Associated organisationsDiamond Light Source Limited · Rosalind Franklin Institute · University of OxfordEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£1.6M
PeriodMay 2022 — Apr 2027
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
A national laboratory dedicated to membrane proteins will open at the Harwell Campus, giving UK scientists a central hub for the tools needed to study these difficult molecules. Membrane proteins sit on the surface of cells and control how drugs enter and signals pass through, but they are notoriously hard to work with because they fall apart when removed from their natural environment. The new Membrane Protein Laboratory (MPL) will combine advanced X-ray imaging at Diamond Light Source, time-resolved structural biology for drug discovery, and live-cell microscopy to study these proteins from atomic to cellular scale. This matters because current methods often fail on the most challenging, high-impact projects. If successful, the MPL will provide a dedicated national resource that produces high-quality membrane protein samples and offers rapid-access user programmes, including links to the European INSTRUCT-ERIC infrastructure. The lab builds on 15 years of prior work and is designed with a sustainability plan so its core activities can continue without relying on short-term research grants. The immediate impact is on fundamental structural biology and drug discovery infrastructure, not on everyday life directly.
View original technical description
We propose a Membrane Protein Laboratory (MPL) as a national resource focused on integrating, developing and harnessing new technologies to drive membrane protein biomedicine and structural biology. This proposal will build upon 15 years of MPL research excellence, technical developments at Diamond Light Source, and complement the strategic aims of Diamond-II and the Rosalind Franklin Institute. Integrative in situ outcomes spanning atomic to cellular scales will be central to technologies developed including time-resolved structural biology for drug discovery, single-particle and live-cell imaging. The MPL experimental platforms located in the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH) will be vital to these efforts, delivering biomedically important membrane protein samples to drive technological developments, create new access routes for Diamond users and engage experts on the Harwell campus with the wider membrane protein community. Through an integrative technologies user access programme, we will support challenging, high-impact projects that have exhausted current strategies. Rapid-access proposals and INSTRUCT-ERIC (European Infrastructure for Integrated Structural Biology) will support MPL facilities access for the wider membrane protein community. In parallel Diamond and the Franklin will work with the MPL to establish a sustainability plan to enable core MPL activities to be independent of responsive mode funding.
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