Science lab has right formula for Stirling Prize

Published on 14/10/2012 02:02

A SCIENCE laboratory at Cambridge University has beaten Glasgow’s Maggie’s Centre and the Olympic Stadium to win Britain’s best building of the year.The Sainsbury

The Sainsbury Laboratory, a plant science research centre built by architects Stanton Williams, won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize 2012 at an awards ceremony in Manchester last night. The panel of judges praised it as “a timeless piece of architecture”.

The laboratory, known as TSL, aims to make fundamental discoveries about plants and their interactions with other organisms and to provide a training centre that prepares scientists who pass through it to excel in their careers

The TSL has been involved in a number of groundbreaking research programmes, including cloning plant resistance genes. The current director of the lab, Professor Jonathan D G Jones has written on genetically modified food stuffs and studies disease resistance in plants through genetic and molecular approaches.

Alumni include the current Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, David Baulcombe, and Martin Parniske, Head of Genetics at Munich’s LMU.