Yale-UCL Senior Scientist Lecture Series, 2011
Mark Marsh
LMCB, MRC Cell Biology Unit & Department of Developmental Biology, UCL
1
School of Life and Medical Sciences
•
SLMS has 2,562 members of research and academic staff.
•
UCL was ranked 4th for medicine in the 2011 Guardian University guide.
•
UCL has one of England’s five Comprehensive Biomedical Research
Centres.
•
UCL Partners is one of the UK’s five Academic Health Science Centres.
•
The Medical Research Council granted UCL the largest amount of funding
and highest number of awards in 2008/2009.
•
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, 70–80% of research in the
Life and Medical Sciences was graded as 3* or 4*
•
SLMS boasts the UK’s strongest medical research grouping
(research power score, RAE 2008)
SLMS domains
NEUROSCI.
CANCER
CARDIO
METABOLIC
DISCOVERY SCIENCE
EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE
BASIC
RESEARCH
SCIENCE
POPULATION HEALTH
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
PARTNERSHIPS
EDUCATION
INFECT. /
IMM. /
INFLAM.
REPRO &
FRONTIER
DEVELPMNT. DISCIPLINES
UKCMRI
UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation
•
A world-class centre for interdisciplinary
medical sciences, research and
innovation
•
Situated at the heart of a cluster of
scientific excellence in central London
•
A partnership of four of the world’s
leading medical research organisations:
–
–
–
–
•
Medical Research Council,
Cancer Research UK
Wellcome Trust
UCL
Bringing together two of the country’s
leading centres of medical research:
–
–
National Institute for Medical Research
London Research Institute
UCL Faculty of Life Sciences
Division of Biomedicine
• Genetics, Evolution and Environment
• Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology
• Structural and Molecular Biology
• Cell and Developmental Biology
• Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology
Dept has an outstanding history of research on receptors, ion
channels and synaptic transmission. Highest ranked UK
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/npp/index.html
Department for ‘World-leading research’ RAE2008 (UoA15)
Cellular &
Molecular
Neuroscience
Receptor/ channel/ transporter & signaling molecules:
Attwell, Beato, Cull-Candy, Dolphin, Farrant, Gibb,
Kittler, Schoepfer, Sivilotti, Smart, Vergani.
Structure-function:
Millar, Sivilotti, Smart
Central synaptic transmission & glia:
Attwell, Cull-Candy, Beato, Sihra
Healthy/ diseased states (channelopathies, animal
models)
Stanford, Sivilotti, Schoepfer, Smart
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology(2)
Systems Neuroscience
Neural connectivity/ computation
Mysic-Flogel, Hausser, Silver
In vivo transfection/ optogenetics
Mysic-Flogel, Hausser, Sjostrom
Systems/ translational neuroscience of
pain- London Pain Consortium
Fitzgerald, Dickenson, Wood
Linking cellular/ neural networks to
behaviour
Hausser, Mysic-Flogel, Sjostrom,
Yeo
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology(3)
Cell signalling
G-protein coupled receptor signaling
Brown, Dolphin, Pitcher, Moss,
Pedarzani, Stocker, Smart
Phospholipid-dependent & NO signaling
Cockcroft, Garthwaite
Signal transduction in cardiovascular and
immune systems.
Willis, Hobbs
Autonomic control of respiration & CVS
Gilbey, Gourine, Ramage
Cell and Developmental Biology
Brings together more than 65 members of academic staff to study a wide range of
cell and developmental problems.
This includes aspects of stem cell biology, early embryo development, neural
development and evolutionary (evo-devo) topics
Major research themes
•
•
•
•
Centre for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (Claudio Stern)
Zebrafish research community - one of Europe’s largest fish research facilities, studying
many aspects of developmental biology (Steve Wilson)
Learning and Centre for Cell and Molecular Dynamic contains UCL’s core imaging facility
and houses labs which study:
– Wound healing (Becker)
– Circadian clocks (Whitmore)
– Neural Development (Salinas)
Neural development and spatial learning and memory studies include:
– Cortical development (Parnavalas)
– Wnt Signaling and synapse formation (Salinas)
– Neural Crest (Major, Mirsky, Jessen)
– Spatial memory and learning (O’Keefe)
Genetics, Evolution and Environment
GEE has several core strengths, including diversity, quantitative biology,
genetics, healthy aging and graduate training.
Human Genetics and Human Evolution (UCL Genetics Institute)
Bradman; Povey; Thomas; Swallow; Maniatis; Ruiz-Linares; Balding; Plagnol; Jones;
Wood; MacKay
Evolution of development
Telford; Bahler; Olivieri; Gems; Partridge; Smith; Lane; Wingler
Systems biology (UCL Systems Biology)
Bahler; Pomiankowski; Reuter; Schuster; Partridge; Gems; Lazaros; Olivieri
Biology of Ageing (Institute of Healthy Ageing)
Partridge; Gems; Foukas; Pearce; Schuster; Wingler
Evolutionary Genetics
Fowler; Partridge; Greig; Pomiankowski; Yang; Reuter; Mallet; Lane; Balding; Plagnol;
Jones; Bahler; Thomas
Biodiversity and environmental biology (Earth Sciences)
Mallet; Day; Chatterjee; Goswami; Murrell; Telford; Pearson; Wotton; Wingler
Computational biology (R. A. Fisher Centre for Computational Biology, CoMPLEX)
Pomiankowski; Murrell; Maniatis; Thomas; Yang; Reuter; Balding; Plagnol;
Chatterjee
Genetics, Evolution and Environment (2)
Our strengths: Quantitative Biology
R. A. Fisher Centre for Computational Biology
• population genetics, quantitative genetics, statistical inference,
phylogenetics, QTL, transcriptomics
CoMPLEX
• Interface maths/statistics/computation in life/medical sciences,
mathematical modelling
UCL Systems Biology
• Coordinating and strengthening interdisciplinary systems biology research
across UCL
Genetics, Evolution and Environment (3)
Our strengths: Centres of Excellence
UCL Genetics Institute
• Applying bio-statistical and bio-informatic approaches to genetic
research with a focus on clinical and human population genetics
Institute of Healthy Ageing
• Bringing together researchers working on the basic biology of ageing
and those working to understand the causes of ageing-related diseases
Genetics, Evolution and Environment (4)
Our strengths: Graduate Training
CoMPLEX
• Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and
Experimental Biology
Doctoral Training Centre
• 15-20 MRes+PhD students / annum
• Funded by EPSRC, MRC, BHF, BBSRC, NERC
Post-Doctoral Training Centre
• Starting April 2011, in collaboration with University of Oxford and
Microsoft Research
Structural and Molecular Biology
The Department is a member of the Institute of Structural Molecular
Biology (ISMB), which links UCL Departments of Chemistry and
Structural and Molecular Biology, and the School of
Crystallography at Birkbeck College
Major research themes:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Bioanalytical Chemistry
Bioinformatics
Cell Signalling & Metabolic Regulation
Molecular Microbiology
Molecular Cell Biology
Structural Biology & Molecular Biophysics
MRC LABORATORY FOR MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY
16