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News
- Using management thinking to fight the superbug crisis
- Getting rid of malaria possible, if we try something new, say experts
- Success for NDM project awarded Public Engagement Seed Funding
- Flu vaccine spinout secures a further £20m in funding
- Global health needs demand new approach to drug discovery
- Building international partnerships to tackle disease
- Nepali pilgrims to Gosaikunda video
- China Vice Premier in Oxford for signing of research collaboration
- Largest genetic study of mosquitoes reveals spread of insecticide resistance across Africa
- Researchers attack Mekong malaria superbug on multiple fronts
- Kevin Marsh Wins 2017 Drexel Prize in Infectious Disease
- Prof Simon Leedham wins CRUK Prize
- Oxford-Mahidol collaboration shortlisted for Newton Prize
- BioBeat unveils 2017’s 50 Movers and Shakers
- Study raises possibility of vaccines against allergies and Alzheimer’s
- Celebrating Oxfordshire brightest science stars
- New structural insights accelerate drug discovery in the ubiquitin system for cancer therapy
- National Academy of Medicine elects Nick White as international member
- New collaboration to tackle superbugs
- 115 years of malaria in Africa
- Oxford and the mosquito
- World-first trial for universal flu vaccine
- New typhoid vaccine offers hope of protection for children
- Prof Emily Chan wins the 2017 UGC Teaching Award
- The Medical Research Foundation to fund first national PhD Training Programme to tackle antimicrobial resistance
- Superbug’s spread to Vietnam threatens malaria control
- New NDM Professors
- Establishing the Africa Oxford Initiative
- Combining cultures
- Experts urge rethink of ‘outdated’ asthma categorisation
- International research network nominated for ‘Oscar of higher education’
- Oxford University claims top world ranking for second year
- Bash the Bug! Winner of 2017 NIHR Let’s Get Digital competition
- Scientists discover unknown virus in ‘throwaway’ DNA
- Improved home designs may fight malaria in Africa
- Antibodies may reveal timing of previous influenza infection
- Discovery Award to decode TB DNA
- Is it time to drop the ‘complete the course’ message for antibiotics?
- World Hepatitis Day
- Call for Abstract MVVR5 2017
- Breaking boundaries in our DNA
- Quick test can predict anaemia in malaria patients treated with artemisinins
- New Year's Honours 2018
- What's behind the sudden rise in measles deaths in Europe?
- Cancer hijacks natural cell process to survive
- Mahidol begins Asia’s first study of RTS,S malaria vaccine
- Oxford one of six sites to receive funding for health data science
- Five surprising things DNA has revealed about our ancestors
- OUMNH Exhibition based on centre research
- Could aspirin be used to treat tuberculous meningitis?
- ALS Reproducible Antibody Platform launched
- Cultural barriers to tackling the superbug crisis
- ALERRT epidemic research network launched in sub-Saharan Africa
- Making malaria visible
- Women in STM
- Female body shape gene may increase risk of type 2 diabetes
- The town that breeds resistance to Malaria drugs
- Can you cure HIV?
- Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski joins the Fellowship of the Royal Society
- Prof Vincenzo Cerundolo elected Fellow of the Royal Society
- NDM Researchers elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Science
- Using management thinking to fight the superbug crisis
- FORMA Therapeutics and the University of Oxford Announce Multi-Year Cross-Border Collaboration
- HIV researchers create Chelsea garden to raise awareness of disease stigma
- China Vice Premier and Minster of National Health Commission visit to CTI Beijing
- Oxford overtakes Cambridge for first time in QS world rankings
- New age-based regimen for single low-dose primaquine to block malaria transmission
- Rosalind Franklin Institute will 'transform' life sciences research through disruptive technologies
- Big Data Institute wins a 2018 RIBA South Award
- NDM Researcher gets £1m boost to study immunology of asthma
- Professor Rose McGready awarded Alumni Award for Service to Humanity
- Researchers explore malaria vaccines and antibiotic resistance at RS Summer Science Exhibition
- Trial of ‘kick and kill’ approach to HIV cure leaves puzzles to be solved
- NDM Researcher recognised for major contribution in clinical sciences
- ASHG Honours Professor Cecilia Lindgren with Mentorship Award
- New NDM Professors
- Prof Helen McShane appointed as new Director of Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
- Detailed map of colon cells in health and disease
- UK-led study marks shift towards genetic era in tackling TB
- Tales of treatment, of modernity and tradition, and of global health crisis
- Faith Osier TED talk
- 'Tantalising and exciting’: UK Biobank genetics opens the door to a new era of health research
- Oxford secures £17.5 million to lead national programmes in AI to improve healthcare
- New grant to study the role of immune cells in lung regeneration
- Dr Ross Chapman welcomed as EMBO Young Investigator
- New vaccines centre to protect UK from pandemic threats
- Professor Sir David Weatherall: 1933-2018
- Congratulations to Jeremy Farrar, knighted in the New Year's Honours 2019
- Watch Prof Peter Donnelly speak at Royal Society AI event
- NDM's Translational Gastroenterology Unit awarded a CRUK Primer grant of £100,000
- ISARIC awarded £4.5 million to tackle the global threat of epidemic infectious diseases
- Tracking resistance results presented at Westminster
- The battle within- new animation on the immune system
- Vaccine developed to treat osteoarthritic pain
- World Malaria Day 2019
- Faces of malaria
- Mads Gyrd-Hansen awarded Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship renewal
- NDM Researchers elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences
- Oxford academics recognised in 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours
- Ross Chapman awarded 2019 Lister Prize
- New maps could show how to beat malaria
- Vice-Chancellor’s Choice Award for Public Engagement with Research
- New malaria parasite mutations cause alarming antimalarial drug failures in Southeast Asia
- New NDM Professors
- The RECOVERY Trial has recruited 1000 patients in 15 days
- Controlling coronavirus transmission using a mobile app to trace close proximity contacts
- Digital contact tracing can slow or even stop coronavirus transmission and ease us out of lockdown
- Oxford's COVID-19 research receives government funding
- First patients enrolled in new clinical trial of possible COVID-19 treatments
- Covid-19: how effective is social distancing?
- Infectious disease experts provide evidence for a coronavirus mobile app for instant contact tracing
- Sir Peter Ratcliffe on BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific
- Wellcome Investigator Awards
- International research consortium activates clinical study for novel coronavirus in England and Scotland
- Professor Vincenzo Cerundolo FRS 1959-2020
- Oxford University awarded €56 million in European Research Council funding
- Oxford named best for medicine for ninth consecutive year
- NDM DPhil Graduate Student Prizes 2019
- Modelling research aims to inform new WHO roadmap for neglected tropical diseases
- Woman of the Future award for Science
- Obesity now linked to broader range of leading killers, with women and men showing different patterns of risk
- Medical Sciences and climate breakdown: time to move beyond evidence
- Oxford Tropical Medicine awarded two RSTMH medals
- Oxford ranked world’s best university for fourth year running
- Landmark partnership announced for development of COVID-19 vaccine
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awards funding to Oxford team to support inflammation research
- Oxford University Coronavirus Research Webinar
- New study reveals Oxford coronavirus vaccine produces strong immune response
- The Duke of Cambridge visits Oxford Vaccine Centre
- The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research welcomes cancer epigenetics researcher Yang Shi
- New NDM titles awarded
- Future of Oxford professorship in vaccinology secured with £3.5 million gift
- Oxford study suggests notable decline in coronavirus cases and R rate on Isle of Wight after launch of the test and trace programme
- Dave Stuart awarded The Gabor Medal 2020
- Latest version of COVID-19 contact tracing app ready for testing on the Isle of Wight and Newham, London
- Collaboration with Magdalen College outreach to run remote work experience
- Persistent immune memory of COVID-19 found in recovered patient T cells
- New research shows tracing apps can save lives at all levels of uptake
- Evaluation of LamPORE rapid tests for Covid-19 show high levels of diagnostic sensitivity
- Comparison of five tests used to detect COVID-19 antibodies shows Siemens and Oxford assays met regulatory targets
- Oxford’s OpenABM-Covid19 mathematical model helps to control the coronavirus epidemic
- Oxford’s OpenABM-Covid19 mathematical model helps to control the coronavirus epidemic
- The University of Oxford and King Abdulaziz University (KAU) have partnered to create a new Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Precision Medicine.
- Professor Sarah Walker, a Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology in NDM and the Oxford BRC’s Co-theme Lead for Antimicrobial Resistance and Modernising Microbiology, is to receive an OBE.
- Simon Leedham appointed as Professor of Molecular and Population Genetics
- Two vital research programmes taking place at the university of Oxford may hold the key to understanding the immunity of recovered Covid-19 patients.
- New partnership with The Alan Turing Institute and Royal Statistical Society to support Joint Biosecurity Centre COVID-19 response
- NDM’s Jenner Institute appoints first Bvlgari Scholars
- NDM New Professors
- Trials of Oxford coronavirus vaccine begin in Kenya
- Oxford ramps up COVID-19 testing capability
- Oxford’s vaccine research and development boosted by donation from Wafic Saïd
- Oxfordshire Young Scientists of the Year 2020
- Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine
- First peer-reviewed results of phase 3 human trials of Oxford coronavirus vaccine demonstrate efficacy
- Statement from the Chief Investigators of the Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY (RECOVERY) Trial on azithromycin, 14 December 2020
- National COVID-19 Infections Survey reveals changes to pandemic over time
- Professor Susie Dunachie awarded flagship NIHR career development award
- Oxford University welcomes UK regulatory emergency use authorisation of coronavirus vaccine
- Professor Sir Dave Stuart, FRS FMedSci knighted in New Year's Honours
- National consortium to study threats of new SARS-CoV-2 variants
- Lateral flow devices detect most infectious COVID-19 cases and could allow a safer relaxation of the current lockdown
- Work for us
STRUBI is part of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine. STRUBI is situated in the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and it includes the OPIC and the OPPF-UK, housed by the Research Complex at Harwell
At STRUBI we study a wide range of bio-medically important processes from a structural and mechanistic point of view. As a prospective student I was really excited by the breadth of research spanning a broad swath of modern biology including the molecular basis of transcription and translation, cell surface signalling, membrane and pore-forming protein structure, viral structural biology, the nature of host-pathogen interaction and the structural basis of learning and memory.
As a student here, I have been incredibly lucky to have access to state-of-the-art equipment which has allowed me to be at the cutting edge of structural biology. STRUBI has excellent in-house facilities for X-ray data collection. We can test crystals for diffraction prior to synchrotron trips and we can also collect data in-house.
A particular strength at STRUBI is Electron Microscopy: we have a suite of three electron microscopes, including two 300 kV field emission gun liquid nitrogen electron microscopes. Here you can see Pascale and Charlotte using the "Tecnai Polara 300 keV electron microscope" looking at cells grown directly onto a gold electron microscopy grid and snap frozen in vitreous ice to preserve cellular structure. A low magnification search allows them to target the cell of interest. When using a higher magnification on thin areas of the cell, you can see cellular components such as endosomes and ribosomes. A series of tilted images are collected and can later be reconstructed to give a 3D tomogram.
We have world class crystallization facilities which take advantage of the latest high through-put technologies including 96-well plates dispensing and crystallization robots, crystallization optimization robots, a storage vault with a capacity of 10,000 plates and a fully integrated automated imaging system.
Of particular importance to my PhD, which uses mammalian expression systems to investigate hedgehog signalling, is the high-throughput tissue culture robot which is able to process flasks, either splitting or carrying out automated transient transfections giving me time to process data or conduct other experiments. By complementing my X-ray structure with a variety of biophysical and biochemical methods, such as Surface Plasmon Resonance and Luciferase Reporter Assays, I was able to relate structural findings to functional data.
We are in a very fortunate geographical position having the best source of X-rays in the UK: the Diamond Light Source synchrotron, which is a mere 15 miles drive south of Oxford. On average we visit the synchrotron once a week which means that we have plenty of beamtime available to collect data.
Because of our recognised expertise in structural biology in the UK and in Europe, STRUBI hosts the Coordination office of INSTRUCT, an international collaboration helping to realize the goal of integrated large-scale structural biology resources across Europe.
The Division is home to more than 80 researchers divided into 11 groups with a strong history of collaboration where people take advantage of expertise from multiple groups to explore novel biological problems. Postgraduate study within the Division of Structural Biology is possible as part of several different programmes of research. Students benefit from supportive supervision and various training possibilities. Currently, there are 50 students with over half being from outside the UK, creating a truly international atmosphere.
If you are interested in joining us as a graduate student or postdoc, or if you would like to collaborate with us, please see our website or contact us for further information.
Division of Structural Biology
The Division of Structural Biology (STRUBI) is part of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine (NDM) at the University of Oxford. STRUBI is also part of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. The Division includes the Oxford Protein Production Facility-UK (OPPF-UK) and the Oxford Particle Imaging Centre (OPIC).
STRUBI is situated in the Old Road Campus in the Headington area of Oxford. The Division applies the techniques of structural biology, particularly macromolecular crystallography and electron microscopy, to the study of biomedically important processes. The research interests of the Division include the structural study of viral proteins and intercellular recognition.
Oxford Protein Production Facility-UK
The OPPF-UK is an MRC-funded project to develop methods and automation for high-throughput structural proteomics studies of medically important targets. It is particularly focused on protein production, purification and crystal growth. The OPPF-UK relocated in 2010 to the new Research Complex at Harwell, adjacent to the Diamond Light Source to establish it as a national facility. Funded by the MRC and BBSRC, the OPPF-UK is a National Resource Centre for protein production and crystallization.
Oxford Particle Imaging Centre
The OPIC is located in the Henry Wellcome Building for Particle Imaging. This Wellcome Trust-funded facility allows scientists to study macromolecular complexes, such as human and animal viruses, in their native cellular environment using a range of structural and biophysical tools. The facility houses state-of-the-art laboratories at ACDP Cat 3 and DEFRA 4 levels of containment. allowing study of viruses that are important to human health worldwide, such as HIV and Dengue virus.
European Projects
The Division of Structural Biology is a leading player in efforts to coordinate European structural biology. The Division hosts the Coordination office of Instruct, an international collaboration helping to realize the goal of integrated large-scale structural biology resources across Europe. Instruct provides access to European researchers from member countries to state-of-the-art infrastructure and technologies. Located at Instruct centres around Europe, these resources facilitate world-leading research in structural cell biology.