Small Worlds

Meuseum of History of Science

The art of the invisible is an exhibition of the miniature world of microscopic specimens, revealing the strange and wonderful contents of the Museum’s collection of some ten thousand slides. Over three-quarters of these are contained in a single cabinet on permanent loan from the Royal Microscopical Society, with specimens prepared between 1860 and 1930.




Human Receptor Crystallography

Important medical targets: Solving the structures of proteins forms a large part of the structural biology work at Diamond (UK's synchrotron science facility at Oxford) and the Membrane Protein Laboratory has been established to assist researchers who are working specifically on membrane proteins, which are embedded in the membranes that coat the thousands of cells in our bodies. These proteins make up around 30% of the human genome. We have over 7,000 membrane proteins in our bodies and many of these are important drug targets, in fact over 50% of current commercially available drugs target membrane proteins.

However, to date, scientists have only solved the structures of 170 membrane proteins and less than five of the 7,000 human membrane proteins. This is largely due to the fact that, in order to determine their structures, you need to crystallise the membrane proteins, which is extremely difficult to do. Having a dedicated laboratory with cutting edge equipment within the Diamond synchrotron building, close to the experimental stations where membrane protein structures can be solved, will greatly enhance scientists' ability to successfully crystallise membrane proteins and further our understanding of these important drug targets.

source: http://www.oxtrust.org.uk/news/305210