Molecules and mechanisms regulating axonal degeneration and regeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans neurons. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying nerve degeneration and regeneration is essential to tackle and provide treatment for neurodegenerative diseases and injury of the nervous system. This project aims to discover, using a genetic approach and a simple animal model system, the molecules regulating these crucial biological processes.
Controlling apoptotic cell death in health and disease. Regulating how and when cells die is crucial for the development and maintenance of a healthy body and mind. This project will investigate the proteins that are responsible for controlling cell death with the view to identifying novel ways to target these proteins for the treatment of disorders such as cancer, neurodegenerative disease and autoimmunity.
Controlling apoptotic cell death in health and disease. Regulating how and when cells die is crucial for the development and maintenance of a healthy body and mind. This project will investigate the proteins that are responsible for controlling cell death with the view to identifying novel ways to target these proteins for the treatment of disorders such as cancer, neurodegenerative disease and autoimmunity.
Shaping the vertebrate brain: defining the cellular and genetic drivers . This project aims to uncover specific cellular and genetic mechanisms that control growth and shape of the brain. How brain shape and size changes during evolution of vertebrates is enigmatic but important to know for better understanding of behaviour and function of intact and diseased brain. The project aims to assemble team of national and international experts to build international capacity and unique genetics model t ....Shaping the vertebrate brain: defining the cellular and genetic drivers . This project aims to uncover specific cellular and genetic mechanisms that control growth and shape of the brain. How brain shape and size changes during evolution of vertebrates is enigmatic but important to know for better understanding of behaviour and function of intact and diseased brain. The project aims to assemble team of national and international experts to build international capacity and unique genetics model to generate new knowledge of the cellular and genetic components that drive evolution of different brain parts and shapes the vertebrate brain. In doing so the project aims to provide research training, excellence and knowledge that in future may benefit health and the society. Read moreRead less
A role for the actin cytoskeleton in suppression of prion pathology in yeast. The discovery that proteins as well as DNA carry genetic information is leading to a re-think of the mechanisms that program cell behaviour. There is a link between proteins that suppress cancer and protein inheritance. This project explores how heritable changes in proteins control cell behaviour and the implications of this for the origin of cancer.
A toxic cycle of inflammation and iron in the ageing brain. This project investigates why our brain cells gradually die as we grow older. We believe that infections and inflammation in other parts of the body cause iron to accumulate in the brain and become toxic. Iron supplements and ageing may make this situation worse. The results of this study could lead to new treatments for memory loss and dementia.
Dissecting the mitochondrial pathway of apoptotic cell death. This research aims to identify each step in cell death regulation by the Bcl-2 family of proteins. Each step is a potential target for drugs that may help cancer cells die, or that may help normal cells such as heart and brain cells recover from damage.