Day: 5 September 2019

Sep

2019

Dr Anthony Roberts’s group determine the cryo-EM structure of the molecular motor dynein-2

Work from Dr Anthony Roberts’s laboratory in the ISMB, in collaboration with Dr Andrew Carter’s group at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge, has determined the cryo-EM structure of the motor protein dynein-2, which transports cargoes and signalling molecules within cilia and flagella. Dynein-2 is fundamental to human development and its dysfunction is associated with short-rib thoracic dysplasias with or without polydactyly; inherited disorders characterised by abnormal rib cage development with severe, often life-threatening, consequences.

The research – which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, BBSRC and MRC – is published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-019-0286-y

The Roberts group was recently awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship to further their studies on the mechanism of transport within cilia and flagella.

Sep

2019

Two new grants awarded to Dr Giulia Zanetti’s research group

Dr Giulia Zanetti’s research group has been awarded two new grants.

A European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant was awarded for a project which shows how coat assembly can deliver the flexibility necessary to accommodate a wide variety of cargo proteins, and how the process can be regulated. Her focus is on COPII coat, which mediates export from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of about a third of newly synthesized proteins. The aim of the project is to understand the molecular interactions between coat components and understand their role in determination of coat architecture and membrane shape.

Full details are available here.

A Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant was awarded for another project whose overall objective is to dissect the molecular mechanisms involved in COPII coat budding, and in particular to assess the dynamic regulation of the various levels of coat assembly and its role in flexible membrane remodelling.

Further details of Dr Zanetti’s research can be found on her lab website.

Sep

2019

Research symposium to be held in honour of Willie Taylor on 20th September

Patterns in Protein Sequence and Structure (Reloaded)

This research symposium will be held at Birkbeck in honour of Willie Talyor on 20th September 2019, celebrating 40 years of his pioneering research in computational biology.

This symposium will bring together past and current collaborators and scientists inspired by Willie Taylor’s research. For those wondering about the title, this symposium also marks 30 years since the landmark conference of the same name was held at EMBL in Heidelberg, which in many respects marked the start of the modern bioinformatics era. Willie was one of the organisers of that meeting, and a number of the speakers from that conference will also be speaking in this symposium.

Full details and tickets are available here.