Nuclear Structure & Function

BIOGRAPHY

All living organisms are made of cells and store their genetic information in the same way, as long molecules of DNA that are organised into structures within the cells called chromosomes. The chromosomes contain many different genes that carry the instructions to allow the cells to make proteins and to control their growth and division. In the more complex forms of cells found in plants and animals, chromosomes are kept within a specialised compartment called the cell nucleus and it is within the nucleus that genes are activated. Each gene is also copied every time a cell divides to ensure that both daughter cells receive a copy of every gene. Our research is aimed at understanding how the nucleus works and how the different components within the nucleus are organised to help it to function efficiently. We study the nucleus using advanced light microscopes to see where molecules are located and to record how they move under different conditions. We know that many forms of human disease, including viral infections, malignancies and inherited genetic disorders, can all cause profound changes inside the cell nucleus. We therefore study the changes that occur in the nuclei of cells taken from human patients to try to understand better the relation between theses specific changes and the mechanism of disease. In this way our research studies the biology of human cells in such a way that it is highly relevant to understanding human disease and to the future development of new therapies and improved diagnosis and screening procedures.