News

Alexia Kalogeropulou

MRC PPU PhD students uncover new clues about activation of Parkinson’s associated LRRK2 kinase

Missense mutations that hyperactivate the LRRK2 protein kinase are a common cause of familial Parkinson’s disease. Recruitment of LRRK2 to membranes leads to its activation, where it phosphorylates a group of Rab GTPase proteins, including Rab10 and Rab12, within the effector-binding switch-II motif.

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Nicola Darling and Kris Clark

Impact of MRC PPU research highlighted by the development of novel anti-inflammatory drugs

Research by Kris Clark, a former postdoc in Philip Cohen's lab, led to the discovery eight years ago that the SIK subfamily of protein kinases suppress the production of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 by phosphorylating and inactivating CRTC3, co-activator of the transcription factor CREB.

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Marianna Longo and Maria Zachari

Ganley Lab uses small molecule kinase inhibitors to clarify ULK1’s role in autophagy

Autophagy is a key cellular process that degrades unwanted, damaged or toxic cellular intracellular components and its dysfunction has been linked to many diseases ranging from cancer to neurodegeneration. The kinase ULK1 is critical in initiating autophagy and is thus an attractive therapeutic target, yet we do not fully understand how ULK1 controls autophagy induction.

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Fetal mouse cortical neurons cultured for 12 days in vitro and stained for RNF12 E3 ubiquitin ligase (green), MAP2 neuronal marker protein (red) and Hoechst for DNA (blue). These images show that RNF12 is localised to the nucleus in neurons, primarily as a result of direct SRSF protein kinase (SRPK) phosphorylation. This confirms that the SRPK-RNF12 axis, a new neurodevelopmental signalling pathway reported in this paper, is active in neuronal cells.

Newly discovered pathway sheds light on the underpinnings of intellectual disability

Latest research from Greg Findlay’s lab in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) is published today in Developmental Cell.

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Adam Fletcher

Adam Fletcher awarded prestigious UKRI fellowship to open a laboratory at the University of Glasgow

MRC PPU Postdoc Dr Adam Fletcher has been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship by UKRI, to begin his independent research programme at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre

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MRC PPU Stanford Team receive international research award to investigate LRRK2 driven Parkinson’s biology

Dario Alessi and Miratul Muqit together with Stanford University researchers Suzanne Pfeffer and

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Tricia at a meeting in New York in 2003

Tricia Cohen’s scientific career

Tricia Cohen, co-founding Principal Investigator of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit died from Lymphoma on August 2020. She was 76. …more

First MRC PPU remote summer studentship completed

While SLS summer school students in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit usually expect to gain wet lab experience and benefit from working alongside PhD students and postdoctoral researchers on the bench, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on this year’s programme as access to the labs was restricted and placements cancelled.

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Tom Deegan

New paper from Karim Labib’s lab reveals the mechanism and regulation of replisome disassembly

In this new paper, published in eLife, a team of researchers led by Dr. Tom Deegan in Karim Labib’s lab have recapitulated the ubiquitylation and disassembly of the eukaryotic replisome in a test tube using over 50 purified proteins.

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Dario Alessi

MRC PPU renews Dundee’s Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) Collaboration

We are delighted that Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck KGaA have pledged £7.5 million to allow the University of Dundee’s Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) to continue its collaborative work.

The DSTT comprises 23 research teams at Dundee’s School of Life Sciences, 13 of which are based within the MRC PPU.

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