The school is one of the leading biology schools in the UK and is recognised internationally for its world-class research portfolio and its excellence in teaching. Our research is delivered largely through the Centre for Genetics and Genomics, one of Nottingham’s flagship research groupings.
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the school’s research was considered to be at the “Internationally Competitive” level or above, and 50% was judged to be in the “Internationally Excellent” and “World Leading” categories. For The University of Nottingham as a whole, the 2008 RAE was also very positive, with the University rising to rank seventh in the most widely quoted (Research Fortnight) league table of RAE outcomes for UK universities.
Our research interests are wide ranging and span from fundamental studies in molecular biology, developmental biology, microbiology and genome dynamics, through population biology, evolutionary genetics, and animal behaviour to human genetics, parasitology, and toxicology. We run a thriving postgraduate training programme and offer training in a wide variety of subjects and techniques. While emphasis is placed on research scholarship, we also aim to develop skills applicable to a wide variety of careers, via courses including the MSc Biological Photography and Imaging. Our research groups are located in well-equipped modern laboratories. Our success at teaching is reflected in our ‘Excellent’ rating (23/24) in the Teaching Quality Assessment exercise and owes much to our ability to include leading-edge research in the teaching curriculum.
Current research projects within school/centre
Research in school and centre covers a wide range of areas in biology and genetics. Current research projects include genetic diversity and speciation; population, evolutionary and conservation genetics; genome evolution; human genetic diversity; molecular genetics of human disorders including heart disease, muscle disorders and Alzheimer’s; sex in fungi; molecular effects of stress; fungal genomics; developmental genetics; micro RNAs and RNAi; stem cells biology; regulatory networks; cancer genetics; epigenetics; DNA repair and recombination; genome stability; bacterial motility; immunogenetics of parasites; chromosome biology including centromeres and telomeres; cell biology and macromolecular interactions; parasite variation; behavioral ecology; community ecology; adaptive behaviour; toxicology; electrophysiology and neurobiology. Details of these can be found on the Centre for Genetics and Genomics and School of Biology web pages.