MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
One of the world's leading research institutes, our scientists are working to advance understanding of biological processes at the molecular level - providing the knowledge needed to solve key problems in human health.
Ana Tufegdžić Vidaković’s group, in the LMB’s PNAC Division, have worked with Scott Berry’s group, at the University of New South Wales, to identify the mechanism cells use to regulate gene expression via control of quality and quantity of Pol II molecules.
Huping Wang and Manu Hegde, in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, have found a factor that helps nascent secretory and membrane proteins quickly access the protein translocation machinery when they arrive at the endoplasmic reticulum.
Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon’s group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division have used cryo-ET to discover that tau filaments are tethered to the membranes of extracellular vesicles in Alzheimer’s disease. These findings introduce membrane tethering of amyloid filaments as a potential target to interfere with their accumulation in disease.
Tetsuo Hasegawa and Menna Clatworthy, in the University of Cambridge’s Molecular Immunity Unit house at the LMB, studied a synovial knee joint, finding porous capillaries which allow access by circulating immune stimuli, which is in turn policed by a blood-joint barrier of macrophages and nociceptor neurons.
An international collaboration, including Greg Jefferis’ group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, have published the connectome of the Drosophila fly – the most complex brain to be mapped in its entirety, including 140,000 neurons and over 15 million connections.
Introduction of ultrasound machines has allowed LMB animal technicians to accurately detect pregnancy in mice as early as 5.5 days, which ultimately reduces the number of mice needed for research.