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.
In a long-standing collaborative effort, groups at MRC Harwell, the LMB, and the University of Oxford have discovered a new genetic mechanism in the circadian body clock that could have important implications for research in mental health and psychiatric disease. Biological clocks run in all our cells, controlling the timing of a number of crucial daily body functions such as core body temperature, hormone production and brain wave activity.
Early-onset Parkinson’s disease arises when the Parkin protein, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, cannot be activated and remains in a permanently ‘off’ state in neurons. Despite the importance of Parkin activation, until recently no-one has understood how the protein could be switched on. David Komander’s group, in the LMB’s Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division, has now revealed the structure of Parkin bound to an activator, phospho-ubiquitin.
During fertilisation, an egg and a sperm fuse to form a new embryo. To create the egg, a precursor cell called an oocyte undergoes meiosis: a specialised form of cell division in which half the chromosomes are separated away leaving exactly the right number of chromosomes in the egg. Meiosis in human oocytes is highly error-prone, which can cause the egg to have the wrong number of chromosomes.
G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) mediated signalling is one of the largest and the most diverse signalling pathways in cellular systems. Human GPCRs sense various signals and activate different Gα proteins to trigger distinct cellular responses. This signalling pathway is important for a broad range of processes such as regulation of the immune system, neurotransmission, vision, taste, and smell.
The proteasome is a protein recycling complex that plays a critical role in the smooth running of our cells. It is present in all multicellular organisms and facilitates cell renewal and the controlled death of damaged cells.
Genes in eukaryotic organisms are frequently interrupted by non-coding segments called introns. Before the protein can be produced, the entire length of each gene including the introns, is transcribed to produce precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA). An immense and dynamic molecular machine known as the spliceosome then removes the introns and splices the coding segments together to form mature mRNA, which can then be translated into proteins.