MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma

Contact Details

Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics

New Hunt's House, Guys Campus

King's College London

London SE1 1UL

Telephone

020 7848 6435

Email

andrew.beavil@kcl.ac.uk

Profile

Asthma is a chronic condition characterised by a narrowing of the bronchial tubes, swelling of the bronchial tube lining, and mucous secretion that can block the airway, making breathing difficult. These effects are caused by the persistence of inflammation often identifiably caused by an allergy. Our work is underpinned by the Asthma UK funded lectureship held by Andrew Beavil, and we aim to identify the basic cell and molecular mechanisms underlying the development of allergic sensitisation and chronic airway inflammation. Our skills lie in the fields of molecular biology, spectroscopy and molecular biophysics, techniques that enable us to study molecular size, shape, structure and interactions both in solution and in in vitro cell culture systems. Most of our work is focused on the biophysical characterisation of immunoglobulin E (IgE) and its interactions with its receptors (see references below). This work forms the theoretical basis of a major series of translational projects aimed at developing novel small-molecule inhibitors of the IgE-FceR1 interaction. Our work overlaps and complements that of Professors Brian Sutton (Structural Biology) and Hannah Gould (Immunology).

MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma

Last modified: 04 December 2009 11:38