Division of Cell & Molecular Biology

Head of Division: Professor Nick Franks FRS
Deputy Head: Professor Martin Buck FRS

The Division of Cell and Molecular Biology is part of the Department of Life Sciences and our research laboratories are located on the South Kensington Campus. Our work fits into two broad groupings: Immunology and Infection and Integrative Cell Biology and Biophysics.

Immunology & Infection

• Development of the immune system, intercellular communication and immune surveillance by NK and T cells and mechanisms of innate immunity.
• Analysis of complex host-pathogen interactions with a focus on malaria in both mammalian hosts and insect vectors.
• Mechanisms of infectivity, determinants of bacterial virulence, regulation of gene expression and virulence processes, modulation of host cell activities and signal transduction.

Integrative Cell Biology & Biophysics

• The structural molecular biology of bacterial gene regulation. Microbial transformations and metabolic engineering. Plant development and molecular cell biology. Functional genomics of plant and human pathogens. Host and pathogen abiotic and biotic stress responses and gene control strategies.
• Systems neuroscience focused specifically on the regulation of neuronal excitability and pain transduction, action of general anaesthetics and neuronal mechanisms of natural sleep.
• Protein crystallography; structure-function analyses of proteins in the extracellular matrix, those involved in DNA replication, transcription and mRNA translation initiation, as well as proteins involved in viral replication and drug delivery.

Three cross-faculty organisations are integral to our research: the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, the Centre for Structural Biology and the Neurotechnology Initiative.