MRC PPU

Image of FAF2's predicted helical domain interacting with the UFD1 UT3 domain. Next to this are similar images showing the predicted binding of de novo designed protein binders to the same region. Above is a sequence alignment indicating the key residues involved in the interaction.

🚨⚠️ New Preprint Alert! ⚠️ 🚨
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Screening p97 cofactors, @prithadg.bsky.social identified FAF2 as the strongest activator of the p97-UFD1-NPL4 complex. Leveraging her mechanistic descoveries, we designed 𝘥𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘰 binders that could also enhance p97 substrate unfolding.

Recently, UK DRI’s Prof Miratul Muqit, Parkinson’s Research Centre Director, joined partners from @parkinsons.org.uk in Parliament

He spoke with policymakers about the importance of research inclusion & showcased how he would embed inclusion at the co-founded Centre

www.ukdri.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Join us! Postdoctoral position available in Virdee lab www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/careers/recr...

Broughty Ferry woman first in Tayside to receive ‘life-changing’ Parkinson’s drug “When I first got fitted with the pump I spent the day playing music."

“When I first got fitted with the pump I spent the day playing music."

Join us! Research Technician position available with Virginia De Cesare www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/careers/recr...

Drug Discovery Unit Tour and Networking BioDundee is delighted to kick of the year of celebrations for #DDUat20 with Networking and a guided tour of the Drug Discovery Unit.

Want to see what we do up close?
Sign up for the tour and networking event with us and #biodundee. See the link for details and tickets!

#DDUat20

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drug-disco...

Professor Giampetro Schiavo wins 2026 International Neurotoxin Association (INA) award Professor Schiavo (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) received the 2026 INA Basic Science Lifetime Achievement Award from the President at the bi-annual congress of the society.

👏 Huge congratulations to UK DRI Group Leader Prof Giampietro Schiavo who has received the 2026 Basic Science Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Neurotoxin Association 👏

Read more 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...

Born #OnThisDay in 1903 was Kathleen Lonsdale FRS. She was a pioneer of X-ray crystallography, discovering the structure of benzene, and was one of the first two women elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Find out more about her life and work: #WomenInSTEM www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwcf...

Targeting the gut's immune system could tackle early stages of Parkinson's New research, led by Dr Soyon Hong and Dr Tim Bartels at the UK DRI at UCL, has revealed how Parkinson’s spreads from the gut to the brain, with the hel

Could targeting the gut's immune system tackle the early stages of Parkinson's? 🧠

A new study from @soyonhonglab.bsky.social & Tim Bartels (UK DRI at UCL) has revealed how Parkinson’s spreads from the gut to the brain - with the help of immune cells.

Read more 👉 www.ukdri.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Proteostatic stress triggers cristae remodeling and aggregate formation within mitochondria.

CRN Teams Harper & Alessi used cryo-electron tomography to show how PINK1-activating stress disrupts mitochondrial structure, revealing protein aggregation, cristae loss, and key changes linked to #Parkinsons 🧬

🔗 Read the full #preprint: bit.ly/49N4mmW

✏️ @denkenny.bsky.social

YouTube video by Drug Discovery Unit Dundee DDU at 20 | Founders Sir Michael Ferguson & Alan Fairlamb on Past, Present and Future

As part of our #20thBirthday celebrations, we hear from our cofounders Sir Mike Ferguson and Alan Fairlamb

#ScienceNeverStops

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Skb...

Best of luck today to Rebecca Pemberton of the Swamy lab, defending her PhD thesis 'Investigating the role of Crohn's disease associated kinase LRRK2 in immune and intestinal cells' @mahimaswamy.bsky.social @ajmhowden.bsky.social @bealelab.bsky.social @henrymcsorley.bsky.social

Join us! Postdoctoral Research Assistant position available in the Muqit lab www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/careers/recr... #neurobiology #CRISPR #PINK1 #Parkinsons

Best of luck today to Iona Wallace of the Swatek lab, defending her PhD thesis 'Mechanistic and Proteomic Exploration of the ISG15 Modification Pathway'

Empirical-Bayes and Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling for Missingness and Differential Expression in Proteomics Mass spectrometry-based label-free proteomics data often suffer from missing values, especially for low-abundance proteins or when a protein is completely absent in one condition. This makes it challe...

How do you deal with missing values and "unique" proteins that were only identified in one condition in proteomics data?

Mengchun Li, an amazing PhD student in my lab, developed this great Bayesian approach. Please try it and give feedback!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A black and white microscope image showing two silk threads of the Australian net-caster spider, Asianopis subrufa. The image is titled 'Mesmerizing spider threads' by Dr Martín J. Ramírez, winner of the 2025 Royal Society Publishing Photo Competition.

A photo showing two small striped birds in a grassland environment, both wings spread and one leaping above the other. The image is called 'Prairie Chicken Jump Off' by Peter Hudson, winner of the Behaviour category of the Royal Society Publishing Photo Competition 2025.

A stereographic image showing a snowy environment, represented as a circle in the centre of the image, surrounded by stars and with a point of light on the top horizon of the circle. The image is called 'Between Auroras and Dawn – A South Pole Sunrise After the Longest Night on Earth' by Dr Aman Chokshi, runner up in the Astronomy category in the 2025 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition.

From mesmerising threads of spider's web to the first glint of sun after a polar winter, take a look at the winners and runners up from the 2025 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition: https://royalsociety.org/journals/publishing-activities/photo-competition/2025-winners-runners-up/

The Story behind the Science: Preprints of pandemic potential—how bioRxiv and medRxiv brought preprints to the life sciences | mBio When we launched medRxiv in mid-2019, we never could have anticipated that just a few months later, New York would be at the epicenter of a rapidly escalating global pandemic, and we would be handling...

A brief history of the BioRxiv and MedRxiv preprint services, their meteoric growth and supportive role during the pandemic. Submitting preprints should be the primary step for scientific dissemination. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Join Sir Michael Ferguson FRS for the Leeuwenhoek Prize Lecture on 26 January 2026, as he explores how science can provide opportunities to make better, safer medicines and diagnostics for neglected infectious diseases. Register now: https://bit.ly/4j9U58P

🎉 Happy #new #year to everyone!

📢 No better way to kickstart 2026 than by sharing our latest work, now available on #Open #Biology by @royalsociety.org. The title is "Mutations within the predicted fragment-binding region of FAM83G/SACK1G abolish ints interaction with the Ser/Thr kinase CK1α".

Join us! Research Technician position available in Sapkota lab www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/careers/recr...

Esther Sammler positions Dundee among the first global sites to launch a Phase 3 Parkinson’s disease trial www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/news/esther-...

Best of luck today to Karolina Zeneviciute of the Sammler lab, defending her PhD thesis 'GBA1 and #Parkinsons Disease: Development of a Comprehensive Assay Framework and its Application in Clinical Sample Analysis'

Best of luck today to Neringa Pratuseviciute of the Sammler lab, defending her PhD thesis 'From genetic predisposition to biochemical validation: investigating the role of LRRK2 signalling in #Parkinsons Disease'

Interested in LRRK2? Join us in beautiful Scotland for the biennial LRRK2 meeting. Abstract submission is now open: bit.ly/LRRK2-26

Congratulations to Dr Prosenjit Pal on winning Best ECR Poster Award at the 11th International Symposium on Autophagy 2025, Lorne, Australia: 'Novel Motif in Several Proteins Interacting with a Lysosomal Membrane Integral Protein Implies a Link between Ubiquitylation, Autophagy, and Ciliogenesis'

Dr. Ralitsa Madsen awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s 2025 Dame Anne McLaren Medal | MRC PPU Dr. Ralitsa Madsen, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Principal Investigator in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU), has been awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh Dame Ann...

Dr. Ralitsa Madsen awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s 2025 Dame Anne McLaren Medal www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/news/dr-rali...

Best of luck today to Temi Thompson, defending her MRes research 'Developing and Characterising PROTACs against Ser/Thr Protein kinase CK1δ/ε'

What happens in nature in eight minutes? What does a frog look like on the inside? What was the first written language? These questions, and many more, are answered in the books shortlisted for the 2025 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize: #YoungSciBooks royalsociety.org/news/2025/11...

Accelerating Parkinson’s Trials: The EJS ACT-PD Clinical Trial and How You Can Get Involved

🗓 Thu 6 Nov, 5pm (Zoom)
🎙 Speaker: Prof Camille Carroll, Chief Investigator, ACT-PD
💬 Updates from Dundee Parkinson’s research and trials teams
➡️ More info here:
parkinsons-org-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Best of luck today to Adam Walker, defending his MRes research 'Exploring Diverse Synthetic Strategies for SDE2 Ubiquitin-Like Domain Probe Development: A Multi-Modal Approach'