Local fundraiser Marc van Grieken so enjoyed his recent visit to the MRC PPU he returned this week, bringing friends and family along with him to learn more about our ongoing research into Parkinson's disease.

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Ever wondered what the inside of a lab looks like? We’ll be hosting an open day on Saturday 16 June so please join us to explore the world of medical research.

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In a paper just published in Molecular Cell, Dominka Kwasna from Yogesh Kulathu’s group at the MRC PPU, in collaboration with Ian Gibbs-Seymour at the University of Oxford, reports the discovery of a completely new class of enzymes that is important for protecting the cell’s DNA from damage.

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The Wnt signalling pathway plays fundamental roles in shaping developing embryos and controlling cell fate in adults. Mutations that cause slight alterations in Wnt signalling are associated with developmental defects as well as a myriad of diseases, such as cancer.

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A Parkinson’s patient who has lived with the disease for more than a decade has visited the MRC PPU to present £70,000 to researchers and find out more about how it will be spent.  …more

The ability of cells to move is crucial for many biological processes during development, and for normal tissue growth and repair. Cancer cells can usurp normal cellular processes and make them hyperactive, which leads to inappropriate cell movement that can contribute to metastasis. Understanding the molecular processes that regulate cell migration could uncover novel therapeutic targets against diseases such as cancer. …more

Mitophagy is the autophagic removal of damaged or impaired mitochondria. A new study published in Cell Metabolism from Ian Ganley and colleagues, shows for the first time that dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra undergo a striking amount of mitophagy. This is important because it is this population of neurons that degenerate in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and impaired mitophagy has been implicated in this pathology. …more

Many congratulations to Pat Eyers, a PhD student in Philip Cohen’s laboratory in the MRC PPU from 1996-2000, who has just been promoted to Professor at the University of Liverpool’s, Department of Biochemistry.

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Much research has focused on understanding how mutations in a protein kinase termed LRRK2, predisposes to Parkinson’s disease. Most pathogenic mutations occur within the kinase domain (G2019S) and GTPase ROC/COR domain (R1441G and Y1699C) of LRRK2.

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Yu-Chiang Lai, a postdoc in Miratul Muqit’s lab at the MRC PPU, has been awarded a Birmingham Fellowship to establish his lab, aiming to understand the molecular mechanism of skeletal muscle atrophy and how exercise can improve health. …more