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An embryonic kidney grown in culture for 72 hours. The ureteric bud and branches are shown in green (calbindin); the developing nephrons are red (laminin). Image provided by Dr S.Burn

Current News within the Unit

Recent Stories in 2010

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Talk for Edinburgh Association of University Women:

14 April 2010

The Edinburgh Association of University Women runs a monthly programme of events featuring various speakers, discussion groups and social occasions. At the 14 April meeting, MRC Regional Communications Manager Hazel Lambert and MSc student, Sehrish Rafique, gave both interesting and stimulating talks to the Association at Overseas House. Hazel's presentation covered research at the MRC Human Genetics Unit (HGU) and focused on projects with the public such as the Edinburgh Science Festival, which recently took place at the City Arts Centre.

Sehrish spoke about the Institute of Genetics and Medical Research (IGMM) PhD project she started in September 2009, in collaboration with the MRC HGU and Breakthrough Breast Cancer. The ladies were very interested in current research and also the IGMM programme of studentships, which incorporates a funded MSc year. Sehrish's talk on breast cancer heterogeneity and epigenetics stimulated discussions on the influence of epigenetic factors on disease and treatment. Sehrish said

Scottish Federation of University Women

"It was an enjoyable evening and a good experience of talking to a non-specialist audience." The Association encourages new younger members to join and their website lists up and coming talks and events.

Unit scientists provoke a rethink about how gene expression is silenced:

25 May 2010

It is known that the way that DNA is packaged with proteins - to form a structure called chromatin - is important in controlling when and where genes are expressed. Some of the proteins involved in this are known to be enzymes that can chemically modify the major protein constitutents of chromatin - histones.

The polycomb proteins are important regulators of gene expression in stem cells, in development and in disease. They were previously thought to function as histone modifying enzymes. However in a recent paper, unit scientist Dr Ragnhild Eskeland, in the laboratory of Professor Wendy Bickmore, has challenged this idea. She has shown that a polycomb protein - Ring1B - can function to silence the expression of specific genes in embryonic stem cells even when it is mutated so that it can no longer modify histones. She shows that, instead, Ring1B functions by physically compacting chromatin into a state that prevents gene expression. Professor Bickmore said:

‘‘the study of polycomb proteins has previously been so focussed on their histone modifying activity because it is easy to measure. However, our work cautions that just because a protein can do a particular activity does not mean that this is what that protein actually does do in the cell".