UCL School of Biosciences

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Yale-UCL Senior Scientist Lecture Series,
2011 Mark Marsh LMCB, MRC Cell Biology Unit
Department of Developmental Biology, UCL
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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 Englands five Comprehensive
  Biomedical Research Centres.
• UCL Partners is one of the UKs 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, 7080
  of research in the Life and Medical Sciences was
  graded as 3 or 4
• SLMS boasts the UKs strongest medical research
  grouping
• (research power score, RAE 2008)

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SLMS domains
INFECT. / IMM. / INFLAM.
REPRO DEVELPMNT.
FRONTIER DISCIPLINES
CARDIO METABOLIC
NEUROSCI.
CANCER
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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 worlds leading
  medical research organisations
• Medical Research Council,
• Cancer Research UK
• Wellcome Trust
• UCL
• Bringing together two of the countrys leading
  centres of medical research
• National Institute for Medical Research
• London Research Institute

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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

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Department of Neuroscience, Physiology
Pharmacology
Dept has an outstanding history of research on
receptors, ion channels and synaptic
transmission. Highest ranked UK Department for
World-leading research RAE2008 (UoA15)
http//www.ucl.ac.uk/npp/index.html
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
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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
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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

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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 Europes
  largest fish research facilities, studying many
  aspects of developmental biology (Steve Wilson)
• Learning and Centre for Cell and Molecular
  Dynamic contains UCLs 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 (OKeefe)

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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
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Our strengths Quantitative Biology
Genetics, Evolution and Environment (2)

• 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

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Our strengths Centres of Excellence
Genetics, Evolution and Environment (3)

• 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

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Our strengths Graduate Training
Genetics, Evolution and Environment (4)

• CoMPLEX
• Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life
  Sciences and Experimental Biology
• Doctoral Training Centre
• 15-20 MResPhD 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

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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
Structural and Molecular Biology

• Major research themes
• Bioanalytical Chemistry
• Bioinformatics
• Cell Signalling Metabolic Regulation
• Molecular Microbiology
• Molecular Cell Biology
• Structural Biology Molecular Biophysics

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MRC LABORATORY FOR MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY
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