Structural Oncology & Molecular Biophysics
Structural modelling and simulation of cancer-related proteins — why a given mutation matters.
What this centre does
Understanding why a mutation matters often requires seeing what it does to a protein's shape. This centre uses structural modelling, molecular simulation and biophysical analysis to interpret variants, explain drug resistance and support structure-based design of new inhibitors.
Methods
Structure prediction and modelling; molecular dynamics simulation; variant effect prediction from structure; binding and resistance-mutation analysis; structure-based design.
Data inputs
Public structural and sequence databases; variants of uncertain significance arising from clinical interpretation; resistance mutations observed in monitored patients.
Outputs
Structural interpretations of clinically observed variants — directly useful to the tumour board; methods publications; design hypotheses feeding Centre 05.
Funding route
Structural biology and computational chemistry grants; compute-heavy and people-light, which makes it grant-efficient.
What has to be true first
Compute capacity from Centre 06.
Themes this centre carries
Work with this centre
The research centres collaborate with funders, sponsors, hospitals and academic groups. Tell us what you are working on and the enquiry is routed to the centre lead.
Contact the research office