At the Babraham Institute we carry out world-leading innovative research into the molecular mechanisms that underlie normal cellular processes and functions. A particular focus is how we age and studying the underlying mechanisms controlling this process, for example how older people respond differently to infection compared to the young. To answer these questions we examine the regulation of gene expression, the control of cell function by signalling processes and changes in organ systems including the nervous system. Read more about our Research into the Ageing process.

Two themes are central to our research remit: cell signalling – how cells respond to cues from their external environment; and epigenetics – how the genome is regulated without change to the DNA sequence of genes. Defining how cell signalling events from conception through to adulthood can lead to long-term, epigenetic changes is a great challenge in 21st century biology. Our research under these themes is carried out in the context of important processes in early development and of key functions of the body, particularly in the immune and nervous systems. Much of the work employs genetic models in rodents which can reveal both underlying molecular mechanisms at the cellular level and their overall impact in terms of dysfunction and disease.

​You can find summary information pages on the research programmes of each of our Institute Strategic Programmes (ISPs) or more detailed information on the pages of individual research Group Leaders. Our ISPs bring together Group Leaders who share complementary approaches to address a common set of biological questions.