The Membrane Receptor Network is to serve as an instrument for its members to enhance the quality of their research, generate new knowledge, promote innovation, foster collaboration, and boost funding success.

Membrane receptors are vital for the proper functioning of cells and organisms as they play crucial roles in a plethora of biological processes. As a result, they are implicated in many diseases, and are of huge strategic importance for the pharmaceutical industry. Membrane receptor targeting has recently experienced a transformation from random ligand screening to knowledge-driven drug design: new technological advances have resulted in an exponential increase in knowledge of the genetic variations, structure, and dynamics of these proteins, facilitating drug development at an unprecedented pace.

The network will represent a multi-disciplinary hub of expertise spanning across the College with the aim to generate new knowledge, promote innovation and foster collaboration both within Academia and Industry. 

Objectives

The Imperial Membrane Receptor Network of Excellence is a recently approved network whose main objective is to assemble a critical mass of researchers whose work involves membrane receptors across several Imperial Faculties.

The network aims to provide Imperial receptor scientists with a strategic framework that will:

• Enable knowledge exchange and encourage cross-Faculty collaborations.
• Promote access to cutting-edge technology.
• Deliver the best possible training to the next generation of membrane receptor scientists.

Key Strategic areas

1. drug discovery
2. clinically relevant applications
3. tool/method development
4. industry/enterprise partnerships
5. early career research network

For further information, or to join the Network, please email receptor@imperial.ac.uk