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Feb

2026

Act Fast! Register for the FIRST ISCB UK Conference deadline for submissions for presenting your research 5th of February!

ISCB-UK 2026 welcomes abstract submissions featuring research at the forefront of bioinformatics and computational biology. We encourage the submission of original work for consideration for oral and/or poster presentation.

All presentations are categorized based on scientific topics, ensuring a cohesive organization of talks and posters. Please ensure that your abstract communicates a scientific result and refrains from serving as an advertisement for any commercial software package or products.

ISCB-UK 2026 provides a leading platform for presenting groundbreaking research, engaging with peers, and advancing computational biology. Join us in exploring cutting-edge innovations and impactful discoveries.

Submit your work and be part of this conference!

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Key Dates

Thursday, February 5, 2026	Abstracts submission deadline (for talks and/or posters) (You have until 23:59 Anywhere on Earth) *no extensions*
Saturday, February 7, 2026	Late-breaking poster submissions open
Friday, March 6, 2026	Abstract acceptance notifications sent (for talks and/or posters)
Tuesday, March 17, 2026	Late-breaking poster submissions deadline (You have until 23:59 Anywhere on Earth) *no extensions*
Friday, March 20, 2026	Late-breaking poster notifications sent
Tuesday, March 24, 2026	Confirmation of participation notices sent
Tuesday, March 31, 2026	Presenter registration deadline (for talks and/or posters)
Tuesday, March 31, 2026	Confirmation of participation form submission deadline (You have until 23:59 Anywhere on Earth) *no extensions*

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Topics and Tracks

ISCB-UK is a single track conference that embraces a broad interpretation of bioinformatics/computational biology. Topics of particular interest encompass, but are not limited to, the following:

AI and machine learning in Biology and Medicine
Bioinformatics resources and infrastructure
Databases, Ontologies and Biocuration
Disease Bioinformatics/Translational Medicine
Cancer genomics and personalised medicine
Evolutionary, Comparative Genomics and Phylogenetics
Metagenomics and Microbiome Analysis
Multi-Omic Informatics
Network Biology and Systems Biology
Protein/RNA Structure Analysis, Prediction and Design
Single-Cell Analysis
Drug Discovery and Repurposing
Bioinformatics Education
General Computational Biology

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Submission Guidelines

Any recent research, published or unpublished is eligible for submission. Presenters of accepted abstracts are required to make the presentation themselves and must register and pay to attend the conference.

Submitters may choose to have their submission reviewed for:

Talk only
Talk or oster
Poster only

If you select talk or poster, and are unsuccessful for a talk, your abstract will automatically be considered for a poster presentation. Deadlines are posted above.

Poster only submissions DO NOT require any materials to be uploaded during submission. Submissions are evaluated on the 250 word text abstract provided during submission.

This conference will feature a student-organized symposium before the main conference. The submitter will be asked to indicate their wish to be considered for presentation within this section of the conference. Students and Post-docs are strongly encouraged to consider opting into this option as well as the option to be considered for the main conference.

Participants who opt for (1) talk only or (2) talk and poster are required to submit:

Both a 250-word abstract to be posted on the conference website AND a long abstract of up to one (1) page in PDF format.

Participants who opt for (3) poster only are required to submit:

A 250-word abstract to be posted on the conference website.

All abstracts must be submitted using the conference submission site by the deadlines above.

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Review Process

All submissions will be evaluated by a program committee.

Posters advertising commercial software will be rejected from this poster session and/or removed from the conference without notice. There is a separate space for such posters in the exhibition area. If you have an industry poster, contact events@iscb.org.

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Start your submission by scanning the QR code or clicking here: https://lnkd.in/g3rFAzhz

ISCB UK 2026 provides a leading platform for presenting groundbreaking research, engaging with peers, and advancing computational biology and bioinformatics. Join us in exploring cutting-edge innovations and impactful discoveries!

Feb

2026

Mechanistic basis for relaxation of DNA supercoils by human topoisomerase IIIα–RMI1–RMI2

Dian Spakman, Andreas S. Biebricher, Anna H. Bizard, Ian D. Hickson, Erwin J. G. Peterman, Gijis, J.L. Wuite, and Graeme A. King

January 23, 2026

123 (4) e2406949123

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2406949123

Significance

The human topoisomerase IIIα–RMI1–RMI2 complex (TRR) is important for resolving entangled DNA structures known as ultrafine anaphase bridges (UFBs) during mitosis. Recent evidence suggests that this may involve the relaxation of negative supercoils generated by the protein PICH. Here, we report a single-molecule assay to measure supercoil relaxation in real time while imaging the binding of topoisomerases. Using this approach, we demonstrate that TRR can relax negative supercoils faster than they are expected to be generated by PICH. This deepens our mechanistic understanding of how TRR may facilitate UFB resolution. Moreover, we propose that our assay could be implemented to correlate protein dynamics with supercoil relaxation for other topoisomerase enzymes.

Abstract

Topoisomerase enzymes are essential for the regulation of DNA topology. Human topoisomerase IIIα is a Type 1A topoisomerase that exists as a complex with RMI1 and RMI2, known as TRR. The TRR complex can unlink entwined DNA strands and is known to be important for resolving DNA replication and recombination intermediates. It has recently been proposed that TRR can also relax transient negatively supercoiled loops of DNA generated by the translocase PICH and that this activity may help to facilitate the resolution of ultrafine anaphase bridges (UFBs) between segregating sister chromatids. However, the mechanism by which TRR interacts with, and processes, negatively supercoiled DNA is not well understood. Here, we establish a single-molecule strategy to simultaneously measure real-time changes in supercoiling density and visualize the interactions of TRR with underwound DNA using a combination of optical tweezers and fluorescence imaging. We demonstrate that TRR relaxes highly negatively supercoiled DNA in a processive manner and that the timescale for relaxation is less than the expected lifetime of the negatively supercoiled loops generated by PICH. We also show that in the absence of free protein in solution, TRR remains bound to the DNA for long time periods after the torsional stress has been released. Our findings provide a mechanistic basis for how TRR can relax negative supercoils, consistent with its proposed role in UFB resolution. Moreover, our assay could also be widely applied to study the interactions of other families of topoisomerases with negatively supercoiled DNA.

Topoisomerase enzymes are essential for regulating the topological state of DNA during processes such as DNA replication, transcription, and recombination (1–3). They achieve this by creating a transient break in DNA, through which another segment of DNA can pass. Topoisomerases can be classified into two families, referred to as Type 1 and Type 2, depending on whether they cleave one strand or both strands of the DNA (4). Both families can be further divided into different subfamilies. Type 1 topoisomerases consist of three subfamilies, known as Type 1A, Type 1B, and Type 1C (4, 5). Type 1A subfamily members are found in all domains of life and often play key roles in either maintaining supercoiling homeostasis or untangling (i.e., decatenating) entwined DNA structures (6–9). These enzymes require the presence of single-stranded (ss)DNA for catalytic activity (10–12), which often arises in negatively supercoiled (i.e., underwound) DNA (13–17) as well as in several replication/recombination intermediates, such as hemicatenanes (18–22).

Type 1A topoisomerases exhibit a highly conserved toroidal structure and alter the topological state of DNA using an enzyme-bridged strand-passage mechanism (3, 7–9), involving the following steps. First, the enzyme cleaves the ssDNA backbone, creating a covalent bond with the 5′-end of the DNA and a noncovalent interaction with the 3′-end (23–26). This generates an enzyme-bridged gate in the ssDNA that can open and close due to conformational changes in the enzyme (27–32). Upon opening of the gate, a second DNA segment (referred to as the transfer or T-strand) is able to enter the central cavity of the toroidal fold of the enzyme (28, 32). Once the second strand enters the cavity, the gate closes and the ssDNA backbone is religated, resulting in a change in the DNA linking number (Lk) of one (33–35).

Apart from reverse gyrases (36), Type 1A topoisomerases are ATP-independent and are often classified into two main subgroups, TopoI and TopoIII (4), named after the Type 1A topoisomerases in Escherichia coli. TopoI enzymes are, in general, more efficient at relaxing supercoils than (de)catenating DNA, whereas the opposite is typically the case for TopoIII enzymes (11, 37, 38). While many bacteria possess both TopoI and TopoIII, eukaryotes have only TopoIII (4), which often exists in complex with one or more OB-fold regulatory protein(s) (39–42). Higher eukaryotes typically encode two TopoIII enzymes, known as TopoIIIα and TopoIIIβ (4). TopoIIIα forms a stable complex with the OB-fold proteins RMI1 and RMI2, known as TRR (40, 41, 43). TRR can (de)catenate DNA efficiently and, together with the helicase BLM, it plays an important role in the dissolution of double Holliday junctions (19, 44–48). In addition, the TRR complex has been proposed to help resolve precatenane structures generated during replication (32).

TRR is also important for resolving ultrafine anaphase bridges (UFBs), which are entangled DNA structures that bridge the separating daughter chromosomes during anaphase (49, 50). The mechanism by which TRR contributes to UFB resolution is thought to depend on the type of UFB that is present (7, 21). For example, UFBs arising from common fragile sites likely contain incompletely replicated DNA, consisting of both double-stranded (ds)DNA and ssDNA (21). It has been proposed that TRR (acting in concert with BLM) plays a direct role in resolving these UFBs due to its abilities to bind to ssDNA and to decatenate DNA (21, 32). In contrast, UFBs linked to centromeres typically consist of fully catenated dsDNA (21). Ultimately, it is believed that the Type 2 topoisomerase TopoIIα is responsible for decatenating centromeric UFBs (21, 51–53). However, there is recent evidence that TRR may also contribute to this pathway, by cooperating with the protein PICH (7, 54), which is an ATP-dependent dsDNA translocase that is found to localize to UFBs (49, 50, 55). Recent studies have shown that the translocation activity of PICH can result in the extrusion of transient dsDNA loops (54, 56). In a torsionally constrained substrate, these loops consist of (hyper)negatively supercoiled DNA, and thus, the DNA adjacent to the loops is positively supercoiled (54). It has been demonstrated that Type 1A topoisomerases (including TRR) can relax the negative supercoils in the loops generated by PICH. This concerted action results in a substrate that is, overall, positively supercoiled. Since positively supercoiled DNA is the preferred substrate for TopoIIα (57, 58), it has been hypothesized that TRR-mediated relaxation of the negatively supercoiled loops generated by PICH may play an important role in the resolution of centromeric UFBs (7, 54).

A recent study using magnetic tweezers has demonstrated that the catalytic cycle of human TopoIIIα exhibits long pause times, during which the enzyme–ssDNA complex is thought to exist in an open, cleaved state (59). Further, it was shown that RMI1 enhances the rate of TopoIIIα binding to ssDNA and acts to stabilize the open, cleaved complex, resulting in longer pause times (59). Nonetheless, the mechanisms by which TRR interacts with and processes negatively supercoiled DNA are still not well understood, especially in the context of its proposed role in UFB resolution.

Here, we report a single-molecule assay to probe the interaction of topoisomerases with negatively supercoiled DNA, which we apply to study the mechanism of supercoil relaxation by human TRR. Our assay exploits a recently developed approach called Optical DNA Supercoiling (ODS), which enables rapid generation of negatively supercoiled DNA by using dual-trap optical tweezers (17, 60). ODS offers several advantages for the study of topoisomerase–DNA interactions. First, the negatively supercoiled substrate can be moved freely between different channels of a microfluidic flow cell, allowing rapid exchange of buffer/protein solutions. Second, ODS is readily compatible with fluorescence microscopy, offering the potential to directly visualize the binding of topoisomerases to the supercoiled DNA substrate. By applying our ODS-based assay, we demonstrate that TRR can relax hypernegatively supercoiled DNA in a highly processive manner, with single complexes capable of performing up to several thousand strand-passage reactions. Our study also indicates that the timescale for TRR-induced relaxation of hypernegatively supercoiled DNA is shorter than the previously reported average lifetime of negatively supercoiled loops generated by PICH (54). These findings provide a rationale for how TRR may relax negatively supercoiled DNA in the context of UFBs.

Link to the full PNAS article here

Dec

2025

ISMB Postdoc Selected for Prestigious Ember Programme to Pioneer Research on Artificial Mitochondria

We are proud to announce that Dr. Manoj Saxena, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology from Prof. Gabriel Waksman’s lab at Birkbeck, University of London, has been selected for the highly competitive Ember programme by Renaissance Philanthropy, powered by its activation partnership with the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).

Dr. Saxena’s project was chosen for its bold and high-impact vision: designing artificial mitochondria using a combination of protein structure prediction, cell-free expression systems, and structural biology. This work sits at the cutting edge of translational bioscience and aligns with Ember’s mission to advance “Big If True” ideas-those with the potential to transform science and society but that fall outside traditional institutional frameworks.

Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a central role in numerous devastating conditions, including stroke, neurodegeneration, aging, and inherited mitochondrial diseases. While mitochondrial transfer is a promising therapeutic strategy currently under global investigation, a reliable and scalable source of functional mitochondria remains a major hurdle. Dr. Saxena’s proposed research aims to address this by developing synthetic models of mitochondria thus creating new platforms for disease modelling and, potentially, a low-cost, bioengineered source of mitochondria for therapeutic use. Prof. Amandine Marechal, an expert in mitochondrial structural biology, will serve as Dr. Saxena’s local ISMB mentor, offering subject-specific guidance.

This ambitious project not only advances the frontier of synthetic biology but also holds real promise for tackling some of the most intractable health challenges of our time. Over next 6 month, through the Ember programme, Dr. Saxena will receive funding, mentoring, and access to a unique network of researchers working on the future of science and innovation in the UK.

We warmly congratulate Dr. Saxena on this achievement and look forward to this important milestone in his career.

Dec

2025

ImmunoMatch AI predicts accurate antibody chain pairing, accelerating therapeutic discovery

A UCL-led team has developed an AI tool to understand antibody assembly in the human body, speeding therapeutic antibody design and revealing new insights into B-cell maturation and immune responses.

Researchers have developed a powerful new artificial intelligence tool, ImmunoMatch, that can predict which antibody components naturally pair together. This advance can significantly accelerate antibody-based drug development and deepen our understanding of how the immune system works.

Antibodies, the proteins our bodies use to detect and neutralize pathogens, are built from two parts: a heavy chain and a light chain. Each B cell produces a unique combination, but only certain pairs form stable, functional antibodies. Until now, deciphering which heavy and light chain sequences naturally pair, or form stable pairs when engineered, has remained a major challenge. Challenging the belief that pairing occurs in a random fashion, the researchers used Artificial Intelligence on millions of paired heavy and light chains to show that their pairing is predictable. The resulting computational tool, ImmunoMatch, offers unprecedented speed and accuracy in identifying correct pairings.

Using thousands of real antibody sequences from healthy human donors, the UCL-led research team trained a machine-learning model to recognise subtle patterns that distinguish true biological heavy–light chain pairs from random combinations. The resulting system can score how likely any two chains are to form a compatible antibody.

The tool performed strongly across training and independent datasets, outperforming traditional approaches that rely on simple gene usage or antibody hypervariable regions. Importantly, it also proved effective on spatial VDJ sequencing data, where heavy and light chains are measured in tissue samples but not captured as pairs. Using ImmunoMatch, researchers could reconstruct probable pairings from these complex datasets, opening new possibilities for studying immune responses within tumours, lymph nodes and other tissues.

The study also revealed a previously unrecognized biological trend: as B cells mature, their antibody chains show increasingly specific and optimized pairing. This suggests that part of the immune system’s refinement process involves fine-tuning which chains work best together.

For the first time, we can computationally infer which heavy and light chains truly belong together. ImmunoMatch paves the way to learn the rules governing how functional antibodies are assembled to overcome different immune challenges. It gives researchers a window into the hidden logic of antibody pairing and we believe it will greatly speed up the discovery and engineering of therapeutic antibodies.”

Corresponding authors Franca Fraternali and Joseph Ng

ImmunoMatch could help scientists more rapidly design therapeutic antibodies, prioritise stable chain combinations and explore the immune system in unprecedented detail using large-scale sequencing datasets.

Dec

2025

Wellcome Trust Discovery Award

Prof Finn Werner has received an eight-year Wellcome Trust Discovery Award (2025-2033) to support a research program entitled A Holistic View of Gene Expression in Archaea (Figure A). This work will investigate the molecular mechanisms and structural foundations that link RNA polymerase with the pioneering ribosome (B). His laboratory’s genome-scale analyses, which relate dynamic RNA polymerase occupancy to RNA output, have reshaped current understanding of how polymerase movement influences mRNA levels (Blombach, F., et al. Nat Comm 12, 5524 (2021); Smollett, K., et al. Nat Microbiol 2, 17021 (2017). Building on this foundation, the new program will examine transcription within the broader context of translation, allowing us to address fundamental questions about how cells coordinate changes in the transcriptome and proteome and how information flows between the transcription and translation machinery (C) – work that aims to drive a significant advance in the field.

Figure (A) Happy Principle Investigator. (B) S. solfataricus coupled RNAP-ribosome complexes. (C) A previously unrecognised regulatory mechanism in which the ribosome feeds back to RNA polymerase, allowing it to sense and respond to the cell’s metabolic state.

CAS Distinguished Scientist
Prof Finn Werner has been awarded the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) Distinguished Scientist Fellowship through the President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI). This fellowship will support deeper collaboration with two leading research groups headed by Profs Jie Li and Chengyuan Wang at the CAS Beijing Institute of Microbiology and the CAS Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection. Over the past three years, Finn has worked closely with scientists across China, including at universities in Beijing, Harbin, Qingdao, and Zhengzhou. He views China’s rapidly advancing research landscape and remarkable work ethic as offering valuable opportunities for UK scientists who are looking to engage globally and drive ambitious science forward.

Nov

2025

Prof Laura Landweber, Columbia University, NYC, USA

Date: November 24^th, 2025

Time: 1300-1400 hrs

Location: AZ Young LT, Anatomy building

Title: ‘The Mechanism and Origin of RNA-Guided Genome Editing in the Ciliate Oxytricha’

Abstract. Oxytricha is a single-celled eukaryote with multiple nuclei and two distinct nuclear genomes. In a feat of natural genome engineering, massive DNA rearrangements rebuild a product somatic genome from a much larger, precursor germline genome, after two cells mate. This process actively destroys nearly all non-coding DNA and rearranges over 225,000 remaining short DNA pieces to build thousands of new gene-sized chromosomes during development. Noncoding RNAs orchestrate the entire process of natural genome editing. In this talk, I will discuss our understanding of the RNA-guided mechanism and evolutionary origin of this extreme case of natural genome editing.

Biography. Laura is a Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. She was previously on the faculty at Princeton from 1994-2016, and a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where she received her PhD. She has served as President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in 2017. Awards include an NIH Outstanding Investigator Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Blavatnik award for young scientists. She was elected a Fellow of AAAS for probing the diversity of genetic systems in microbial eukaryotes, including scrambled genes, RNA editing, variant genetic codes, and comparative genomics. https://systemsbiology.columbia.edu/news/qa-with-dr-laura-landweber

Oct

2025

Unlocking the frontier: Understanding ARIA

October 30, 2025 | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM organised by Alice Pettitt (former ISMB PhD student).Venue: Fora – The Jellicoe Building, 5 Beaconsfield Street, London N1C 4EW

To sign up and see the session information, click here.

ARIA funds breakthrough R&D in underexplored areas to catalyse new paths to prosperity for the UK and the world. They empower scientists and engineers to pursue research that is too speculative, too hard, or too interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere. ARIA’s programmes are shaped and led by their Programme Directors, scientific and technical leaders with deep expertise and a focused, creative vision for how technology can enable a better future.

Key objectives for the event:
> Gain a deeper understanding of ARIA’s work and mission by shifting the conversation from their current efforts to the next frontiers in science and technology.
> Engage directly with ARIA’s specialists in a hands-on session, offering a unique opportunity to brainstorm new ideas and contribute to their future strategy.
> Discover upcoming funding opportunities, learn about their current grantees, and get your questions answered in an open Q&A forum.

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Sep

2025

Prof Jinbiao Ma , from the University of Fudan (Shangai) is vising London this week

Friday 3rd October, 2pm Anatomy G04 Gavin de Beer LT.

Prof Jinbiao Ma https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nFrDcpsAAAAJ&hl=en, from the University of Fudan (Shangai) is vising London this week, and will present his work on “Recognition and mechanisms of Y RNAs and Z RNAs” on Friday Oct 3rd, 2 pm, Anatomy G04 Gavin de Beer LT. This is exciting, novel work at the boundary of Structural biology, RNA biology and Immunology and we thought may be of interest to many.

Sep

2025

Group Leader Research Fellowship Sponsorship Scheme at UCL

Ref Number B02-09367
Professional Expertise Research and Research Support Department School of Life & Medical Sciences (B02)
Location London
Working Pattern Full time
Salary See advert text
Contract Type Fixed-term
Working Type On site
Available for Secondment No
Closing Date 13-Oct-2025

APPLY NOW

About us

The Research Department of Structural and Molecular Biology (SMB) is a world leading academic centre that promotes multi-disciplinary research at the interface of structural, computational and chemical biology, pioneering multi-disciplinary approaches aimed to bridge across the scales of biology, and methods to integrate disparate data across the disciplines.

Our research portfolio encompasses several foci, including (i) gene expression & RNA biology, (ii) protein folding, membranes & trafficking, (iii) microbiology & synthetic biology, (iv) metabolism, cancer & biological chemistry and (v) evolution, computational biology with AI & deep learning (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/structural-and-molecular-biology/).

About the role

We invite Expressions of Interest from early career researchers who wish to be sponsored for external fellowships that will enable them to establish an independent research group at SMB, via a tenure-track like process (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/structural-and-molecular-biology/research-fellowships). Such fellowships include: Wellcome Trust Career Development Award, MRC Career Development Award, CRUK Career Development Fellowship, ERC Starting Grant, Royal Society URF, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, EPSRC Open Fellowship and similar awards.

Our research fellows make vital contributions to our research department. They bring energy and prestige, novel and original research questions and approaches and new collaborative opportunities, as they widen or deepen our current research portfolio. We run two selection rounds per year. The closing day/time for this round is Monday 13 October 2025, 23:59 BST.

We welcome applications with research focus on Structural and Molecular Biology with particular interest in the areas of Engineering Biology, Integrative Biology – including Omics and Computational Biology – and Microbiology.

About you

Prospective candidates will have an exceptional track record appropriate for their career stage and have to demonstrate their potential to attract competitive fellowships. Following application, selected candidates will be invited to give a research seminar and attend an interview with the Fellowship Panel via an online platform on Tuesday 11 November 2025.

Successful candidates will be invited to visit our Research Department, with opportunities to meet staff, students and current fellows informally and engage in short meetings with selected group leaders. Eligibility: Candidates should confirm their eligibility for specific fellowships schemes and will be required to provide evidence of eligibility to work in the UK before commencing any fellowship offered.

To apply, please submit: 1) a short CV with names of referees; 2) a two-page research vision/draft fellowship application; 3) a cover letter explaining how your proposal is suitable for the fellowship scheme(s) you are interested in, a timeline for application(s), and how you see this research programme fitting into the SMB Research Department. Further information can be found here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/structural-and-molecular-biology/fellowships-application-process

What we offer

Successful candidates will receive substantial support for the preparation of their Fellowship applications including mock interviews.

Candidates that are successful in securing a fellowship are supported by and embedded into a closely-knit network of colleagues.

They receive laboratory and office space, access to state-of-the-art equipment and expertise and access to research students from a range of 4-year PhD programmes.

In addition, we provide bespoke mentoring and continued professional training. We expect fellows to develop into strong candidates for permanent positions within the department, or elsewhere. In line with this ethos, a large proportion of our past fellows have progressed to permanent positions at SMB.

For informal enquiries, please contact the SMB fellowship coordinators at smb-fellowship@ucl.ac.uk.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent.

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality.

Sep

2025

New technologies to boost health, farming and food security

10 September 2025

UK bioscience is set to benefit from cutting-edge research tools accelerating advances in health, climate-smart farming, sustainable food and drug discovery.

Thirty-one new technology awards will equip scientists with the infrastructure they need to answer some of the most pressing challenges in biology and beyond.

These include imaging tools that reveal how cells behave in real time, to a mobile platform that tracks carbon movement on farms.

The awards are funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to the tune of £27 million.

World class-infrastructure

They have been made under BBSRC’s ALERT scheme, which is designed to ensure UK bioscience researchers have access to the latest mid-range equipment and technical expertise.

This ranges from funding upgrades and ‘workhorse’ equipment to cutting-edge technologies and lab-to-field platforms.

Dr Amanda Collis, Executive Director for Research Strategy and Programmes at BBSRC, said:

This funding strengthens the UK’s bioscience capability by investing in advanced research equipment, enabling transformative science and fostering collaboration. In doing this, we are supporting world-class infrastructure that drives discovery and innovation essential to deliver real-world impacts and transform lives.

Tackling urgent real-world challenges

The technologies funded through ALERT will enable transformative outcomes.

Unlocking new approaches to tissue regeneration

A dedicated axolotl research facility at the University of Edinburgh, the only one in the UK, will help researchers investigate how these rare amphibians regenerate limbs, spinal cords and organs.

This could lead to long-term breakthroughs in how we treat injuries and degenerative diseases.

Supporting sustainable agriculture and net zero

A mobile carbon flux tracking platform at Lancaster University will help researchers measure how carbon moves through UK farmland.

This will provide critical data for improving soil health, land use policy and climate-smart farming practices.

Exploring brain function across the lifespan

The University of Birmingham will establish a wearable brain-imaging platform to track neural activity from infancy to old age in real-world settings.

By leveraging an emerging quantum technology to overcome the limitations of existing brain imaging methods, this breakthrough could transform our understanding of brain development, social interaction, education and future healthcare.

Improving human health and resilience

New high-resolution imaging systems and advanced analytical tools across the UK will enhance our understanding of fundamental biology and immune responses to help tackle cancer, neurological and infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance.

Boosting food security and nutrition

Upgraded nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and genomics platforms will support research into crop development, food digestion and the design of future foods with targeted health benefits.

Building capacity across the UK

The ALERT programme supports the wider bioscience ecosystem, with nine of the funded projects being led by research technical professionals.

These roles are critical in ensuring complex research infrastructure is expertly maintained, operated and embedded into UK research environments.

ALERT in action

Launched in 2013, ALERT has supported more than 300 awards across the UK, providing the bioscience community with access to essential equipment that drives innovation and delivers research with impact.

Weather in the lab

A new £1.5 million Global Meteorological Simulator has been launched at the University of Exeter, creating a groundbreaking way to ‘bring the weather into the lab’.

This state-of-the-art facility can replicate wind, rain, mist and future climate scenarios, enabling researchers to study how crops and pollinators respond to changing conditions.

Early projects include investigating how rice diseases spread in tropical climates and how bees adapt to abrupt weather changes.

Funded by BBSRC’s ALERT 2022 scheme, with additional support from the University of Exeter, the simulator is one of only a few in the world capable of combining multiple weather variables simultaneously.

By enabling experiments that would be impossible in the field, it provides scientists with a powerful tool to tackle urgent challenges in food security, crop resilience and pollination under climate change.

Skin-swab breakthrough for Parkinson’s

A breakthrough in Parkinson’s disease diagnosis is emerging from The University of Manchester, powered by BBSRC ALERT funding awarded in 2014.

Researchers have developed a simple skin-swab test that can identify Parkinson’s far earlier and more accurately than current methods.

The funding enabled the purchase of cutting-edge mass spectrometry equipment, allowing researchers to analyse chemical changes in sebum, the oily substance produced by skin.

Using high-resolution mass spectrometry, the team uncovered unique molecular signatures linked to Parkinson’s, creating a new diagnostic pathway.

The impact to date has been significant:

the research has moved from fundamental science to a diagnostic tool now being trialled in NHS clinics
it demonstrates how BBSRC-funded infrastructure enables discovery research that can translate into health innovation
The University of Manchester is collaborating with healthcare partners to bring the test into routine practice, with the potential to transform lives and livelihoods through early diagnosis for thousands of patients

Miniature models, major breakthroughs

In 2022, BBSRC’s ALERT funding enabled the Royal Veterinary College to launch a pioneering organ-on-a-chip facility, now central to their new Centre for Vaccinology and Regenerative Medicine.

This cutting-edge microfluidic technology replicates animal tissue environments, such as barriers and organs, within miniature chips to model how diseases, vaccines and therapies interact in realistic physiological contexts.

The facility supports research on host-pathogen interactions, vaccine development and regenerative medicine.

Further, it significantly reduces reliance on live animal testing, advancing both scientific understanding and the 3Rs principles (replacement, reduction and refinement).

BlueCryo powers COVID discovery

In 2017, BBSRC’s ALERT scheme provided critical support to establish BlueCryo, a high-performance computing cluster at the University of Bristol dedicated to cryo-EM image processing.

This advanced infrastructure significantly accelerated 3D structural biology analysis across multiple research domains.

The real-world impact of this investment became clear in March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Bristol researchers leveraged cryo-EM supported by BlueCryo to unravel the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein.

This breakthrough revealed a conserved fatty acid binding pocket across deadly coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV, MERS and Omicron strains.

The discovery is now informing the development of pan-coronavirus antivirals, offering therapeutics that could address both current and future outbreaks.

BlueCryo demonstrates how strategic infrastructure funding can enable rapid, globally relevant scientific advances.

Full article here