Peter McGlynn is a molecular biologist whose research focuses on how organisms copy their genetic material. His work has highlighted the difficulties that all organisms face in replicating their DNA, the mechanisms that have evolved to try and overcome these problems and the potentially catastrophic mutations within genes that result if these mechanisms fail. Use of the bacterium Escherichia coli as a model system has allowed him to exploit multidisciplinary approaches ranging from classical bacterial genetics through to single molecule physics to understand how DNA is copied inside cells. Of particular interest is the critical roles played by enzymes called helicases, molecular motors that move along DNA and play important functions in all aspects of the DNA copying process.
Professor Peter McGlynn
