The MRC PPU’s collaboration with the MRC CVR in Glasgow to generate a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus Toolkit has yielded its second important publication.

Giulia Saredi, a postdoctoral researcher in John Rouse’s group, has been awarded a SULSA Early Career Researcher Development funding grant. Giulia’s research proposal relates to her project ‘Faithful chromatin maintenance and germline integrity in C. elegans’. SULSA, the Scottish University Life Sciences Alliance, recently set up this award to support postdocs in exploring their own independent research. The award covers reagents, and collaboration and travel expenses.

Satpal Virdee and his research group in the MRC PPU have uncovered a striking new role for a family of enzymes in a vital pathway that regulates cell activity and underpins our understanding of health and disease - the result of nearly a decade of collective and sustained scientific efforts to understand the ubiquitin pathway. 

Wnt signalling pathway is fundamental during development but it’s overactivity drives many cancers, particularly colorectal cancers (CRCs). New research led by Karen Dunbar (postdoctoral fellow in Sapkota lab) has uncovered FAM83F as a novel mediator of the Wnt signalling pathway. Through a collaboration with Smith lab (The Francis Crick Institute), the team were able to demonstrate that FAM83F was critical in driving Wnt signalling in both Xenopus embryos and many different cancer cell lines.

To help support worldwide research on LRRK2 biology, the groups of Dario Alessi and Miratul Muqit (University of Dundee) Suzanne Pfeffer and Monther Abu-Remaileh (Stanford University) have generated an LRRK2 Toolkit website (https://LRRK2.bio/) in which all of their cDNA clones, antibodies, proteins, cell lines a …more

To help support worldwide research on LRRK2 biology, the groups of Dario Alessi and Miratul Muqit (University of Dundee) Suzanne Pfeffer and Monther Abu-Remaileh (Stanford University) have generated an LRRK2 Toolkit website (https://LRRK2.bio/) in which all of their cDNA clones, antibodies, proteins, cell lines a …more

Dr Yogesh Kulathu, MRC Investigator and Group Leader at the MRC PPU has just been awarded an European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant of 2.1 million euros, that will enable his team to develop new technologies and methodologies to investigate unexplored areas of ubiquitin biology.

Dysfunctional mitochondria have been linked to a range of rare diseases, such as MELAS (Mitochondrial Encephalopathy, Lactic acidosis, and Stroke-like episodes), Pearson Syndrome and mitochondrial DNA depletion, as well as more prevalent diseases, including Parkinson’s. Mitophagy is the process by which mitochondria are removed from a cell and is one way a cell can rid itself faulty mitochondria so they can be replaced. If the faulty mitochondria are allowed to persist, they can lead to irreversible cell damage, causing disease and even death. …more

Congratulations to MRC PPU PIs Gopal Sapkota and Satpal Virdee who have been promoted to Professorial Chairs by the University of Dundee. 

Congratulations to MRC PPU PIs Gopal Sapkota and Satpal Virdee who have been promoted to Professorial Chairs by the University of Dundee.