venki Ramakrishnan Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (born 1952) is an Indian-born British and American structural biologist who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". ...

and Richard Henderson, using cryo-EM to determine the structure of the eukaryotic ribosome bound to initiation factors. Passmore became a group leader at the MRC-LMB in 2009. Her group uses ''in vitro'' reconstitution, biochemical assays and cryo-EM to understand the function of multiprotein complexes that regulate gene expression at the level of mRNA. Her group has developed new sample grids for cryo-EM that reduce specimen movement during imaging. In collaboration with Ketan J. Patel, Passmore is also actively studying the molecular mechanisms underlying

Fanconi anemia Fanconi anaemia (FA) is a rare genetic disease resulting in impaired response to DNA damage. Although it is a very rare disorder, study of this and other bone marrow failure syndromes has improved scientific understanding of the mechanisms of nor ...

Grants, awards and honours

* 2005 Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research * 2009 Fellow of

Clare Hall, Cambridge Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It ...

* 2010

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(ERC) starting grant * 2015 EMBO Young Investigator Program * 2016

Suffrage Science award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

* 2017 ERC consolidator grant * 2018 Member,

European Molecular Biology Organisation The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

(EMBO) * 2023 Elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Microscopists University of British Columbia alumni Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization {{Improve categories, date=January 2023 Fellows of the Royal Society