MRC PPU researchers partnered with the Tropicalist Trust to run an event for school pupils in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, northern India to inspire them to consider a career in science.

The event took place online, with over 40 pupils attending from local high schools in the cold desert area of Kargil in the Himalayas. The remote location presented technology challenges, but after date and venue changes in order to find a reliable internet connection the event successfully took place on 6th September 2021.

Research from the MRC PPU has shed new light into how immune cells  tolerate the presence of harmless food and symbiotic bacteria in the gut, preventing needless immune responses and inflammation in the gut. The new study is published in eLife.

We are delighted to announce that Virginia has been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, one of the UK’s flagship fellowship schemes for early career investigators, in addition to being promoted to an independent Investigator position within the MRC-PPU.

MRC-PPU Postdoctoral Researcher Francisco Bustos has been appointed Assistant Professor at Sanford Research, South Dakota USA

Edmond (Eddy) Fischer, who discovered the first enzyme regulated by reversible protein phosphorylation, died on August 27th 2021. He was 101. His fundamental discovery, which led to the realization that this process controls most aspects of cell life, earned Eddy together with his colleague, friend and collaborator Edwin Krebs, the 1992 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is characterised by the loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. The physiological and molecular mechanisms leading to this neuronal loss are currently unclear; however, mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction seem to play a central disease role. Mitophagy, the lysosomal turnover of mitochondria, is a quality control mechanism that links both these organelles and is used by cells to recycle old, damaged and dysfunctional mitochondria. A failure of this pathway is very detrimental to cell health. …more

In a new paper just published in The EMBO Journal, Yisui Xia, Ryo Fujisawa, Remi Sonneville & Tom Deegan from Karim Labib’s group in the MRC PPU have revealed the mechanism of replisome disassembly in animal cells, using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system.

Postdoctoral researchers from MRC PPU (University of Dundee) are pleased to be involved in organizing the 6th Scottish Biomedical Postdoctoral Researcher Conference, along with postdoctoral societies at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (University of Edinburgh) and CRUK Beatson Institute (University of Glasgow).

Mahima Swamy lab in the MRCPPU, have identified a new potential drug target for coeliac disease that could relieve inflammation and unlock alternative treatment options.

Her lab has investigated how the cytokine IL-15 leads to activation of intestinal immune cells, and discovered the PIM kinases as potential new drug targets for Coeliac disease.

Seven new papers have been published today in The Biochemical Journal, representing a major collaboration between multiple groups at the Francis Crick Institute in London, University College London and The University of Dundee.  Led by John Diffley at the Francis Crick Institute, with important contributions in Dundee from the groups of Yogesh Kulathu and Karim Labib in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, together with  …more