An award of £6.3 million has been made to Professor Kim Nasmyth, Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, to establish a new Institute of Chromosome Biology (ICB).

The ICB, which will occupy the entire third floor of the new Oxford Centre for Cell and Molecular Biology, will house Professor Nasmyth's own research group, as well as other research groups investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in chromosome replication, recombination, repair and gene regulation.

Professor Nasmyth is a world leader in the mechanisms of chromosome behaviour during cell division, particularly in yeast.