Launching today, Tuesday 12th May, the COVID-19 Protein Portal allows UK scientists to access protein reagents for critical research relating to SARS-CoV-2. Protein reagents are provided free of charge by a consortium of leading protein production laboratories, in an Open Science initiative led by Wellcome and UKRI.

Despite the coronavirus lockdown, researchers from MRC PPU are continuing to attend online meetings, seminars and conferences to share ideas with researchers around the world.

University of Dundee researchers are studying a protein that aids the spread of COVID-19 in the hope of finding ways of blocking its function.

Mutations in genes encoding PINK1 (PTEN-induced kinase 1) are a leading cause of autosomal recessive early-onset Parkinson’s disease. PINK1 is a protein kinase that is activated upon mitochondrial damage to phosphorylate Ubiquitin and Parkin to stimulate Parkin E3 ligase activity and is a master-regulator of mitochondrial quality control.

Life may be dominated by COVID-19, but we are still pleased to see that our protocol for utilizing human peripheral blood neutrophils for research into the Parkinson’s disease associated LRRK2 kinase has been published.

New research by Greg Findlay’s group in the MRC-PPU has identified a signalling system that controls embryonic stem cell development, which has implications for understanding how tissues form within the mammalian embryo.

Miratul Muqit has been elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland’s National Academy. The 2020 intake of Fellows join the current roll of 1600 and are elected from a wide range of disciplines including physical and life sciences, arts, industry, and public life.

A pioneering collaboration between the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI) and the Medical Research Council’s Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) will use the very latest advances in technology to study rare cell populations and the role of proteins in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Greg Findlay and Francisco Bustos, a postdoctoral researcher in Greg’s group, were recently awarded a £20,000 Tenovus Scotland Research Grant to engineer an RNF12 E3 ligase substrate degrader as a therapeutic strategy in Tonne-Kalscheuer Syndrome (TOKAS) intellectual disability.

Professor Ian Shanks FRS and his daughter Dr Emma Shanks visited the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) on January 23rd to hear about the research being undertaken.