Insight on Research

Using genetic code expansion techniques, Jason Chin’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division have designed a new mechanism-based, light-activated technique to trap and identify new protease and other hydrolase substrates.

Using synthetic biological techniques, Michael Hastings’ group have collaborated with Jason Chin to gain novel insights into the molecular and cellular processes which govern the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and identified a key regulatory role of cryptochrome clock proteins.

Collaboration between Sjors Scheres’ (Structural Studies), Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon’s and Michel Goedert’s (both Neurobiology) groups have used cryo-EM to reveal structures of Aβ42 filaments, the key factor behind the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Cryo-EM analysis of TDP-43 filaments by Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon’s group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division has revealed the atomic structure of the characterising feature of neurodegenerative diseases ALS and FTD.

DNA damage caused by formaldehyde is repaired involving CSA and CSB genes. KJ Patel’s lab have shown how, when this pathway is mutated such as in people with Cockayne syndrome, the appetite suppression hormone GDF15 is released leading to severe weight loss.

Time-lapse quantitative study of developing salivary glands in Drosophila embryos, conducted by Katja Röper’s group, reveals the key control factors behind cells’ behavioural transitions that are essential for correct organ formation.