Birkbeck, University of London

STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY (MRES)

The MRes in Structural Biology is an intensive, high-quality introduction to research in structural and computational biology, which are key to the dissection of macromolecular 'machines' and cellular pathways of medical interest.

This course offers both taught components and extensive research experience for students with backgrounds in biological, chemical and physical sciences. It is particularly suitable for those who wish to gain both theoretical and practical research experience in the techniques of structural biology.

Our research areas include:

Molecular chaperones, amyloid fibrils, pore-forming toxins
M. tuberculosis, cytoskeletal proteins
Signal transduction, bacterial pathogenesis and DNA replication
Electron microscopy, cytoskeletal dynamics and function
Electron cryo-microscopy; electron tomography and image processing; development of methods for recognition and separation of heterogeneous molecular complexes; bacteriophage assembly; structural analysis of the transcription factor p53
Hsp90, the kinetochore
DNA repair
Protein folding and misfolding, in particular at the point of synthesis on intact ribosomes
Viral protein-nucleic acid interactions.