Celebrating 25 years of the Jackson Lab

Last week over 70 former and current members of the Jackson Lab came together to celebrate over 25 years since Steve set up his lab. Former alumni from as far afield as Japan, Canada, USA and Israel attended the two day meeting. Following a welcome reception at the Gurdon Institute, the following day's meeting was opened with a welcome address from Steve. There then followed a series of short talks from former alumni including Tanya Gottlieb, Steve's first PhD student, Graeme Smith and Susan Critchlow (both now at AstraZeneca), whose research in the lab laid the foundations for KuDOS Pharmaceuticals; and several former postdocs, now all successful PIs, including Alex Sartori, Sophie Polo and Abderrahmane Kaidi.

Most evident from all the talks, which included many reminiscences as well as exciting forward-looking science, were the lasting links that many former lab members have retained both with the current lab and with each other. These have led not just to life-long friendships, but also successful scientific collaborations and an amazing scientific legacy.

The reunion finished with a dinner in the Great Hall, Clare College, where Steve, in his closing speech, looked forward to an exciting future of scientific discovery, and many more years of the Jackson Lab.

We are very grateful to our sponsors Abcam, Artios Pharma, AstraZeneca, Carrick Therapeutics, Essen Bioscience, Horizon Genomics, Repare Therapuetics and RPS Services for supporting this event.