MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London

Science for Health

Main navigation

Nuffield Research Placements

Projects

Details of specific projects are not yet available, but they usually involve molecular biology and include many different techniques (examples listed below).

Although most of our projects involve molecular biology and biochemistry, we try to find projects suitable for people interested in Maths or Physics.

After you apply we will let you know what projects we can offer you.

Core techniques

The practical work required for projects entails the core techniques of modern biochemistry These include:

Gene technology

Gene technology includes a variety of techniques used to clone pieces of DNA, and methods used to make bacteria or animal cells act as a cellular factory that can manufacture proteins encoded in the cloned DNA. Once such proteins are made in substantial amounts they have many uses. One key application is to make antibodies to them that recognise the test protein with high affinity and specificity. These are used to detect the native protein in tissues and cells. This enables scientists to study the localisation of the test protein within tissues and cells and to study modifications of the protein that may occur in the cell.

In-site hybridisation

In-site hybridisation is a technique that can be used to detect naturally occurring messenger RNA molecules using complementary base pairing with an RNA probe (a ribo-probe) that can be detected by a colour reaction.

Fluorescence microscopy

The fluorescence of special stains or of the green fluorescent protein of the Pacific jelly fish are used to obtain high resolution images of cells and tissues. Ultraviolet light or low wavelength visible light is used to activate the visible light fluorescence. The reagents used are based on antibodies “tagged” by fluorescent dyes. One special version of this method, known as confocal microscopy, generates images that correspond to a set of sections through an object and can be used to present the structure of the object as an accurate 3-D image.

Electrophoretic analysis of proteins and DNA

All charged particles move in an electric field. We use this principle to separate DNA fragments or proteins in a “gel” (solid jelly-like matrices of various kinds). These are the “work-horses” of all biochemical analysis.

Blot technology

After separating a population of proteins or nucleic acid fragments by gel electrophoresis, we can identify particular molecules by their sequence (DNA) or their reaction with antibodies (proteins). We do this after “blotting” the material onto a special membrane where the reactions are carried out. Blotting is a very simple but highly effective technique that uses a pile of paper towels to “suck” the liquid from our gels onto the membrane. The original method known as “Southern Blotting”, named after its discoverer Dr Ed Southern, is used for DNA. Other schemes based on a similar idea are used for RNA and proteins (Northern and Western — jocular allusions to the original method)

Affinity chromatography

A method of purifying proteins that uses the affinity of the proteins for the substrate.

Creation of transgenic frogs

Genetically modified frogs can be created by injecting frog eggs with frog sperm nuclei containing DNA of a gene of interest. The frogs that develop from this procedure are used to visualise the early development of the frog tadpole.

Yeast 2 hybrid system

This is an ingenious yeast based genetic system for identifying pairs of proteins that can interact physically in yeast cells.

DNA sequencing

Methods for determining the sequence of bases in a piece of DNA is crucial to many kinds of biological research.

X-ray crystallography

Use of X-ray diffraction to determine the position of atoms in a protein crystal. Powerful computers calculate the structure of a protein from the scatter pattern.