What's new
Key cellular channel identified as a brake on lung scarring
27 February 2026
Pulmonary fibrosis is a serious and often fatal condition in which lung tissue becomes progressively scarred, stiff, and less able to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream. With limited treatment options and no cure other than lung transplantation, there is an urgent need to understand the biological mechanisms that drive this disease. A new study from the Grimm Group, published in The EMBO Journal, identifies a previously unrecognised protective role for a cellular ion channel called TRPML1 in preventing lung scarring. The research shows that when this channel is absent or non-functional, the lungs develop a fibrosis-like condition marked by excessive accumulation of structural proteins such as collagen and elastin
EMA approval of IntraBio’s Aqneursa marks a major milestone for the Department of Pharmacology, with further Phase 3 success in Ataxia Telangiectasia
23 January 2026
On 21 January, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved Aqneursa, a new treatment for Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC) in adults and children, marking a major milestone for research originating in the Department of Pharmacology. Aqneursa already received US FDA approval (September 2024), enabling patient access on both sides of the Atlantic.
Akerman group paper wins inaugural Sejnowski-Hinton Prize
4 December 2025
Congratulations to Professor Colin Akerman and members of his team who have been awarded the inaugural Sejnowski-Hinton Prize for their groundbreaking 2016 paper “Random synaptic feedback weights support error backpropagation for deep learning”
New paper from the Viney group explores mechanisms of spatial disorientation
25 November 2025
A new paper, entitled “Pathological tau alters head direction signaling and induces spatial disorientation”, has recently been published by the Viney group.
Organelle Pharmacology – a new frontier for drug discovery (15-16 April 2026)
Wednesday, 15 April 2026 to Thursday, 16 April 2026, 9am - 4pm
Targeting RNA with synthetic small molecules: scope and applications
Tuesday, 28 April 2026, 12pm to 1pm
Speaker(s): Dr Maria Duca (Université Côte d'Azur)
Host: Professor Angela Russell