Using cutting-edge technology, they have developed the first 3D image of the receptor's structure and will use the unique knowledge it provides to find drugs to modify its action and control diseases such as leukaemia and asthma.

Lopez, also a professor, said: 'Leukaemia is a type of cancer where an excessive number of malfunctioning white blood cells are produced. We have established the structure of a receptor that controls the actions of a blood-forming regulator called GM-CSF.'

These results were published in Cell.