Generation of new knowledge
By working with our communities, we expect to achieve significant advances in the generation of new knowledge.
Gut feeling: Dissecting the genetic basis of coeliac disease
Professor David van Heel and colleagues have identified new genetic regions linked to coeliac disease, and have begun to explore how the function of the immune system is altered in the disease.
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Secrets of secretion: Characterising type IV secretion systems in Gram-negative bacteria
Type IV secretion is an important process in Gram-negative bacteria, allowing bacteria to exchange genetic material (including drug-resistance genes), and pathogenic bacteria to secrete disease-causing molecules. Professor Gabriel Waksman and colleagues have spent a number of years producing 3D structures of the 12 proteins that make up this secretion system.
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Mapping copy number variation in the human genome
Dr Matthew Hurles at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has led a landmark study of a previously underestimated source of genetic variation in humans.
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Pregnancy and the immune system
Professor Ian Sargent has shown that the maternal immune response in pre-eclampsia differs from normal pregnancy only in its severity.
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Characterisation of caliciviruses
Dr Ian Goodfellow is exploring the interactions between host cells and calciviruses (noroviruses and sapoviruses) - the leading cause of viral gastroenteritis in the developed world.
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Seeing and hearing music: towards a psychology of aesthetic judgement
Samantha Moore's animations of synaesthetes' visual responses to music are being used by Dr Jamie Ward to study our aesthetic response to the arts.
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An energetic approach to metabolic research
Professor Stephen O'Rahilly's studies of patients with severe insulin resistance are illuminating the normal action of insulin in the body and the causes of diabetes.
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Wiring up the nervous system
Dr Patricia Salinas is investigating the development of the connections between nerves, research that could to new ways of regenerating nerves following injury and brain damage.
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Exploring cytoadherence in malaria
Dr Chetan Chitnis is investigating how the malaria parasite invades human red blood cells, and why infected cells stick to capillaries.
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Professor Peter Barnes: Understanding and treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Professor Barnes's research has helped explain why COPD and severe asthma are resistant to treatment with steroids.
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Mapping Plasmodium falciparum malaria
Professor Bob Snow and Dr Simon Hay, with colleagues in Kenya, Thailand and the University of Oxford, have produced new estimates of the global burden of malaria.
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Potential 'survivor' DNA identified
Professor Patrick Chinnery and colleagues have found that patients with a certain type of mitochondrial DNA are more likely to survive serious infections.
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Maintaining genetic integrity
Dr Tomo Tanaka has helped to characterise the molecular mechanisms underpinning proper chromosome segregation
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