Work led by Sergey Nejentsev and Alison Condliffe from the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Roger Williams’ group in the LMB’s PNAC Division, the Babraham Institute has discovered a rare genetic disease which predisposes patients to severe respiratory infections and lung damage.
Discovery of the genetic basis of a rare immune disease
Understanding timekeeping in an intertidal marine crustacean
Work carried out by Michael Hastings’ group in the LMB Neurobiology’s Division, together with collaborators at Leicester, Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities has combined expertise in molecular genetics and marine biology to address a long-standing question about tidal behaviour in marine organisms. They were interested in whether these animals are driven by a dedicated internal tidal clock or are controlled by a system based on a modified 24-hour circadian clock.
Vesicles modulate an actin network for asymmetric spindle positioning in oocytes
Work carried out by Melina Schuh’s group in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division has provided new insights into how the spindle is asymmetrically positioned in oocytes, which is a vital step in the development of a fertilizable egg in mammals.
The oocyte is stored in the ovary in meiotic arrest until ovulation. At ovulation, the primary oocyte completes meiosis I and discards half of its chromosomes in a small cell termed the polar body.
Identifying behavioural functions for genes has produced a key resource for neuroscience research
While fully sequenced genomes are available for many important experimental organisms, a major challenge has been to identify the functions of the genes identified. A method for phenotyping that is both high-throughput, so all an organism’s genes can be phenotyped, and high-content, so inferences about gene function can be made with precision, has been required.
The nematode worm, C. elegans, is a major experimental model for neuroscience, as well as aging and development.
The smell of food ‘wakes up’ the zebrafish visual system
New research from Leon Lagnado’s group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division shows how food-related smells ‘re-tune’ zebrafish vision by making the retina more sensitive to moving objects, such as the prey that zebrafish eat.
The way the brain processes information from one sense depends on the activity of other senses. For instance, we all know that to listen closely to some music, it often helps to shut one’s eyes.
Work on ubiquitination reveals insights into disease
Recent work carried out by David Komander’s group in the LMB’s Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division, and published in two separate papers, has provided insight into human disease and the role played by ubiquitination, a process that affects many fundamental cellular processes.
Work in David’s group aims to understand the cellular machinery for specific ubiquitin (Ub) assembly, disassembly, and binding on a structural and biochemical level.