Research Grants

The following are current grants held by members of the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology that are of particular relevance:

pump prime I2BC (France) QMUL (UK) photosynthetic improvement
Guy Hanke and Conrad Mullineaux
£4,118 DSIT Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (06-01-2025 - 16-03-2025)
Career Development Award: Structural and mechanistic understanding of kinetochore-mediated control of microtubule dynamics
Vladimir Volkov
£2,044,077 Wellcome Trust (01-01-2025 - 31-12-2032)
Alteration in bacterial cell envelope structure as the mechanism of antibiotic resistance and cell death
Nikola Ojkic
£562,114 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-12-2024 - 30-11-2027)
AI driven Omics Data Integration and Transfer Learning for Target and Biomarker Identification
Conrad Bessant
£127,935 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-10-2024 - 30-09-2028)
BBSRC AIDD CTP CASE Award: Syed Zayyan Masud
Conrad Bessant
£21,600 Nxera Pharma UK Ltd (01-10-2024 - 30-09-2028)
Development of AI framework for iPSC image analysis and integration with transcriptomics  
Viji Draviam Sastry
£127,935 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-10-2024 - 30-09-2028)
Mechanisms underlying preterm birth in women with HIV in rural Zimbabwe
Andrew Prendergast, Ruairi Robertson, Melanie Smuk, Claire Bourke, Nikolaos Donos, Robert Allaker, Abish Stephen, Conrad Bessant, Stefaan Verbruggen and Tina Chowdhury
£1,142,315 MRC Medical Research Council (01-05-2024 - 30-04-2027)
A Cell-Free Toolbox to Anticipate, Learn and Counter Antimicrobial Resistance
Simon Moore and Roberto Buccafusca
£550,068 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-04-2024 - 31-03-2027)
Development of covalent probes for protein phosphatase 1 (PP1)
Elena De Vita
£11,000 Royal Society (31-03-2024 - 30-03-2026)
Covalent PHOSTACs for targeted protein dephosphorylation against K-Ras driven tumours
Elena De Vita
£69,401 Royal Society (01-03-2024 - 31-08-2025)
Regulation of linear ubiquitin signaling in innate immunity
Benjamin Stieglitz and Aravindan Ilangovan
£661,348 MRC Medical Research Council (01-03-2024 - 28-02-2027)
Understanding membrane shape remodelling in cilia formation and function
Mark Van Breugel
£475,401 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (23-02-2024 - 22-02-2027)
Amyloids and Oligomers. Curvilinear and annular structures and their interation with exosomes and whole cells
John Viles, Ivan Kadurin, Vladimir Volkov and Vidya Chandran Darbari
£485,209 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-12-2023 - 30-11-2026)
Cooperativity and forces in molecular interactions governing chromosome stability
Vladimir Volkov and Viji Draviam Sastry
£717,413 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (20-11-2023 - 19-11-2026)
Molecular mechanism of DNA processing for antibiotic resistance gene transfer in bacteria
Aravindan Ilangovan
£517,030 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-11-2023 - 31-10-2026)
BBSRC AIDD CTP CASE Award: Yu-Yuan Yang
Richard Pickersgill and Arianna Fornili
£8,600 Evotec EVOTEC (UK) LIMITED (01-10-2023 - 30-09-2027)
BBSRC LIDo iCASE - Syngenta - Simon Moore
Simon Moore
£40,000 Syngenta UK (01-10-2023 - 30-09-2027)
Martina Occhetta CTP Studentship - Exscientia Funded
Conrad Bessant and Emma Tjong
£8,600 EXSCIENTIA LIMITED (01-10-2023 - 30-09-2027)
TG: Target identification from multiomics data using systems biology and machine learning approaches
Conrad Bessant
£125,917 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-10-2023 - 30-09-2027)
Connecting grain yield and photosynthetic electron transport in developing seeds
Guy Hanke
£509,549 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (25-09-2023 - 24-09-2026)
Photosynthesis on Alien Worlds: What might it look like, and can it be detected?
Christopher Duffy, Edward Gillen, Conrad Mullineaux and Thomas Haworth
£161,373 Leverhulme Trust (01-09-2023 - 31-08-2026)
Discovering missing links in neuropeptide evolution and function
Maurice Elphick and Arianna Fornili
£576,040 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-06-2023 - 31-05-2026)
Vitamin scavenging in the gut: Structure/function of the tight-binding B12 foraging machinery in Bacteroides - and its biotechnological applications
Richard Pickersgill
£283,203 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-04-2023 - 31-03-2026)
Molecular mechanisms for loading the bacterial replicative helicase
Aravindan Ilangovan
£1,329,649 Wellcome Trust (01-01-2023 - 31-12-2030)
How are mono-oriented chromosome-microtubule attachments protected to prevent errors in mitosis and associated cellular ageing?
Viji Draviam Sastry
£403,926 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (28-11-2022 - 27-11-2025)
Proteolytic activation of calcium channels: potential target for channel - directed therapeutics in arterial smooth muscle cells - Grant Transfer Dr I Kadurin
Ivan Kadurin
£488,751 MRC Medical Research Council (01-11-2022 - 31-10-2025)
Structure of the assembly platform of the type II secretion system
Richard Pickersgill, Vidya Chandran Darbari and Arianna Fornili
£579,168 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (28-10-2022 - 27-10-2025)
CTP Training Grant: Lewis Palmer
Conrad Bessant
£123,829 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-10-2022 - 12-11-2026)
Joint-PhD Studentship with Carl Zeiss
Viji Draviam Sastry
£42,636 Carl Zeiss Ltd (01-10-2022 - 30-09-2025)
BBSRC AIDD CTP CASE Award: Lewis Palmer: “Prioritising Drug Targets in non-canonical pathways from multi-omic data
Conrad Bessant
£10,400 Merck (26-09-2022 - 25-09-2026)
Harmonised IAA grant - Improve and accelerate the impact of QMUL research BBSRC
David Lee and Viji Draviam Sastry
£495,000 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-04-2022 - 31-03-2026)
Membrane protein targeting and assembly in cyanobacteria
Conrad Mullineaux
£456,448 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-03-2022 - 31-10-2025)
Structural Studies into E. coli SslE and its role in Diarrhoeal Diseases
Vidya Chandran Darbari
£245,268 MRC Medical Research Council (01-03-2022 - 28-02-2025)
Survey and BIOinformatic review of fluid-tissue proteomics: novel biomarkers for ALS
Andrea Malaspina and Conrad Bessant
£188,946 Barts and the London Charity (01-09-2020 - 31-08-2025)