Structural and Molecular Cell Biology
Our research focuses on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of cell structure and function, uncovering insights into cellular processes that can lead to advancements in medical treatments and biotechnology.
To achieve our aim, our research encompasses a wide range of research objectives: from the unraveling of molecular mechanisms of gene regulation and expression, through to their influence on metabolism and the molecular pharmacology of receptors, and from the molecular pathways of cell-to-cell communication, vesicle trafficking and intracellular cell signaling, to the cellular mechanisms of cell migration, proliferation, cell survival, cell death, neural circuit formation and modification, that collectively drive and maintain organismal development, homeostasis and behaviour.
We aim to understand how these processes take place normally in development and in health, and how alterations underlie human disease and ageing, with a particular emphasis in, cardiovascular disease, cancer (particularly leukaemia and lymphoma), endochrinology, injury and trauma, regeneration and repair. Understanding these fundamental underpinning processes is essential to finding therapeutic interventions to cell damage, injury and disease states.
Research facilities
Our research uses cutting edge facilities at the School of Biosciences, and our researchers have a direct involvement in the creation and direction of some of them:
- Birmingham Advanced Light Microscopy facility (BALM) - for in vivo and in vitro fluorescent imaging particularly with widefield, TIRF snd Laser Scanning Confocal microscopy.
- Functional Genomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility - for high-throughput sequencing, RNA-seq and Chi-seq
- Advanced Mass Spectrometry facility - (Director: Helen Cooper): for identification and characterization of proteins and protein modifications.
- Birmingham Biophysical Characterisation Facility (BBCF) - for analysis of protein structure
- Phenome Centre Birmingham: for high throughput metabolic phenotyping of the human population applying mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy
- Birmingham Fly Facility Facility: to breed fruit-flies and share know-how in modern reverse and forward genetics.
- Transmission Electron Microscopy: to visualize cellular components and processes with high resolution