Research

The Centre for Medical Bioscience encompasses three overall research programmes targeted in the long term towards the development of novel therapeutics in infectious diseases, age-related diseases and cancer.

Age-related diseases (cataract, neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases)
Due to increasing life expectancies, age–related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s have become a major health burden. CMB researchers are focussing on the molecular mechanisms that lead to neurodegenerative disease with a view to developing therapeutic strategies. In a related area, a major new grouping of our researchers focuses on how chaperone proteins including those in human blood protect other proteins from being misfolded during development of a variety of “protein folding” disorders like motor neuron disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Infectious diseases
Development of resistance to current drugs by pathogenic micro-organisms is of very serious concern. CMB researchers are tackling this problem by several complementary approaches. For example, small molecule compounds that interfere with essential processes in bacteria are being discovered that have potential for development into a new generation of antibiotics.  Studies of fundamental mechanisms of bacterial survival and pathogenesis provide information on which to base this work.

Cancer
CMB’s basic cancer research and drug development grouping works on understanding the biological processes underlying cancer progression, and develops methods for cancer prevention, detection and treatment. They use a range of cell and molecular biology techniques, medicinal chemistry and preclinical animal models to meet the demand for novel anti-cancer drug testing and research leading to a range of innovative cancer treatment options.

CMB researchers use a wide range of modern techniques and instrumentation to undertake their research. In particular, our unique mass spectrometry facilities are providing new insights into biomolecular interactions involved in disease states or their prevention.