Compiled by David Archer and Andrew Carter
The BSCB has its origins in Tissue Culture.
The European Tissue Culture Club (ETCC)
In the 1930s tissue culture was a ‘hot topic’ in biology. The leading investigator in this field was Honor Fell, who had become director of the Strangeways Laboratory in Cambridge in 1929 at the age of 29. Her ‘organ culture method’ allowed cells to be grown by surrounding them with fragments of other tissues. In 1931 a 24-year-old from the Netherlands, Pieter Gaillard, arrived at the Strangeways lab which he described as an ‘old villa’ at the top of Hills Road, Cambridge. He was shown in and made to wait in the library until a ‘mystery lady’ arrived and offered to show him the garden. Eventually, as she probed his scientific interests, he began to realise that he was talking to the director herself. Honor Fell, later told him how much she enjoyed his embarrassment as the realisation dawned. So began a lifelong friendship, which in 1947 led them together to co-found the European Tissue Culture Club. In April 1967, as Gaillard stood down from active involvement in the club, it changed its name to the European Tissue Culture Society. Both he and Honor fell remained involved with the ETCS, Honor Fell helping to draft its new constitution.
The British Tissue Culture Association
Biologists from the UK attended meetings of the European Tissue Culture Club but around 1950 a group of scientists in the UK with an interest in tissue culture, decided to form their own British Tissue Culture Association (BTCA). There were five members of the group: [1] Honor Fell herself, who was a world-renowned figure in tissue culture with interests also in cell biology and radiobiology. Honor Fell had skills in administration and networking and these contributed greatly to the success of the Strangeways Laboratory and the BTCA. [2] Michael Abercrombie, a cell biologist and embryologist who did doctoral research in the Strangeways Laboratory. After several moves Abercrombie came back as its Director in 1970, following Honor Fell’s retirement. [3] Leonard Franks, known as ‘Sam’ or ‘Sammy’, qualified in medicine and spent some time working in the laboratory of Honor Fell. He became an authority on tumour biology especially that of prostate tissue. [4] John Paul. Paul initially qualified as a physician in 1944 but then obtained a degree in biochemistry. In 1953 he was appointed Director of the Tissue Culture Laboratory at Glasgow University and in 1970 founded and directed the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research. In 1976 ‘The Beatson’ moved to a purpose built laboratory, the ergonomic design of which was largely determined by John Paul. [5] Neville Willmer obtained a B.A. from Oxford University in 1924 and became a Demonstrator at the University of Manchester. From 1966 to 1969 he held the post of Professor of Histology at the University of Cambridge.
Metamorphosis – Tissue Culture to Cell Biology
In the USA a Tissue Culture Commission (later Tissue Culture Association) was founded after a meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1946. Honor Fell was part of the founding Executive Committee, holding the position of “European Member at Large”. The TCA developed standardised culture media, arranged teaching workshops and held meetings. By 1958 however, as tissue culture became an established technique, there was discussion about the wisdom of having an association based on a technique. In 1960 a group led by Keith Porter broke away and formed the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). In the UK a similar debate was held but rather than form a break-away group, members of The British Tissue Culture Association, simply decided on a name change. Thus, in April 1965 at the AGM in Aberystwyth the British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB) was born. A notice reporting the name change was placed in Nature and an advertisement asking for new members was included in the first issue of the Journal of Cell Science.
The British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB)
The BSCB constitution dictated that there were three Officers. The President (officially Honorary President) and a Meetings Convenor served for 3 years. The Secretary/Treasurer served for 5 years. John Paul was President of the British Tissue Culture Association in 1965 and so became the first BSCB President. Sammy Franks took on the role of Secretary/Treasurer. The constitution also specified 6 additional committee members and up to 10 Honorary Members. The first Honorary member was Honor Fell herself who by this time had become a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
The founding goal of the BSCB was “to promote the advance of research in relation to all branches of cell biology and to encourage the interchange of information”. In 1965 they planned to hold “two meetings a year, consisting of a one-day symposium with invited speakers, followed by a general session for proffered papers.” It is not clear whether this schedule was adhered to. The 1966 meeting was held on 1st-2nd April at UCL on the subject of extra-nuclear DNA. The meetings continued and over time other activities were added. In 1973 the BSCB published a Laboratory Manual for Cell Biology to aid teaching of Cell Biology. It was assembled by David Hall and Shirley Hawkins from contributions submitted by the Society’s members. The contributions were lightly edited with the aim of including “too much rather than too little information”.
In 1975 the BSCB Committee accepted a donation of £3000 that came from the profits of an International Society for Cell Biology Congress held at Sussex. They decided to use it to provide funds for members to travel to the Society’s meetings. On 12th Feb 1974 Brian Richards (BSCB Treasurer/Secretary) and Michael Balls (the Meeting Convenor) travelled to Cambridge to meet with Honor Fell and ask if they could name these awards after her. The first Honor Fell awards were presented at the 1975 BSCB spring meeting at the University of East Anglia. The meeting topic was “Organ cultures in biomedical research” and resulted in the publication of a Festschrift (a collection of writings published in honour of a scholar) for Honor Fell to celebrate her 75th birthday.
By the early 1980s the role of Secretary/Treasurer was split into two, with Nancy Lane becoming Secretary and John Pitts taking on the role of Treasurer. John Gurdon took over from the Hungarian born Laszlo Lajtha as President. Colin Hopkins was meeting secretary and the driving force behind an expansion in the number and size of meetings. The BSCB started to hold major international symposia covering multiple topics along the lines of the ASCB meetings in the USA. The BSCB had a long history of holding meetings jointly with other Societies. In 1984 the Committee agreed to combine forces on a regular basis with the British Society for Developmental Biology. The goal was to hold even larger Spring meetings with more overseas invited speakers. The first of these was in Glasgow in 1985 and included sessions on early amphibian development (BSDB), growth factors (BSCB), modelling morphogenesis and invasiveness in vitro (joint BSCB/BSDB) and eukaryote genes (BSCB).
Support from The Company of Biologists
John Gurdon was on the Board of The Company of Biologists, publisher of the Journal of Cell Science which had had links to the BSCB from its earliest days. In the early 1980s the The Company of Biologists had spare funds, was looking to support cell biology in the UK and generously agreed to provide support for the BSCB. John Pitts recalls meeting the The Company of Biologists Secretary in Cambridge to discuss how the funding might be set up and how the BSCB would use it to help expand the Honor Fell awards.
The BSCB from 1980 0nward: Awards and Meetings
Since the 1980s the BSCB has continued to innovate new ways to support Cell Biology. The Hooke medal, “to recognise an emerging leader in the field of cell biology”, was launched in 2000. The first awardee was Anne Ridley, who was later a BSCB president. In 2008 the BSCB summer studentship scheme was launched. Our Women in Cell Biology Early Career medal was first awarded in 2016 and a postdoc and student award in 2020.
The main meeting of BSCB is the Annual Meeting. This is usually held in the Spring and is often held jointly with the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB). Some Annual Meetings have been held jointly with the Biochemical Society. The BSCB also organises occasional Autumn meetings of a specialist nature and nay also sponsor other small cell biology-related meetings in the UK. Details of current meetings are given on the meetings page of the website.
The British Society for Cell Biology has its origins in the European Tissue Culture Club and then the British Tissue Culture Association (BTCA). ‘Cell Biology’ seems a stable name. But who knows what the future will bring with so much of cell biology being studied at a molecular level. Perhaps a future writer of the history of the BSCB will one day be commenting on this.
| DA & AC July 2022
|
| Presidents | |
| John Paul (Glasgow) | 1965-1968 |
| Michael Abercrombie (UCL) | 1969-1971 |
| Michael Stoker (ICRF) | 1971-1973 |
| Murdoch Mitchison (Edinburgh) | 1974-1977 |
| Laszlo Lajtha (Manchester) | 1977-1981 |
| John Gurdon (Cambridge) | 1981-1985 |
| Lewis Wolpert (UCL) | 1985-1992 |
| Martin Raff (MRC-LMCB) | 1992-1995 |
| Ron Laskey (Cambridge) | 1996-1998 |
| Fiona Watt (ICRF) | 1999-2006 |
| Clare Isacke (ICR) | 2007-2010 |
| Jordan Raff (Oxford) | 2011-2016 |
| Anne Ridley (Bristol) | 2017- |
Laura Machesky (Glasgow)
| Secretary/Treasurers | |||
| Sammy Franks (ICRF) | 1965 – 1970 | ||
| Brian Richards (Searle Labs) | 1970 – 1975 | ||
| Michael Balls (Nottingham) | 1975 – 1980 | ||
| John D Pitts (Glasgow) | 1980 – 1981 | ||
| Secretary | Treasurer | ||
| Paul Whur (MCRI, Oxted) | 1982 | John D Pitts (Glasgow) | 1982-1985 |
| Nancy Lane (Cambridge) | 1982 – 1990 | Fiona Watt (ICRF) | 1986-1990 |
| Robert Johnson (Cambridge) | 1991 – 1995 | Martin Humphries (Manchester) | 1991–1995 |
| Birgitte Lane (Dundee) | 1995 – 1999 | Stuart Kellie (Oxford) | 1995-2000 |
| Michael Whitaker (Newcastle) | 2000 – 2005 | Jo Adams (MRC-LMCB) | 2000 |
| Elizabeth Smythe (Sheffield) | 2006 – 2010 | Mark Marsh (MRC – LMCB) | 2001-2006 |
| Grant Wheeler (UEA) | 2011 – 2016 | Adrian Harwood (Cardiff) | 2007-2012 |
| Vas Ponnamalam (Leeds) | 2016 -2020 | Caroline Austin (Newcastle) | 2012-2017 |
| Carine De Marcos Lousa (Leeds)
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2020-
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David Elliot (Newcastle)
_________________________ Giampietro Schiavo (UCL) |
2017 –2022
__________ 2022-
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