Sugar signalling applications could boost wheat yields by up to 12%
Long term study confirms effectiveness of new technology Enhancing wheat plants ’ sugar signalling ability could deliver increased yields of up to 12%, according to researchers from Rothamsted, Oxford University and the Rosalind Franklin Institute. That is an order of…
BioCOP – the UK’s first multimodular optical microscope – enters testing phase
Biophotonic Correlative Optical Platform (BioCOP), which is located at the Rosalind Franklin Institute (the Franklin), has entered its next phase of development of calibration and benchmarking. The instrument is now assembled, and the team will start testing it with model…
Using AI to improve the analysis of 3D biological images
Scientists have developed a new machine learning model, known as Affinity-VAE, that improves the analysis of 3D biological images in fields such as cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). By making use of prior knowledge about protein structures, the model can identify clusters…
Uncovering the hidden lives of complex sugars with cutting-edge imaging
Dr Liang Wu is a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the Rosalind Franklin Institute. Since joining the Franklin in 2020, Dr Wu’s team has been investigating the role and function of enzymes in the production of heparan sulfates…
New technique sheds light on how proteins organise and move on cell membranes
Researchers at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, the University of Oxford and the University of Southern California have developed a new method for studying how molecules behave on the cell membrane. The technique, known as brightness-transit statistics (BTS), will enhance our…
Imaging in liquid with unprecedented clarity
Researchers at the Rosalind Franklin Institute have made a significant breakthrough by imaging bacteria in liquid with unprecedented clarity. Published in the journal Small, this advancement in Liquid Phase Electron Microscopy (LPEM) allows scientists to study biological molecules in their natural…
Exploration of unwanted immune response to penicillin lays groundwork for better drug design
Around 6% of people in the UK are allergic to penicillin according to their medical records – the most commonly reported drug allergy. And although research suggests the majority of those patients could, in practice, tolerate the drug, penicillin allergy…
Llama derived nanobodies neutralising new strains of coronavirus.
Specific nanobodies have been isolated that can neutralise Omicron strains of Covid-19. This research, conducted by scientists at the Rosalind Franklin Institute and the Universities of Oxford, Liverpool and Zurich, has been published in Open Biology. The landscape of SARS-CoV-2 variants…
First specific PET scan for TB could enable more effective treatment
A more accurate way to scan for tuberculosis (TB) has been developed by UK and US researchers, using positron emission tomography (PET). The team, from the Rosalind Franklin Institute, the Universities of Oxford and Pittsburgh and the National Institutes of…
A new greener chemical method for transforming native sugars
A team of scientists from the Rosalind Franklin Institute and National University of Singapore have developed a more efficient and sustainable chemistry for connecting sugars to diverse partner molecules in a way that mimics nature. Complex sugars perform a variety…