We are delighted to share the wonderful news of Clare Hall Fellow Dr Lori Passmore being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Lori is a Group Leader in the Structural Studies Division of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. 

A cryo-electron microscopist and structural biologist, Lori is known for her work on multiprotein complexes involved in gene expression and the development of new supports for cryo-EM studies. She also studies the molecular mechanisms underlying Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disease resulting in an impaired response to DNA damage.

Lori graduated from the University of British Columbia, Canada in 1999. She obtained a PhD in 2003 from University of London for research supervised by David Barford at the Institute of Cancer Research. She performed in vitro biochemical characterisation of the activity of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC) and used cryo-EM to study the APC structure.

Lori worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the MRC-LMB before becoming a became a group leader in 2009. She worked with Noble Laureates Venki Ramakrishnan and Richard Henderson, using cryo-EM to determine the structure of the eukaryotic ribosome bound to initiation factors.  Her group now uses in vitro reconstitution, biochemical assays and cryo-EM to understand the function of multiprotein complexes that regulate mRNAs and DNA repair. Her group has developed new sample grids for cryo-EM that reduce specimen movement during imaging.

We once again extend our wholehearted congratulations to Lori on this great achievement.