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Ambitious new project to transform human disease modelling for cancer

10 November 2025

The MRC Toxicology Unit are joining an interdisciplinary team on a major new initiative that aims to redefine human-based research models for greater understanding of disease and the acceleration of new medicines. The joint £15.9 million investment by the UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome and UKRI Innovate UK...

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Tiago Marques-Pedro co-chairs symposium on the Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Toxicity

28 October 2025

Tiago Marques-Pedro is a PhD student in the MacFarlane lab who studies mitochondrial toxicity. Tiago had the opportunity to organise and co-chair a Gordon Research Symposium. These symposiums, held the day before the main Gordon Research Conference on a particular topic, give early career researchers the chance to present...

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Niall Buckley receives Outstanding Poster prize at the Gordon Research Conference on the Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Toxicity

3 September 2025

Niall Buckley recently attended this year's Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Toxicity in New Hampshire thanks to a travel grant from the EUROTOX Congress. Niall, a postdoc in the MacFarlane lab and AstraZeneca Hepatic Safety Team, presented his work on how CDK9 inhibitors can...

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David asking a question during an Agora session with Reinhard Genzel, Physics 2020, source: Lindau Nobel Flickr

David O'Louglin attends 74th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Chemistry

20 August 2025

David O'Loughlin, a PhD student in the MacFarlane Lab went to the prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in Germany which this year focused on chemistry. David tells us about the meeting and how he found the experience: Attending a Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting by David O'Loughlin In March, I received an incredible...

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An interview with MPhil student Amy Lewis

We asked MPhil student Amy about her research at the Tox Unit, why she chose to study an MPhil and what she likes to do when she's not in the lab. spotlight-amy.png Who are you and what is your research about? I'm Amy, an MPhil student in the MacFarlane Lab. My work aims to understand how certain...

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Unit researchers awarded prizes at the joint BTS-BPS Meeting

31 January 2025

Eve Stalker, a PhD student in the Willis Lab, and Dr Miriam Cipullo, a Postdoctoral Fellow joint between AstraZeneca and the MacFarlane Lab at the MRC Toxicology Unit were awarded prizes at the joint BTS-BPS Meeting ‘Toxicology in a New Era of Pharmacology’. The one-day conference brought together experts across...

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Researchers identify new link between mitochondrial dysfunction and the development of COPD

20 December 2024

Researchers in the MacFarlane lab at the MRC Toxicology Unit have identified that a protein called TAp73 controls mitochondrial function in ciliated cells that line our airways. Ciliated cells are essential to clear mucus from our airways to maintain lung function. As this process is defective in diseases such as Chronic...

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Tox student receives 2024 Mary Amdur Student Award

14 March 2024

David O'Loughlin, PhD student in the MacFarlane lab at the MRC Toxicology Unit, has been awarded the 2024 Mary Amdur Student Award by the Society of Toxicology (SOT) at their Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The prize, named in honour of a pioneer in air pollution toxicology who overcame gender, political and...

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Mitochondrial damage: the missing piece in understanding the side-effects from antipsychotics?

6 September 2023

Researchers from the MRC Toxicology Unit, in collaboration with the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge, have uncovered why individuals who are prescribed some antipsychotic drugs can develop movement disorders. How these side-effects might develop was not clear – until now - and it is all linked to damage to the...

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Tiago Marques Pedro selected for international toxicology conference

23 August 2023

tiago.jpg Tiago Marques Pedro, a PhD student in the MacFarlane lab, has been selected to present his research at the Gordon Research Conference on Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Toxicity. "Alongside the amazing speakers, innovative science and hiking excursions, I was chosen to give a short talk based on my poster...

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