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.
KJ Patel’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division have uncovered for the first time, how excess alcohol can cause irreparable damage to our DNA. In a new study published in the journal Nature today, they also discovered a two-tier defence system in our cells that limits the threat of permanent genetic damage.
KJ’s group have discovered that an overload of a toxic chemical called acetaldehyde, a by-product from the breakdown of alcohol in our body, can cause damage to DNA.
Vision is perhaps the most important sense by which we understand the world. Visual information is transmitted by nerve cells sending signals to each other through special connections called synapses. But how does this happen?
Leon Lagnado’s group in the Neurobiology Division of the LMB is investigating how visual signals are transmitted between neurons in the retina.
A group of collaborative researchers, led by Alan Warren’s group at the LMB, have discovered a surprising link between human ribosome maturation and cancer.
The team identified the conserved mechanism that underlies a critical step in the maturation of ribosomes and showed that this step is defective in an inherited form of bone marrow failure that is associated with significant leukemia predisposition (Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, SDS).
The origin of life is one of the great, unsolved mysteries of biology. In a quest to improve understanding of how life might have originally emerged, a group of LMB scientists have managed to construct an enzyme that can mimic how the first forms of life may have arisen and begun to evolve – before DNA came along.
When the first multicellular organisms evolved, their cells needed to communicate with each other to control their growth and development.
The deposition of misfolded proteins is a central characteristic of many devastating diseases including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and prion diseases. In principle, improving the cells’ ability to deal with misfolded proteins should reduce the pathology in these diverse neurodegenerative diseases.