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Molecular Biosciences

Division of Molecular Biosciences Department of Life Sciences Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London Prof. Paul Freemont (Head of Division) Prof. Mike Sternberg (Deputy Head). Molecular Biosciences. Strategic aims -

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Molecular Biosciences

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  1. Division of Molecular BiosciencesDepartment of Life Sciences Faculty of Natural SciencesImperial College London Prof. Paul Freemont (Head of Division)Prof. Mike Sternberg (Deputy Head)

  2. Molecular Biosciences • Strategic aims - • To understand at the molecular level (including visualisation) the function of cells as an integrated system including details of individual components and biological mechanisms which constitute the system • To apply this information in the development of new research themes such as Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology and Drug Discovery.

  3. Molecular Bioscience Division Profile • Academic Staff: 19 • Independent Research Fellows: 5 • Postdoctoral Fellows: 59 • PhD and Master Students: 78 • Grants held = £24M • Grants 06/07 spend = £6M • Collaborations and support from industry primarily in Biopharma and Biotech. • Two Spin out companies: Equinox Pharma and NanoBioDesign

  4. Interdisciplinary research themes in MBS • Integrative Systems Biology and Bioinformatics– Systems understanding of living cells and organisms at different scales • Synthetic Biology – Design and manufacture of biologically based parts, devices and systems and redesigning existing, natural biological systems • Atomic Biology – Imaging cells at atomic resolution using interdisciplinary structural biology techniques • Biomedical Glycobiology – Using glycan analyses and functional studies of sugar receptors in cellular recognition with an emphasis on disease states • Membrane Protein Structural Biology – The application of new methods to express, crystallize and solve the structures of membrane proteins focused on therapeutically important human GPCR receptors. • Bio-Solar Energy - the artificial leaf and hydrogen production • Academic Drug Discovery and Biopharmaceutical Processing– Utilisation of bioinformatics, protein structure and screening to facilitate drug discovery and manufacture

  5. Interdisciplinary Research Centres • Centre for Structural Biology (Prof. Steve Matthews) http://www.imperial.ac.uk/structuralbiology • Centre for Bioinformatics (Prof. Mike Sternberg) http://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioinformatics • Centre for Integrated Systems Biology (Prof. Jaroslav Stark) http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/bioinformatics/CISB/ • Centre for Electron Microscopy (Profs. Marin van Heel and Paul Freemont) • Glycobiology Training, Research and Infrastructure Centre (Prof. Anne Dell FRS) http://www.imperial.ac.uk/glycoTRIC • Cross-Faculty NMR Centre (Prof. Steve Matthews) http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/nmrcentre

  6. Structural Biology:Facilities and Infrastructure • Bioreactor suite • Robotic crystallisation • X-ray data collection • Bioanalytical suite • High-field NMR • Cryo-electron microscopy • Mass spectrometry • Structural Bioinformatics • High performance computing • Run MRes in Structural Biology

  7. Centre for Integrative Systems Biology at Imperial College • BBSRC/EPSRC funded £6M from Sept 2005 for 5 years • But “What is Systems Biology” ? CISBIC

  8. What is Systems Biology? Very many interpretations!

  9. What is Systems Biology? • Explaining and predicting biological processes by integrating knowledge about both the parts and their interactions and not just the sum of the parts

  10. CISBIC vision • Higher level of complexity requires an iterative cycle of wet biology and modelling

  11. Three integrated sub-projects Exemplar project on host-pathogen interaction

  12. Systems Biology developments • Research • Additional BBSRC SABR grants led by CISBIC • Funding of a research centre and project by Syngenta • New appointments - Dr Robert Endres (next speaker) • Teaching • Final year UG module • MSc in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology • New MRes in Systems and Synthetic Biology (Oct 08) with CISBIC and the IoSSB New Projects Exemplar Project Core Facilities and Outreach Years 1 – 5

  13. Core Facilities Glycoproteomics Dell Transcriptomics Kafatos + CSC Data Integration Metabonomics Nicholson Cell Imaging Magee Sternberg Butcher

  14. Proteomic and Glycomics • World leading mass spectrometry

  15. Dr Sarah Butcher (Head) + 5 staff • Bioinformatics software, databases and hardware • Help via web site and e-mail help-desk • Undertake small scale and large scale support including bespoke programming • Several grants now fund full or part posts in BBS to deliver robust data management (now a BBSRC requirement) • Runs training workshops Bioinformatics Support Service

  16. Major Collaborations • Dr Gerard Bishop (Biology) • Sequencing the Tomato genome (2 grants) • Dr Pietro Spanu (Biology) • Sequencing Blumeria graminis genome (1 grant) • Dr David Leak (Biology) • Pichia protein secretion (1 grant) • CISBIC (various) • Other collaborations ongoing with Physics, Chemistry, Computing, Faculty of Medicine (various divisions), other universities in UK and outside

  17. Synthetic Biology developments • Research • Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology (cross-faculty) • EPSRC Science and Innovation application (April 08) • Bio-energy and bio-fuels (with Biology) • Strategic appointments in Synthetic Biology • Teaching • Final year UG module with Bioengineering • New MRes in Systems and Synthetic Biology (Oct 08) with CISBIC and the IoSSB

  18. Examples of collaborations within DoLS • Patwardhan & Onesti - Single particle e.m. of the MCM complex • Sternberg & Sinden - Functional annotation of Plasmodium • Sternberg & Christophides – Plant systems biology • Stumpf & Spanu – Fungal pathogens of plants • Stumpf & Buck – Bacterial stress response pathways • Zhang & Buck - Structural mechanisms of bacterial transcription • Matthews & Frankel - Structural basis of pathogenecity • Freemont & Mann - Structure of cell cycle phosphatases • Dell & Haslam with Crisanti - Mosquito proteomics • Dell & Halslam with Ushkariov - Proteomics • Bioinformatics Support Service…. • And more….

  19. Ernesto Cota and Pietro Spanu • Anne Dell & Stuart Haslam with • Andreas Crisanti (Mosquito proteomics) • Yuri Ushkaryov, And more collaborations

  20. Mechanisms for Collaborations • Need to be proactive before grant announcement • Focused workshops on themes appropriate for support by research funding bodies • Are there realistic Departmentally-driven incentives? • e.g. should more of our small pool of PhD students be directed towards collaborative project?

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