Advances
Issue 7
JOHN INNES CENTRE and SAINSBURY LABORATORY
SPRING 2007
E XC E L L E N CE I N R E SE A R C H A N D TRAI NI NG I N PLANT AND MI CROBI AL S CI E N CE
A model of the Biffen extension
Report from
the Centre
This is another exciting year for
science at the John Innes Centre
and the Sainsbury Laboratory.
Several of our latest highimpact publications are
described in this issue of
Advances. We also highlight
two spin-out awards, a potential
new use for pea starch, and a
new technique that will help
search for new anti-cancer and
anti-bacterial drugs more
quickly and precisely – all
examples of the impact and
relevance of our science. We
report from a ‘Plants for
Bioenergy’ workshop, a major
challenge, where JIC will be a
cornerstone of the national
effort. We are also delighted that
our scientists are receiving
substantial funding from the
BBSRC Crop Science Initiative
(highlighted on page 6).
A top plant pathologist in the
USA, Sophien Kamoun, has
joined the Sainsbury
Laboratory. We welcome him
and his team to the Centre this
year, together with Volker
Lipka, from the Eberhard-KarlsUniversität, Tübingen in
Germany (see page 8). As some
arrive, others leave. JIC’s Nick
Harberd has been elected to the
Sibthorpian Chair of Plant
Science in the University of
Oxford and a professorial
fellowship at St. John's College.
Tracy Palmer will also be leaving
us this summer, to help establish
a multi-investigator division in
molecular microbiology at the
University of Dundee. These are
prestigious appointments and we
wish them continued success in
their new roles.
I am delighted that the
contribution not only to plant
biology, but also to science in
society, and particularly education
by JIC Emeritus, Keith Roberts,
has been recognised by the award
of OBE in the New Year Honours
(see page 9).
Caroline Dean will give the
Genetics Society’s 2007 Medal
Lecture ‘The need for winter in
the switch to flowering’ at their
Spring meeting in Edinburgh.
The award recognises her
outstanding research contribution
to genetics. Caroline was present
at a quite different event recently
- a reception for representatives of
the British scientific community,
held at Buckingham Palace and
hosted by HM The Queen and
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
At the Centre the status of mathematical biology, and the focus we
are attaching to it, is reflected in the launch of a full Department of
Computational and Systems Biology. Recruitment of a senior
appointment to head the new Department is under way. A major coinvestment is in progress with the Institute of Food Research and the
University of East Anglia which aims to make Norwich a leading
centre for biomathematics, underpinning science for sustainability.
Visitors to the Centre will see the start of ‘new-build’, an extension
to the Biffen building primarily for Cell and Developmental Biology
Department, which is scheduled for completion by end-2007. This
new building, designed by architects Fielden & Mawson with
engineering by Robert Somerville and Associates, combined with
modifications to the Biffen building itself, are an energy-efficient
solution to address our needs for state-of-the-art bioimaging facilities
and dry bench space for increasing computational work.
Last but not least, I was pleased to
welcome Jonathon Porritt to JIC
recently. The former Director of
Friends of the Earth, now
Chairman of the UK Sustainable
Development Commission, asked a
capacity audience at the fourth
Friends of JIC Annual Lecture if
"Living in an Oil Scarce World
would be Misery or Sustainability".
He was challenging and
Jonathon Porritt with Alison Smith, JIC
provocative about what the future
may hold, and the audience reactions to his predictions were equally
challenging with lively discussions continuing long after the Lecture had
finished.
Chris Lamb, Director JIC
This issue of ‘Advances’ showcases a year of continued excellence in
Sir John Beringer, Chairman of JIC Governing Council plants a tree (a Wollemi Pine) in payment of JIC's
annual rent to the John Innes Foundation for the JIC site. Looking on are JIC Governing Council members
Sir Ben Gill, Mr Stuart Holmes and Professor George Salmond and John Innes Foundation Chairman Mr
Frank Oldfield, together with Chris Lamb. The ceremony took place during the Governing Council meeting
on 12 December 2006.
w w w . j i c . a c . u k
SCIENCE
HIGHLIGHTS
Old enzyme learns
NEW TRICKS
Norwich Research Park scientists, led by Anne Osbourn at JIC, have discovered an antibioticproducing enzyme in oats that could be used in the future to protect cereal crops from fungal
diseases such as “take-all”. Take-all is a devastating disease of wheat and barley world-wide and
there is currently no resistance to it. In collaboration with IGER Aberystwyth and the Institute of
Plant Molecular Biology, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, they found that an enzyme from oats,
called Sad2, helps produce a chemical that makes the plant resistant to infections. Their research
shows that Sad2 has evolved from an ancient family of enzymes that have remained unchanged over
millions of years and are almost identical across the plant, fungi and animal kingdoms. All the other
enzymes in this family are involved in producing essential fats called sterols, such as cholesterol in
humans, and include targets for cholesterol-lowering drugs, antifungals and herbicides. The
discovery of a new member of this enzyme family with a completely different function was
therefore surprising.
If we could transfer this gene cluster from oats into other plants, it might be possible to breed cereals
that are resistant to devastating crop diseases such as take-all. The findings also have broad
significance for understanding how new metabolic pathways arise in plants, and this is an area that
we are now investigating in other plant species such as rice and Arabidopsis.
The team are currently working with PBL (Plant Bioscience Ltd) to patent the technology and
develop commercial applications together with the company Dupont and other potential licensees in
the AgBiotech sector.
Reference: X. Qi et al. (2006) A new function for a member of an ancient and highly conserved cytochrome
P450 family – from essential sterols to plant defence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
103 18848-18853
Funding: Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council and Gatsby Foundation
Weblink: PBL - www.pbltechnology.com
FIT FOR
Climate Change
Whilst most of us would prefer to avoid the cold winter months, many plants growing in a
temperate climate need to experience a period of cold to trigger flowering when
temperatures rise in the spring. This cold-induced acceleration of flowering is called
vernalization, and plants growing in different regions have considerable variation in
vernalization responses and flowering times. Caroline Dean’s group at JIC has been
studying the molecular basis of this variation in Arabidopsis plants collected from sites
across Europe, in collaboration with the University of Southern California.
They measured levels of a gene called FLC that delays flowering over the winter and found
that the variation in vernalization response is due to differences in the epigenetic silencing
mechanism underpinning vernalization. This mechanism acts like a memory, enabling the
plant to “remember” cold exposure; Arabidopsis collected from the Arctic Circle needed
longer cold exposure, to silence the FLC gene.
Their research, recently published in the journal Genes and Development, could give clues
as to how plants could be bred to extend their geographical range and cope with possible
future changes in global climate.
Reference: Shindo et al. (2006) Variation in the epigenetic silencing of PLC contributes to natural variation in
Arabidopsis vernalization response. Genes & Development 20 (22) 3079-3083
Funding: BBSRC & Natural Environment Research Council
2
Exploring bacterial nanomachines
Many bacteria produce toxins that can threaten human health,
however new research into how bacteria secrete these substances is
giving clues as to how scientists could harness these processes to
produce biopharmaceuticals.
Tracy Palmer’s group are studying a nanomachine in soil bacteria
called the Tat system, which the bacteria use to secrete a range of
proteins that help them digest food and compete with other
microorganisms in the soil. Their latest work has identified which
proteins are exported via the Tat system, revealing that this system is
used by more proteins than previously thought. The biotechnology
industry already uses bacteria to make proteins to use in products
such as biological washing powder or pharmaceuticals, but some are
difficult to produce using current methods. By harnessing the Tat
system, she hopes that it will be easier to make these proteins for
biotechnological and biomedical purposes.
Her group have joined forces with the “Tat Machine Project”, an
EU-funded consortium of researchers from across Europe
studying the Tat system. The consortium is studying the system in
several different types of bacteria, including pathogenic species
such as E. coli O157 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to explore Tat
as a potential target for new antibiotics.
Reference: Widdick et al. (2006) The twin-arginine translocation pathway is a
major route of protein export in Streptomyces coelicolor. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 103 (47) 17927-17932
Funding: BBSRC Exploiting Genomics Initiative & European Commission
Weblink: www.tatmachine.net/
Above: Tracy Palmer & David Widdick have used state-of-the-art technology to study a nanomachine in
soil bacteria called the Tat system, which the bacteria use to secrete a range of proteins that help them
digest food and compete with other microorganisms in the soil
3
FOCUS ON
AMINOCOUMARINS
Despite the success of antibiotics in
the 20th century, bacterial disease is
still a major health concern
worldwide. JIC’s biological chemists
are making a key contribution to our
understanding of antibiotics
produced by the soil bacterium
Streptomyces. The compounds may
also hold a key to the treatment of
some non-bacterial diseases.
Molecular structure of part of the ‘target’ DNA gyrase (yellow), showing how novobiocin (blue) blocks the
binding of ATP (red)
Designer drugs for Superbugs?
The EU-funded consortium ‘CombiGyrase’ has been looking at the
possibility of new ‘designer drugs’ to combat bacterial disease. The
key is to find a good target; something in bacteria that can be used to
kill the ‘bug’ without affecting the human host. The researchers chose
the bacterial enzyme DNA gyrase, a well-validated drug target that is
not present in humans. Their starting point was aminocoumarins
(novobiocin and clorobiocin) from Streptomyces; excellent inhibitors
of DNA gyrase, but poor drugs in the clinic. Could they be redesigned to become clinically useful?
The principal output from CombiGyrase has been large numbers of
totally new aminocoumarin compounds (dubbed ‘novclobiocins’),
which have been tested against the target, DNA gyrase, and compared
with the parent compounds.
Perhaps the most exciting output has been the finding that
simocyclinone, another aminocoumarin, also targets DNA gyrase,
but with an entirely new mode of action. The hope is that this
discovery can be exploited to design completely new drugs to
combat drug-resistant bacteria.
Funding: An EU-funded specific targeted research project
Collaboration: CombiGyrase is a 7-lab European consortium involving
research groups from 5 countries: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the
UK, headed by Prof. Lutz Heide from the University of Tübingen (Germany).
Two of the labs are in companies and the others are academic partners,
including Tony Maxwell’s Group at JIC
Several novclobiocins show comparable activity to the parent
compounds but with improved properties. These drugs are being
investigated further.
Designer drugs for
cancer?
Helping the search for
cancer drugs and antibiotics
The biological chemists have also been collaborating with a
team led by the University of Kansas, aiming to transform
novobiocin into an anti-cancer compound. Novobiocin
inhibits Hsp90, a protein necessary for all human cells and
particularly important for the growth of cancer cells. Two new
compounds have been found that no longer work like an
antibiotic but instead target Hsp90, blocking the protein that
cancer cells need to proliferate. In effect, the antibiotic has
been transformed into an anti-cancer compound that
researchers say may hold promise for the treatment of many
types of cancers. The next steps are to determine what is
needed in the molecule, what is important, what is not, and
what can be changed so the compounds specifically kill the
cancer cells and leave the normal ones alone.
Tony Maxwell and his team have developed a new technique that will
help search for new anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs more quickly
and accurately. They have found a new way of measuring the activity of
a group of enzymes called DNA topoisomerases that help package
DNA, the molecule that stores genetic information, into cells.
Chemicals that block these enzymes could be developed into new anticancer and anti-bacterial drugs. The previous method used for
measuring the activity of topoisomerases is time consuming and labourintensive; this new technique is faster, more accurate and could be
automated with robotics to screen thousands of chemicals and identify
those with the potential to be made into drugs. The technique has been
patented and will be marketed by PBL, and will be further developed
by Inspiralis Ltd, a spin-out company housed in the Norwich
Bioincubator.
Publication: Burlison et al. (2006) Novobiocin: Redesigning a DNA
gyrase inhibitor for selective inhibition of Hsp90. Journal of the
American Chemical Society 128 15529-15536
Reference: Maxwell, A., Burton, N.P. & O'Hagan, N. (2006) High-throughput assays
for DNA gyrase and other topoisomerases. Nucleic Acids Research 34 e104
4
Funding: BBSRC Core Strategic Grant and PBL
SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Another piece of
the membrane
protein puzzle
solved
Nitrogen uptake and metabolism is essential for living cells.
The uptake mainly occurs through the most reduced form of
nitrogen, ammonia. When nitrogen is limited, ammonia
uptake in bacteria, fungi and plants is facilitated by a family
of membrane proteins known as the ammonium transport
(Amt) family. Work on this ubiquitous protein family has
been pioneered by Mike Merrick’s team at JIC, using the
bacterium Escherichia coli as a simple model system.
In collaboration with researchers at the University of
Sheffield and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, they
have elucidated how bacteria control the entry of ammonia
into cells. They have determined the crystal structure of a
complex between the ammonia channel AmtB and its
regulatory protein GlnK. This marks a significant advance in
understanding of the process of nitrogen regulation in
prokaryotic cells. (Prokaryotes are organisms without a cell
nucleus).
Extraordinary
insights, in Nature
Jonathan Jones from the Sainsbury Laboratory, and Jeffrey Dangl
of the University of North Carolina have co-authored a major review
on the plant immune system (Nature 444, 323-329 [16 November
2006]) - a fast-developing area of research of huge significance and
potential for food security, reducing the environmental impact of
agrciulture and development of sustainable bioenergy crops.
Many plant-associated microbes are pathogens that impair plant
growth and reproduction. Plants respond to infection using a twobranched innate immune system. The first branch recognises and
responds to molecules common to many classes of microbes,
including non-pathogens. The second responds to pathogen virulence
factors, either directly or through their effects on host targets. These
plant immune systems, and the pathogen molecules to which they
respond, provide extraordinary insights into molecular recognition,
cell biology and evolution across biological kingdoms. A detailed
understanding of plant immune function will underpin crop
improvement for food, fibre and biofuels production.
Reference: Conroy, J.M. , Durand, A., Lupo, D., Li, X-D.,
Bullough, P.A., Winkler, F.K. & Merrick, M. (2007) The
crystal structure of the Escherichia coli AmtB-GlnK
complex reveals how GlnK regulates the ammonia channel.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 12131218
Funding: BBSRC Responsive Mode Grant
By establishing the structure of a protein complex we come closer to understanding how it works.
The trimeric AmtB protein is shown in surface view and the smaller trimeric GlnK protein is
shown in ribbon view. A specific loop of each GlnK subunit inserts into the ammonia conduction
channel thereby blocking ammonia entry into the cell
5
NEW RESEARCH
Harnessing science for better crops
Eight out of 18 projects funded under the new £13M BBSRC Crop
Science Initiative involve JIC teams. This major success reflects the
strength of JIC science relevant to crop improvement and a boost for
our drive to capture fundamental breakthroughs for innovation and
delivery to end-users. The funding will enable us to turn ideas from
excellent basic plant science into practical applications to benefit the
UK’s farmers and consumers.
Alison Smith and Kay Denyer, with collaborators from the National
Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), will receive nearly £1.2M to
fund the Smart Carbohydrate Centre. The aim of their project is to
produce new varieties of wheat and barley that contain starches with
different properties from those found in current UK varieties. They
will make use of the extensive collection of barley and wheat
varieties with unusual starches that has been assembled at JIC.
Information and starch samples will be provided to a panel of UK
users who will give feedback on which types of starch are most
valuable. The breeding programme will transfer the genes necessary
to produce these starches into cultivars suitable for UK conditions.
The 3-year outcome will be near-commercial varieties of barley and
wheat containing starches radically different from those presently
available, each of which has commercial potential. These will be
made available to the plant breeding industry for development into
finished varieties for the UK market.
Working with Rothamsted Research, JIC researchers led by Margaret
Boulton will be identifying novel wheat genes that affect height and
yield, and which could be used to produce new dwarf varieties, either
alone or in combination with existing dwarfing genes. They also aim
to test dwarfing genes for their effectiveness in protecting plants from
drought and other stresses that can reduce yield and impact farmers’
income. They hope to transfer novel genes that confer improved
growth properties or stress resistance into modern wheat varieties that
breeders can develop into the next generation of bread wheats.
6
The transfer of genes (which have useful characteristics such as
increased tolerance to drought, salt and cold and disease resistance)
from wild wheat relatives into wheat by conventional breeding is
difficult. Graham Moore and colleagues will be assessing whether it
is possible to temporarily switch off a gene complex Ph1, in order to
make this feasible. Breeders will then be able to make use of this
property in their breeding programmes.
Lars Ostergard and Judith Irwin are collaborating with Rothamsted
Research and Warwick HRI to establish the AdVaB Consortium, to
enable research findings from Brassica genetics and genomics to be
translated more rapidly into practical outcomes, particularly through
crop improvement. Researchers and plant breeders will be provided
with tools and information for better understanding of crop traits in
terms of the function of underlying genes.
John Snape and colleagues are working with colleagues at 5 other
academic institutions to optimise wheat and barley grain shape and
size. The outcome of the research will lead to the breeding of new
varieties with improved milling and malting efficiency and flours
with enhanced nutritional quality.
Weblink: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/briefings/crop_launch.pdf
for the full project list
and internationally...
JIC science has received a boost from one of three new 4-year crop
science awards. The unique Anglo-French partnership between
BBSRC and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
(INRA) aims to encourage international collaboration and help
translate basic plant science research into practical information for
crop and agronomic improvements.
The new project is being undertaken by JIC with the University of
Nottingham, Rothamsted Research, INRA Clermont-Ferrand and
INRA Mons-Peronne and will examine the traits and genes which
enable some wheat varieties to produce more yield with less nitrogen,
with the aim of discovering how farmers may be able to use less
nitrogen fertiliser in the future.
SPOTLIGHT
O N
A
S C I E N T I S T
Keith Roberts OBE
JIC Emeritus Fellow Keith
Roberts is one of the world’s
leading plant cell biologists and
has made major contributions
to our understanding of the
distinctive structures and
function of plant cells.
He pioneered a multidisciplinary
approach to the dissection of
the functional architecture of
the plant cell wall, an
immensely complex structure
of great relevance to food and
fibre production, and his work
using immunological
approaches to identify
functional tags for different
cell types and to understand the
mechanics of cell expansion are
seminal. He also made a major
and distinguished 35-year
contribution to the
development of JIC.
9
Keith was awarded an OBE in the 2007 New Years Honours
His contributions have extended
well beyond the excellence of his
own research and his many
contributions to the Centre. Keith
is a co-author of the seminal
Molecular Biology of the Cell; a
flagship textbook, this year
approaching its 5th edition, and a
landmark in publishing advanced
biology texts in an accessible
format without sacrificing
scientific rigour or up-to theminute treatment. He is also a
noted artist and in both Molecular
Biology of the Cell and Essential
Cell Biology contributes not only
as an author but also as the
illustrator, setting new standards
in the illustration of complex
scientific concepts. Keith is also a
pioneer in the science in society
arena. He had the key role in
establishing the Teacher Scientist
Network (TSN), an innovative
programme that brings
professional scientists into the
classroom in a close working
relationship with science teachers.
He recently curated, and wrote
the catalogue for, the Making
Faces exhibition in the Forum as
part of the BA Festival of Science
and his two-volume Handbook of
Plant Science will appear this
year.
Despite his recent ‘retirement’ he
will continue to contribute to the
public engagement agenda
through TSN and other science
outreach projects, and will be
continuing in the Forth Bridgelike efforts to update his
textbooks. He takes his duties as
deputy chair of the Norfolk
Contemporary Art Society very
seriously, but he also told
Advances that his secret idea for
2007 is “my Bread and Sausage
project”. He will be drawing a
new lab notebook from stores and
he will hope to be making some
startling new discoveries! “I am
already into the arcana of spelt,
yeasts and casings, and I
wouldn’t even rule out another
book on the horizon!”
Weblink: www.tsn.org.uk
Alison Smith brought together national and international experts
recently to discuss the issues and opportunities surrounding the
use of plant material for energy production, and to generate and
inform debate about how plant science can contribute to
bioenergy development. The present and former Presidents of the
National Farmers Union, Peter Kendall and Sir Ben Gill
contributed to a comprehensive overview of the current situation
in the UK, and Professor Ralph Overend, formerly of the US
National Renewable Energy Laboratory and member of the
BBSRC Review of Bioenergy Research Panel, as a keynote
speaker. This was followed by case histories of willow, grasses
and poplar. The final discussion session highlighted challenges
and opportunities for the national research agenda which need
filling for the UK to become a world leader in bioenergy
development from plants; this includes the development of
genetic tools for existing biomass crops, lignocellulosics, plant
cell wall structure, resource allocation and sustainability traits for
new bioenergy crops.
PLANTS FOR BIOENERGY
‘Plants for Bioenergy’ at JIC, sponsored by the BBSRC and Norwich Research Park
C o u p
f o r
N o r w i c h
Sophien Kamoun, originally from Tunisia, is one of the US’s top
plant pathologists and a world expert in
the fungus-like plant pathogen that causes
potato late blight, the disease that was
responsible for the Irish potato famine.
Recruiting Sophien from Ohio State
University is a coup for the Sainsbury
Laboratory, and also strengthens the
international scientific excellence of the
Norwich Research Park. Sophien has an
outstanding career history, having worked
in Paris, the University of California,
Wageningen University (the Netherlands)
and most recently Ohio. Sophien will
start moving his lab from the US in
Sophien Kamoun
January 2007.
We will also be welcoming his partner and Ohio State University
faculty member Saskia Hogenhout, who will be starting a senior
S c i e n c e
fellowship at JIC to study plant-insect interactions, supported by an
International Reintegration Marie Curie Grant.
This scheme is designed to help bring back talent
into Europe.
Volker Lipka is also joining the Sainsbury
Laboratory as a Group leader, from the EberhardKarls-Universität, Tübingen in Germany.
Previously at the Department of Plant Microbe
Interactions, Max Planck Institute for Plant
Breeding Research, Köln, his research is focussed
on the molecular dissection of plant non-host
resistance to fungal pathogens. “Non-host
resistance” describes the phenomenon that an entire
plant species is normally immune to all genetic
variants of a particular parasite. Although non-host
resistance represents the most common form of
plant resistance in nature, it has so far been poorly understood at the
molecular level due to the lack of tractable genetic systems.
7
TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
JIC spin-outs are
WINNERS
Two spin-out companies, established with the assistance of the
technology management company PBL, have been announced as
joint winners in the East of England Development Agency's
‘Running the Gauntlet’ competition for innovative new
businesses. Chameleon Biosurfaces Ltd (which is developing the
next generation of polymer coatings for implantable medical
devices) and Novacta Biosystems Ltd (which has identified an
exciting class of compounds, known as lantibiotics, as a target for
development) are among the six winning companies that between
them will receive a total of £1m investment from the regional
venture fund, CREATE.
Weblinks: www.novactabio.com and www.chameleonbio.com
Designed to
heal the wounds
International development
JIC has a deep commitment to international development issues,
and looks forward to growing this area.
The Director of the EU Generation Challenge Programme, JeanMarcel Ribaut recently visited to talk to Masters students, and
others interested in extending molecular techniques in plant
breeding to developing countries.
Noel Ellis and Robert Koebner
have been lending a hand with
equipping and testing a mobile
DNA lab, the ‘Kirkhouse Trust
Travelling Laboratory’ which has
been despatched to Ghana.
Sonia Morgan (Kirkhouse Trust), Noel Ellis (JIC),
Ed Southern (Kirkhouse Trust), Robert Koebner (JIC
and advisor to Kirkhouse Trust)
JIC Emeritus Roger Hull is a lecturer on an International
Diploma of Biosafety, a 12-month distance learning course run
by the Biosafety International Network and Advisory Service
of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
The course is being expanded into a network of centres Chile, Malaysia, Belgium, Italy and Kenya.
Cliff Hedley and colleagues from JIC have developed a process
for producing a range of novel film materials from pea starch that
may be suitable for use in wound dressing applications. PBL (to
whom international patent rights have been assigned) have signed
an Evaluation Licence Agreement
to enable a company, Polymer
Health Technology, to evaluate the
feasibility of using their
manufacturing process for
producing the starch films on a
commercial scale. Film samples for
initial patient trials have been
produced using Polymer Health's
facilities. Wound dressing
manufacturers are now sought to
turn the films into a commercial
product.
Patent Reference: International Patent
Publication No. WO 05/118729
E-contact: [email protected]
Genie™ out of the bag
A new Genie™ range of composts has been developed by PBL
and tested at the John Innes Centre. The composts carry the
endorsement of the John Innes Foundation (JIF).
In the 1930's the original John Innes composts were developed
at the John Innes Horticultural Institution, to provide reliable
growing media. These composts were formulated into different
grades and they were based on loam, peat and sand as the main
ingredients.
The new Genie™ composts are based only on environmentally
sustainable materials, all of which are UK sourced, unlike many
other commercially available types of compost. The main
ingredient of the Genie™ range is composted recycled plant
material, produced by a unique in-vessel process.
Weblink: www.johninnescompost.org
8
T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N
SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
Record student numbers Wendy @ Westminster
JIC’s Wendy Harwood was an invited
in 2006/7 intake
speaker at a recent Westminster Diet
Forty two new John Innes Centre/Sainsbury Laboratory/Institute of
Food Research PhD Research Students have been registered.
The number of students recruited this year is unprecedented and is
in part a result of the successful 2005/06 bid by Nick Brewin for a
Marie Curie Training Grant.
Our reach is global – Not only from the UK and EU, but also from
countries such as Ethiopia, India, South Korea, Canada and South
Africa. This reflects the success of the Institutes in attracting
interest from applicants across the globe.
This diverse range of nationalities also reflects the worldwide
interest attracted by the prestigious JIC 4 Year Rotation
Programme which is now in its fourth year. During their first year,
each rotation student gains experience of research in three different
laboratories in different departments before selecting a research
topic and a supervisor for their thesis work.
The programme is sponsored by the John Innes Foundation, The
Sainsbury Laboratory, two Marie Curie programmes for Early
Stage Training, a Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award, and a
BBSRC Doctoral Training Grant.
& Health Forum on the topic ‘Style
vs. Substance: Food Provenance and
GM’. She shared the platform with
Clare Oxborrow, Friends of the Earth,
Tony Combes, Monsanto, and Rod
Harbinson from the Panos Institute.
Having worked with GM crops for
over 15 years, including work to
improve the methodology for their
production and to assess their safety,
in particular with regard to use in
food products, Wendy discussed food
safety issues, and highlighted the
importance of GM as a research tool
and the enormous potential for GM
research in the future. She reminded her audience that GM crop
production was a young science that had so far only yielded a
fraction of the potential benefits that could result from the
technology.
Writing Science
F E A R L E S S LY
Back Row Left to right
Robert Bell; Frederick Cook; Benjamin Schwessinger; Charles Melnyk; Joshua Warner (IFR); John Farrant;
Alexis Moschopoulos; Ghanasyam Rallapali; Sarah Fuentes
Fourth Row back Left to Right
Eva Thuenemann; Saul Hazledine; Thomas Wood; Richard Bailey (IFR); Christopher Burt; Jonathan
Wright; Samuel Dobbie; Nora Seidl
Third Row Back Left to Right
Luckasz Dabrowski (IFR); Jan Claesen; Marijke Frederix; Nuno Pires; Kassa Getu Dereje
Second Row Back
Giulia Morieri; Hale Tufan; Diane Hatziioanou (IFR); Maria Besi; Lucy Foulston; Matilda Crumpton
Taylor; Ana Rita Marques; Christopher Rice (IFR)
Front Row
Ngat Tran; Collette Mathewman; Peter Slavny; Kerry Bentley (IFR); Shantanu Karkare; Cecille Vriet; Milen
Roux; Sarah Robinson; Debora Gasperini
SciTalk was set up by
novelist Ann Lingard as a
resource for teachers and
writers to connect with
scientists and help them
discover the wealth
of material
available from a
source they might
otherwise have
overlooked.
Fourteen English
teachers and writers
attended a course
hosted by JIC, and
led by Ann, to
learn how to put
science into writing, and to
put local writers in touch
with local scientists. They
heard from a wide range of
researchers about how they plan
their experiments, what inspires
or bores them, listened to
jargon, examined images and
discovered a goldmine of
exciting ideas that
they could use in their
writing or inspire
children with. "I found
the day refreshing,
very informative and
progressive, giving me
much food for
thought" said one of
the participants as
they signed up for a
tour of the labs later in
the year in what we hope will be
the start of a new scientistwriter partnership.
Weblink: www.scitalk.org.uk
Contact details:
About JIC
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centre of excellence in plant science and
microbiology. Our mission is to carry out
fundamental and strategic research, to
train scientists and to make our findings
available to society.
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Tel: +44 (0) 1603 255217
About TSL
E-mail:
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The goal of the Sainsbury Laboratory is
to make fundamental discoveries about
plants and how they interact with
microbes and viruses.
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Registered in England No. 511709 Registered Charity No. 223852.
John Innes Centre is grant aided by the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council.
ISSN 1740-665X