Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research

The Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research was established at UCL in 1995 for the pursuit of excellence in translational biomedical research. Now, with its primary focus on fundamental and translational neuroscience, the WIBR is a key hub within the rich environment of the UCL neuroscience community.

Lab Research Photo

Research

The WIBR is currently home to 14 Principal Investigators, including established senior academics as well as early-career scientists. Collectively we hold more than £25m in grants from The European Research Council, MRC, BBSRC, Wellcome and other biomedical research charities.

Teaching in lab

Teaching

Researchers within the WIBR organise and contribute to several distinguised undergraduate modules within the School of Life and Medical Sciences. The Institute has around 20 current PhD students, and runs a highly rated one-year MSc degree course in Drug Design.

wood lab group photo

Staff

Contact details for WIBR staff

Contact Us (WIBR)

Contact Us

Our address and location

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MRes Drug Design Programme

The MRes Drug Design programme, with research projects hosted by labs from the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research offers advanced training in cutting edge neuroscience-related techniques.

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WIBR History

Find out more about WIBR history

https://www.cancertools.org/tools2023 Publications

Iseppon, F., Luiz, A. P., Linley, J. E., & Wood, J. N. (2023). Pregabalin silences oxaliplatin-activated sensory neurons to relieve cold allodynia. eNeuro, ENEURO.0395-ENEU22.2022. doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0395-22.2022

Qin, Q., Wang, M., Li, H., Xu, Z. D., & Tang, Y. (2023). Editorial: The role of microglia in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 14, 1105896. doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.1105896

Zhu, W., Li, W., Jiang, J., Wang, D., Mao, X., Zhang, J., . . . Li, N. (2023). Chronic salmon calcitonin exerts an antidepressant effect via modulating the p38 MAPK signaling pathway. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 16, 1071327. doi:10.3389/fnmol.2023.1071327

WIBR News 2023

Small-molecule PI3Ka activator for cardioprotection and neuroregeneration

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05972-2

A multidisciplinary collaboration in generating small molecule activators of PI3Kalpha, with preclinical proof-of-concept for utility in neuro-regeneration and cardioprotection, and a great new tool for studying PI3K signalling.

This is the result of a great collaboration between UCL, LMB-MRC and AstraZeneca and many others. Compound will be available from CancerTools Cat. #161068 https://www.cancertools.org/tools

Read the Nature research article in https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05972-2

MRC Fellowship Spotlight: Matthew Swire

Matthew Swire

Matthew Swire, from the lab of Prof Bill Richardson, has been awarded an MRC Career Development Award to support the investigation of how oligodendrocytes alter neural circuits during learning.

Matthew completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh working in the lab of Profs Charles ffrench-Constant and David Lyons. He then spent 2 years working as a post-doc at the University of Edinburgh before moving to UCL in 2019.

This fellowship will support Matthew for the next 5 years on the path to becoming an independent researcher.

Click here to read more on Matthew's experience and project

WIBR to host state of the art Grating-Coupled Interferometry (GCI) system as a central resource for UCL.

The Creoptix WAVEsystem is a breakthrough instrument for biomolecular interaction analysis with applications to membrane proteins, oligonucleotides and small molecule drugs. A successful CEF5 bid funded this purchase. The instrument will be available to groups both within UCL and to external users.

https://www.rscbmcs.org/2022/12/13/bmcs-postgraduate-symposium-xvi/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bmcs-postgraduate-symposium-xvi

Student success: Clara Gathmann:

Congratulations to Clara Gathmann who won the best poster at the BMCS Postgraduate Symposium XVI

Click here for read more.

Woman who feels no pain is key to new breed of drugs

Scientists are closer to developing drugs to treat pain and depression after studying a Scottish woman with a genetic mutation that means that she feels no pain, anxiety or stress.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/woman-who-feels-no-pain-is-key-to-new-breed-of-drugs-jlpbkm209

To read more, click here

Brunch Break hosted by WIBR (21.02.03)

Thank you for everyone who attended WIBR brunch break. We had a successful turn out and yummy treats!

Thank Alison for the photos!

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Green Champions at the WIBR

Dr Dean Heathcote, Matthew Grist and Dr Agata Stryjewska WIBR's Green Champions. Matthew and Agata were recently awarded 'Gold' for action they have taken in the Richardson Lab (Wing 3.4).

Starlab tip recycling is a big one and sending back the polystyrene boxes to NEB and Promega. No cooling at the end of PCR cycles, simply end the program and it naturally rests at Room Temp which is perfectly fine for PCR products. Simply turning off equipment after use and segregating waste correctly. Reducing -85 freezers to -75, is a huge energy saving.

Green Impact Gold Award

To get involved visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable/staff/labs/leaf