A major biomedical research equipment grant worth £337,000 has been awarded by the Wellcome Trust to the Wolfson Protein Crystallography Unit at the University.
This highly competitive award was won by Professor K. Ravi Acharya (Department of Biology & Biochemistry), Dr Matthew Lloyd (Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology) and their colleagues from the two departments.
The Wolfson Protein Crystallography Unit was established in 1990 and is located within the Department of Biology & Biochemistry. The researchers in this unit use X-rays to determine the 3D structures of proteins and other biological molecules in a variety of applications, from understanding the mechanism of enzymes to optimising drug design.
The new funding will upgrade equipment to produce a state-of-the-art facility, boosting the research productivity of the unit and retaining its competitiveness as one of the premier structural biology groups in the UK.
The Wellcome Trust funding is further enhanced by University support worth £115,000 as part of its commitment to this ‘multi-user facility’ from its strategic research funds.
Professor Acharya said: “I am delighted by the Wellcome Trust award and also the support from the University.
“This funding boost will allow us to perform internationally competitive cutting-edge science in the area of structural biology, one of the most powerful tools available to manipulate and understand the function of biomolecules.”