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.
Harish Chandra Soundararajan and Simon Bullock from the LMB’s Cell Biology Division have created a new technique for studying how dynein motors move individual mRNA molecules along microtubules, which has provided unique insights into cellular transport systems.
In order for a cell to function, its constituents have to be sorted to different locations. In many cases, this is achieved by an active intracellular transport system.
The bringing together of several independent lines of research by members of the LMB’s Structural Studies Division has led to the determination of the atomic structure of the yeast mitochondrial ribosome. The work took advantage of recent developments in electron microscopy (EM), brought about by a decade of work at the LMB to develop better EM detectors.
Work carried out by Lori Passmore’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, in collaboration with Patrick Cramer’s group in Munich, has revealed how transcription termination and mRNA processing by Cleavage and Polyadenylation Factor (CPF) are coupled via dephosphorylation of the C-terminal domain of RNA Polymerase II by CPF.
Genes code for proteins – the ‘doing-molecules’ in cells.
Research from Greg Jefferis’s group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division has uncovered a biological switch that determines which part of the fruit fly’s brain responds to pheromones, depending on whether the fruit fly is male or female.
Research led by Professor Nick Brindle at the University of Leicester and Julian Sale from the LMB’s PNAC Division has resulted in the production of a molecule that has great therapeutic potential in the treatment of inflammatory conditions. Much of the work took place while Nick was on sabbatical at the LMB and involved additional input from Dr Hiroshi Arakawa in Italy and Dr Jean-Marie Buerstedde at Yale.
Angiopoietins play a critical role in the development and maintenance of blood vessels.
New research from Philipp Holliger’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division demonstrates the power RNA could have wielded to enable the first forms of life on Earth to reproduce and thrive.
At its most basic level, all life can be viewed as a mechanism for self-replication: organisms reproduce by making new copies of themselves and of the genetic information that defines them.