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.
Chris Russo’s, David Barford’s, Jan Löwe’s, and John Sutherland’s groups have together solved the structure of the inhibitor favipiravir-RTP in complex with the SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, providing new insight into its mechanism of action.
Scientists had thought that the protease furin was responsible for cleavage of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein to reveal the fusion machinery that enables infection, but new work from Leo James’ group shows that furin is not essential for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Type 2 ILCs (ILC2s) play an important role in dealing with parasites and are implicated in allergy. Andrew McKenzie’s group has discovered that the transcription factor RORα acts as a checkpoint controlling divergence between T cell and ILC2 development.
Emmanuel Derivery’s group, in collaboration with David Baker’s group in Seattle, have, for the first time, re-engineered two proteins so that they assemble into a 2D material and used this design to investigate a fundamental process of cell biology, receptor endocytosis.
Our immune system generates a strong antibody response against nucleoproteins, but the role of this has not been understood. Leo James’ group has revealed a new mechanism that could have important implications for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and treatment.
Human GPCRs are the targets of approximately 34% of all FDA-approved drugs. GPCRs in fungi could also be useful drug targets, but no structures of fungal GPCRs had been solved. Chris Tate’s group has now determined the first structure of a fungal GPCR.