College of Life Sciences

The Division of Molecular Physiology is located on the second floor of the Sir James Black Centre.

Head of Division: Professor Grahame Hardie

Deputy Head of Division: Dr Hari Hundal

Divisional Secretary: Miss Nicola Forbes

Laboratory Manager: Mrs Nancy Kirk

We aim to understand how physiological processes are regulated at the molecular level in multicellular organisms, and how this goes wrong in major diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.

The Division arose in 1999 through a merger between members of the former Departments of Biochemistry and Physiology. The new term Molecular Physiology stems from technical developments that now allow the study of complex physiological events at the molecular level.

A major focus of the Division are the signalling pathways (especially the insulin -> PI-3-kinase and the LKB1 -> AMPK pathways) that control nutrient uptake, metabolism and cell growth, in response to the availability of nutrients and cellular energy status. Our approach is to gain insights at a fundamental level, but our research has particular applications in the physiology of exercise, and the medical problems of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. Molecular physiology implies a multidisciplinary approach to these problems, and the Division has available expertise and state-of-the-art facilities in many areas, ranging from structural and molecular biology, through electrophysiology, tissue engineering and gene targeting in model organisms, to molecular and metabolic studies in humans. Our research has wide applications in the pharmaceutical industry, and two of us are associated with the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy, a major research collaboration with six of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

Division comprises seven actively collaborating research groups with major interests in:

1. Keith Baar: Molecular biology of exercise and muscle development (Group website)
2. Pete Downes: Inositol lipid-dependent signalling pathways
3. Grahame Hardie: The LKB1-AMPK signaling pathway – a key sensor of fuel and energy status and a target for drugs aimed at Type 2 diabetes
4. Sandy Harper: Neural control of the heart
5. Hari Hundal: Hormonal, nutrient and stress-mediated regulation of glucose and amino acid transport (Group website)
6. Nick Leslie: The regulation of the tumour suppressor phosphatase, PTEN
7. Peter Taylor: Nutrient sensing and signalling - the role of transporter proteins
8. Mikael Bjorklund: Growth regulation in multicellular organisms