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.
A comprehensive investigation of several large-scale datasets, led by M. Madan Babu’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, provides new insights into tissue-specific splicing – the mechanism responsible for increasing the functional diversity of proteins and for attaining tissue identity during development.
New research, led by Philipp Holliger’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division, has shed new light on the mechanism by which DNA polymerases – the enzymes responsible for replicating genomes in all animals, fungi and bacteria – are able to ensure faithful DNA replication while actively excluding damaged and/or non-cognate nucleotides from the genome.
A group of researchers, led by Philipp Holliger in the LMB’s PNAC Division, have created the first synthetic molecules that, alongside the natural molecules DNA and RNA, are capable of storing and replicating genetic information.
Vitor Pinheiro and colleagues from Philipp’s group used sophisticated protein engineering techniques to adapt enzymes, that in nature synthesise and replicate DNA, to establish six new genetic systems based on synthetic nucleic acids.
A group of researchers, led by Mario de Bono’s group in the LMB’s Cell Biology division, have extended our understanding of how animals respond to long-term dangers at a molecular level – which may help in explaining how this process fails in a range of human diseases and medical conditions.
Sensory neurons send the brain a barrage of environmental information. Most of these neurons react briefly to short-term stimuli and ignore the stimulus if it persists.
A group of collaborative researchers, led by Andrew McKenzie’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division, have identified new processes that lead to the development of a novel cell (the nuocyte) implicated in allergies.
Nuocytes play a critical role in immune responses to parasitic worm infection. However, they also initiate the early generation of immune responses that can lead to asthma or other allergic conditions.
Venki Ramakrishnan’s group, from the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, has provided structural evidence for how bacterial transfer-messenger RNA (tmRNA) rescues stalled ribosomes at the end of prematurely truncated or defective messenger RNAs and targets incompletely synthesised proteins for degradation. tmRNA (also known as 10S RNA) combines properties of both transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) and works in concert with Small Protein B (SmpB).