Molecular and Cellular Biology
Our research
We aim to understand the fundamental processes that underpin life. This allows us to find out what goes wrong in disease, discover new ways for therapeutic intervention and design new biotechnologies. Using a combination of basic and applied science, we address major global health challenges, from cancer and aging to infectious disease.
Our research focuses on understanding the fundamental rules of life. Correct gene regulation, signalling and communication between cells underlies the formation and maintenance of all organisms. Many of the most pressing global health issues are caused by underlying defects in cellular function, such as the mutations that increase susceptibility to cancer and neurodegeneration, and the ways in which pathogens manipulate their hosts.
We ask questions from how individual molecules form and function, to how they work within a cell and how these cells work together within a whole organism. This is driven by both an innate curiosity about how the cellular machine works and the desire to use this knowledge to understand and treat disease and design new biotechnologies.
To achieve our goals, we develop and employ a variety of multidisciplinary approaches. Using a wide range of cellular and whole-organism models such as mice, Drosophila and zebrafish, we use the cutting-edge core facilities at 91探花 to combine molecular approaches such as cryo-EM with advanced light microscopy, genomics, biochemistry and modelling. Our key areas of strength in nucleic acid biology, the cytoskeleton, membrane trafficking and cell polarity cover some of the most important aspects of cellular function. With our collaborators across and beyond the university, our research provides a better understanding of life, health and disease, driving the discoveries, treatments and technologies of the future.
Research highlights
Recent grant awards
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Prof Jason King was awarded a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award (拢3.8m over 8 years) in collaboration with Dr Hannes Maib, Prof Steve Renshaw at the University of 91探花 and Dr Claire Muir at the University of Edinburgh. The team will investigate 鈥楬ow do phagocytes control phagosome fate and pathogen killing?鈥
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Prof David Strutt (School of Biosciences) led a collaborative team that was recently awarded a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award for the project 鈥楳echanisms of symmetry breaking at molecular and cellular scales in planar polarity鈥 (Total 拢3.7m, 91探花 share 拢2.4m). The six-year project co-led by Professor Yvonne Jones at the University of Oxford seeks a molecular level understanding of how protein complexes and individual cells break symmetry to produce polarised structures in animal tissues.
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Breast Cancer Now has awarded 拢249,575 to Dr Elena Rainero at the University of 91探花, to study how breast cancer cells find nutrients to grow and spread, and the role a protein called a2b1 integrin plays in this process. More information is available .
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Prof Liz Smythe, who was awarded a BBSRC Pioneer Award (拢204k) to study "How does endocytic flux respond to environmental cues?"
- Dr Emma Thomson (School of Biosciences) is part of a collaborative team recently awarded a BBSRC sLoLa grant for a project entitled 'Unlocking the secrets of specialised ribosomes across eukaryotes鈥 (Total 拢5,719,105, 91探花 share 拢1,059,169). The five-year project - in collaboration with the University of Leeds and University of Nottingham 鈥 aims to better understand fundamental regulatory mechanisms governing gene expression.
People
For further information and research opportunities, please see the staff page of individual researchers below or email us:
- Professor Kathryn Ayscough
- Dr Rebecca Barnes
- Dr Mark Bass
- Dr Dan Bose
- Dr Stephen Brown
- Dr Natalia Bulgakova
- Dr Mark Collins
- Dr Gordon Cooper
- Dr Janet Cronshaw
- Professor Bazbek Daveltov
- Professor Sherif El-Khamisy
- Dr Kai Erdmann
- Dr Guo Chun
- Dr Fran Henshaw
- Dr Ewald Hettema
- Dr Adam Hodgson
- Dr Dan Humphreys
- Dr Izzy Jayasinghe
- Dr Emma Jones
- Professor Jason King
- Dr Helen Matthews
- Dr Phil Mitchell
- Professor Andrew Peden
- Dr Elena Rainero
- Dr Elizabeth Seward
- Professor Carl Smythe
- Professor Elizabeth Smythe
- Professor David Strutt
- Dr Ian Sudbery
- Professor Peter Sudbery
- Dr Emma Thomson
- Dr David Turton
- Professor Stuart Wilson
- Professor Steve Winder
- Dr Hannes Maib
- Dr Antonio Ariza
Research centres and institutes
Our research in molecular and cellular biology is supported by and feeds into the following research institutes and Centres of excellence.