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Leeds awarded £2.3m to map protein structure

April 17, 2004

The University of Leeds has been awarded £2.3m to map the structure of membrane proteins, so that drugs can be designed to more effectively target widespread diseases including diabetes, cancer and bacterial infections.

The funds were awarded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council as part of a £6.8m grant to the Membrane Protein Structure Initiative, which will carry out the work.

Scientists at Leeds will produce the proteins and also work with other members of the MPSI consortium - which includes the Universities of Glasgow, Oxford and Sheffield, Imperial College, UMIST, CCLRC Daresbury and Birkbeck College - to discover their structures.

The proteins to be investigated are embedded in membranes that surround living cells and act as receivers of chemical messages and conduits through which nutrients and drugs enter. They are produced by around one-third of our genes, but are difficult to isolate and purify for structural studies.

Understanding their structures will allow them to be targeted more effectively by drugs - more than 50% of currently-used drugs target these proteins. The grant brings together a number of world-class UK scientists who will pool their expertise and resources to accelerate the pace of research in this area.

Professor Steve Baldwin, joint coordinator at Leeds of the MPSI, said: "We are delighted at the award; it represents a huge fillip for our research, with both economic and scientific benefits for the UK. The grant will pay for eight researchers in a five-year effort with a new lab and equipment to solve the mystery of how these proteins work."

The £6.8m grant is one of the largest single grants to be made by the BBSRC, which was awarded £49m as part of the government spending review in 2002 to support genomics and proteomics. £14m of this funding has been allocated to structural proteomics.

Leeds, University of

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