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The molecules of life, such as proteins, nucleic acids and metabolites have traditionally been studied in isolation. It is becoming increasingly clear that they are tied together to form a large, inter-linked, complex system, which is best represented and investigated as a network. More…

Deposition of proteins of aberrant conformation is the hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and prion disorders. Cells have elaborate quality control mechanisms to protect them from the deleterious effect of misfolded proteins. More…

The decision whether to launch an adaptive immune response or not is predominantly made through the interaction of three types of cells: antigen presenting cells (dendritic cells and possibly B cells); pro-inflammatory TH cells; and TR cells. We would like to understand the molecular processes that govern the interactions of cells during the initiation of immune responses. More…

The Wnt signalling pathway controls animal development and tissue homeostasis, and is also a major cancer pathway. Its key effector is β-catenin, which is stabilized in response to Wnt stimulation; it thus binds to TCF factors in the nucleus, and functions as a co-activator to mediate Wnt-induced transcription. Inappropriate activation of β-catenin can cause cancer in many human tissues, most notably colorectal cancer. More…

Our goal is to understand how the mouse brain implements the computations that underlie innate behaviours. We aim to provide biophysically detailed descriptions of the sequence of steps that transform input, such as the sensory clue that a predator is close by, into a behavioural output, like an escape or defensive response. More…

Centrioles are large and complex cell organelles that form the core of centrosomes and are essential for templating cilia and flagella. These structures are important for many cellular functions like cell division, fluid movement, motility, and sensing. Thus, it is not surprising that centriole dysfunction is associated with many human diseases like microcephaly, ciliopathies and probably cancer and infertility. More…

Molecular motors have critical roles in trafficking of organelles and macromolecules within the cytoplasm, and aberrant motor function has been implicated in diseases such as neurodegeneration. More…

The contents of eukaryotic cells are organised and moved around by motor proteins running along the tracks that make up the cytoskeleton (microtubules and actin filaments). The largest and most complicated of these is the microtubule motor cytoplasmic dynein. More…

Biomolecules and their dynamic assemblies, in collaboration with the energy provided by NTP hydrolysis, perform a spectacular range of mechanical and chemical manipulations on nanometre scale objects in the cell; molecular motors perform mechanical work, while enzymes rearrange atoms in ways, and at rates that synthetic chemists have difficulty emulating. More…

Brains are highly parallel information processors. Their neural circuits continuously integrate sensory inputs to generate appropriate behavioural responses. More…

We use an amalgam of protein engineering, structural biology, biophysics and chemistry to study the structure, activity, stability and folding of proteins, and the role of protein misfolding and instability in cancer and disease. We focus on how mutation affects proteins in the cell cycle, particularly the tumour suppressor p53, in order to design novel anti-cancer drugs that function by restoring the activity of mutated proteins. More…

In all living cells homeostasis, growth and division are critically regulated by highly specialised large multi-subunit protein complexes. Disruptions in these regulatory complexes result in cell malfunctioning and are frequently implicated in diseases such as cancer. More…

We study two overlapping but distinct topics: how epithelial and tissue architecture is controlled, and intramembrane proteolysis by rhomboids. More…

Our work focuses on the chemical synthesis of modified oligonucleotides, siRNA, peptide nucleic acids (PNA), and their peptide conjugates to target essential RNA structures inside cells for a variety of potential therapeutic applications. More…

Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are characterized by the presence of abnormal filamentous assemblies within some nerve cells. Similar assemblies are found in several related disorders. The events leading to filament formation or the mere presence of filaments are believed to produce nerve cell degeneration. More…

Glutamate-gated ion channels (iGluRs) mediate the majority of fast excitatory neurotransmission in vertebrate brains. These receptors are instrumental for the formation of neuronal circuits, and are key regulators of synaptic function and plasticity. iGluRs are heterotetramers, and comprise three functionally distinct subtypes: AMPA, NMDA and kainate receptors. More…