Research
The MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics provides an innovative research environment by stimulating interaction between basic and clinical scientists with a shared vision of discovering new ways to treat and prevent disease. Our understanding of human biology has been transformed by the realisation that we share many biochemical and cellular processes with organisms such as mice fish and even flies. This revelation has been driven in part by the deciphering of the sequence of the human genome and, in part, by the genetic analysis of so-called "model organisms".
Our research staff use these non-mammalian animal models - the zebrafish, the fruit fly Drosophila and chicks to study normal and aberrant cellular mechanisms. These organisms thus provide a powerful approach to the identification of novel candidates for genes underlying human disease – neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal disease, as well as cancer – and may be the basis for biomarker discovery, generation of new diagnostics or as targets in drug discovery.
Zebrafish research
One key importance to the Centre's programme of work is to use the zebrafish, a tropical fish from the minnow family, and currently the pre-eminent non-mammalian vertebrate species for mdelling human disease processes. Primarily, the zebrafish is used to identify genes and pathways that underlie a broad range of human diseases, including cardiovascular, inflammatory and musculosketal disease, deafness and cancer.
Drosophila research
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has long been recognised as one of the pre-eminent model organisms fro the generic analysis of a range of biological processes from devlopment to behavior. A number of groups use Drosophila as their primary tool to investigate genes implicated in disease processes such as cancer and neurodegeneration.
Chick research
The chick provides a powerful non-mammalian system in which to analyse the molecular basis of human development and disease and is used as a primary model organism to study development of the nervous system. The advances in our understanding of the complex cellular interactions and molecular genetics regulating the nervous system are, in turn, making a significant contribution to understanding the aetiology of human neural disease.
