Uni awarded £5m for cell research

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/merseyside/7115723.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been awarded £5m to investigate how cells in our body communicate with each other.

Biologists in Liverpool will look at the role of a system that sends signals in the body.

It controls how cells respond to things like stress and the immune system.

The project is part of a £26m UK-wide investment in Systems Biology funded by two of the largest research councils in the country.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have funded this project in collaboration with the Universities of Manchester and Warwick.

Second grant

A second team from the university has been awarded a further £1m as part of a £5m project to see how plants cope with temperature changes.

The research could help to develop crops that would cope with the possible effects of global warming.

Professor Mike White, from the University's School of Biological Sciences, said: "Systems Biology involves the analysis of how biological processes work at all levels.

"With this grant we can develop models to understand more clearly how cells communicate with each other."