Dunn reborn as the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
26 March 2009
The MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit in Cambridge is shifting its research focus to work solely on the biology of mitochondria, the “powerhouses” inside cells. To mark this change it has been renamed The MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit.
The unit’s research includes investigation of how mitochondria convert energy in the food we eat into fuel to power the body, how the small DNA molecules in mitochondria are replicated, and how to avoid the effects of reactive oxygen species formed in mitochondria, which are implicated in ageing and cancer.
Over the past decade the MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit devoted much of its research to this field, while also looking at how diet can cause or prevent cancer. The unit moved some of these diet and cancer activities across to the Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival (CNC) at the University of Cambridge in 2004. Following a strategic review of UK nutrition research last year, the MRC has decided to transfer the last of these activities to the CNC and to rename the Dunn to reflect its new specialism.
Unit Director Professor Sir John Walker, who was instrumental in bringing about this new research focus, said:
“This strategic change acknowledges the growing realisation that mitochondrial dysfunction is linked with major neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, diabetes and obesity, and possibly to the ageing process itself. As part of this realignment, the unit will develop its growing interests in the cell biology and genetics of mitochondria and will continue to strengthen its links to basic and translational clinical science.”
Professor Walker will lead on the shift in emphasis until he steps down from being Director in 2011.
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