Welcome to the Cell-Mineral Research Centre (C-MRC)

We are a virtual research centre comprising 6 science and engineering departments at the University of Sheffield. With partners at the Universities of Leeds, Bristol and the British Geological Survey. International collaboration and outreach is through the Worldwide Universities Network. The current research portfolio is over £6M involving around 20 academics and 30 research staff.

Engineering application is linked to partners at the University of Sheffield: The Pennine Water Group, The Catchment Science Centre and The Sorby Nanoinvestigation Centre.

Science Themes

C-MRC studies the life and function of microbes that inhabit solid surfaces. The overarching hypothesis is that attached growth communities dominate the processing of materials and energy at these interfaces. Furthermore, a crucial control on microbial function is the chemical structure of the cell wall. This is adapted through functional genes that respond to changes in the environment of the solid interface outside the cell.