Genetics & Molecular Biology

Understanding genes, DNA, and the molecules that make living things work — from inherited traits to the roots of disease

#7 of 29 research categories by total funding · About £73 per person in the UK

Funded awards
8,725
Published funding
£4.9B
Average published award
£806K
Active funded awards
1,242
NIHR-supported projects
599

Amounts are published for 6,028 of 8,725 funded awards. Data as of 16 July 2026.

BBSRC funds the most Genetics & Molecular Biology research — 3,336 grants (38% of the topic). The busiest year was 2016, with 554 grants.

Top Funders by Funded Award Count

View data table
FunderFunded awards
BBSRC3,336
Wellcome1,500
MRC1,051
EC452
EPSRC437
CRUK425
UKRI343
NERC316
InnovateUK164
WCR130

Funded Awards by Year

View data table
YearFunded awards
2006408
2007466
2008515
2009420
2010405
2011358
2012386
2013368
2014374
2015471
2016554
2017517
2018512
2019514
2020422
2021394
2022465
2023494
2024414
2025209

Grants

RNA processing and gene regulationUniversity of EdinburghMRC£3.9M2023Active
Gene regulation in health and disease—MRC£3.9M2022Active
Discovering how CpG islands control transcription to regulate gene expressionAssociated with John Innes Centre · University of OxfordWellcome£3.6M2024Active
Role of locus-specific transposable element expression in developmentUniversity of OxfordWellcome£3.1M2024Active
The regulation of globin gene expression during haematopoiesis—MRC£3.0M2017Completed
Post-transcriptional regulation of Gene ExpressionUniversity of EdinburghMRC£2.8M2018Completed
CpG as a genomic signalling moduleWellcome Sanger InstituteWellcome£2.4M2010Completed
Molecular mechanism and regulatory function of protein coding gene transcriptional termination in mammalian genomes.University of OxfordWellcome£2.2M2015Completed
GREAT: Genome Refactoring and Engineering Approach to study non-coding genes driving TranslationUniversity of ManchesterUKRI£1.7M2024Active
Understanding the role of CpG islands in gene regulatory element function and transcription.University of OxfordWellcome£1.7M2013Completed
VENTURE: Investigating the role of RNA structure in mRNA ExportJohn Innes CentreUKRI£1.6M2023Active
Medical and Regulatory GenomicsUniversity of EdinburghMRC£1.5M2018Completed
How do microRNAs regulate translation?MRC Toxicology UnitMRC£1.1M2010Completed
Regulation Of Reversible Acetylation Of Cohesin In Genome BiologyUniversity of LeicesterMRC£849K2025Active
22-BBSRC/NSF-BIO Building synthetic regulatory units to understand the complexity of mammalian gene expression—BBSRC£842K2024Active
PAX6 as a model for synthetic hypervariation studiesUniversity of EdinburghBBSRC£780K2020Completed
EPSRC-SFI: Supercoiling-driven gene control in synthetic DNA circuitsUniversity of LeedsEPSRC£710K2022Completed
Tuning gene expression through antisense transcript dynamicsJohn Innes CentreBBSRC£710K2013Completed
Nucleation of Polycomb silencing at FLCJohn Innes CentreBBSRC£708K2017Completed
Transcription-coupled mechanisms of nuclear mRNA surveillance and their global role in human gene expression.University of EdinburghWellcome£695K2010Completed

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Related topics

Cells, Biochemistry & Physiology 9,961 grants Plants, Animals & Ecology 6,010 grants