21EBTA Engineering specialised metabolism and new cellular architectures in plants
Lead Research Organisation:
John Innes Centre
Department Name: Biochemistry and Metabolism
Abstract
Plants have a rich endogenous metabolism that can be reprogrammed by genetic transformation. Transient expression techniques have allowed their development as photosynthetic chassis for low-cost high-yield production of vaccines, therapeutic proteins and metabolites. In recent years, several commercial large-scale facilities for transient plant-based bioproduction have been constructed, with products now reaching the market. However, it has proved difficult to engineer high yields of engineered products in true-breeding plant lines, which would pave the way for low-cost bioproduction and new generations of crop varieties.
In this project, we will use fast transient expression systems to design and assemble an artificial synthetic pathway for the production of beta-amyrin, a precursor for many different types of triterpene. The triterpenoids are a large, chemically diverse group of natural products (over 20,000 reported to date), with a wide range of applications in the agricultural, food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors. We will transfer this DNA-encoded pathway into the genome of a new model plant system, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. Marchantia is arguably the simplest and easiest land plant to work with at this time. We have constructed many new tools for work with Marchantia, and will use these to trigger beta-amyrin production to specialised oil body containing cells. Oil bodies are natural safe containers for accumulation of high concentrations of compounds in cells. We will then use known developmental regulators to engineer oil cell proliferation in Marchantia tissues to create high-yield harvestable plant organs. We believe the project will provide a prototype for whole organism engineering, and crop improvement.
In this project, we will use fast transient expression systems to design and assemble an artificial synthetic pathway for the production of beta-amyrin, a precursor for many different types of triterpene. The triterpenoids are a large, chemically diverse group of natural products (over 20,000 reported to date), with a wide range of applications in the agricultural, food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors. We will transfer this DNA-encoded pathway into the genome of a new model plant system, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. Marchantia is arguably the simplest and easiest land plant to work with at this time. We have constructed many new tools for work with Marchantia, and will use these to trigger beta-amyrin production to specialised oil body containing cells. Oil bodies are natural safe containers for accumulation of high concentrations of compounds in cells. We will then use known developmental regulators to engineer oil cell proliferation in Marchantia tissues to create high-yield harvestable plant organs. We believe the project will provide a prototype for whole organism engineering, and crop improvement.
Technical Summary
This proposal will harness our expertise in large scale assembly of co-regulated gene systems and rapid testing by transient assay in tobacco, and direct these at the challenges of safely transplanting a foreign, high-yield biosynthetic pathway into the chemical and cellular anatomy of a new plant variety.
This project requires (i) the design and assembly of a core synthetic pathway for the production of beta-amyrin, a triterpene scaffold, (ii) optimising the architecture of novel regulatory elements for co-expression of multiple genes, (iii) the modification of endogenous metabolic pathways to maximise availability of substrates, (iv) tissue engineering and targeting of the pathway to specialised cells in order to minimise negative effects on plant growth and maximise yields of beta-amyrin, (v) characterisation of modifying enzymes to decorate and diversify the core triterpene scaffold, and (vi) sharing the emerging toolkits and technologies with research communities in the UK and internationally to underpin future development.
This project requires (i) the design and assembly of a core synthetic pathway for the production of beta-amyrin, a triterpene scaffold, (ii) optimising the architecture of novel regulatory elements for co-expression of multiple genes, (iii) the modification of endogenous metabolic pathways to maximise availability of substrates, (iv) tissue engineering and targeting of the pathway to specialised cells in order to minimise negative effects on plant growth and maximise yields of beta-amyrin, (v) characterisation of modifying enzymes to decorate and diversify the core triterpene scaffold, and (vi) sharing the emerging toolkits and technologies with research communities in the UK and internationally to underpin future development.
Publications
Polturak G
(2022)
New and emerging concepts in the evolution and function of plant biosynthetic gene clusters
in Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry
Dudley QM
(2022)
Cas9-Mediated Targeted Mutagenesis in Plants.
in Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
Patron NJ
(2023)
Editorial Overview:Engineering plants and plant products for a green bioeconomy.
in Current opinion in plant biology
Méteignier LV
(2023)
Emerging mechanistic insights into the regulation of specialized metabolism in plants.
in Nature plants
Kallam K
(2023)
Tunable control of insect pheromone biosynthesis in Nicotiana benthamiana.
in Plant biotechnology journal
Vollheyde K
(2023)
An improved Nicotiana benthamiana bioproduction chassis provides novel insights into nicotine biosynthesis.
in The New phytologist
Tansley C
(2024)
Engineering Plant Cell Fates and Functions for Agriculture and Industry.
in ACS synthetic biology
Spence P
(2024)
Harnessing plant biosynthesis for the development of next-generation therapeutics.
in PLoS biology
Tse SW
(2024)
Optimizing Promoters and Subcellular Localization for Constitutive Transgene Expression in Marchantia polymorpha.
in Plant & cell physiology
Golubova D
(2024)
Engineering Nicotiana benthamiana as a platform for natural product biosynthesis.
in Current opinion in plant biology
Winegar PH
(2024)
Verazine biosynthesis from simple sugars in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
in Metabolic engineering
Christenhusz M
(2025)
The genome sequence of the common marigold, Calendula officinalis L.
in Wellcome Open Research
| Description | The objective of this research project is to build important large-scale biosynthetic pathways and to integrate these into the metabolism, cellular body plan and life-cycle of plants, focusing on triterpenes as the target metabolites. This research exploits the technical groundwork established by the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre and Earlham Biofoundry; through which we developed established sophisticated DNA toolsets, building blocks for in vivo chemistry, methods for rapid prototyping in Nicotiana benthamiana and a uniquely simple and facile testbed in the Marchantia polymorpha system. This project involves (i) the design and assembly of a core synthetic pathway for the production of ß-amyrin, a triterpene scaffold, (ii) optimising the architecture of novel regulatory elements for co-expression of multiple genes, (iii) the modification of endogenous metabolic pathways to maximise availability of substrates, (iv) tissue engineering and targeting of the pathway to specialised cells in order to minimise negative effects on plant growth and maximise yields of ß-amyrin, (v) characterisation of modifying enzymes to decorate and diversify the core triterpene scaffold, and (vi) sharing the emerging toolkits and technologies with research communities in the UK and internationally to underpin future development. We have successfully employed virus-induced gene editing constructs to produce lines of N. benthamiana with mutations in the key genes of a competing pathway (WP1, Objective 1.2). These plant lines have been characterised and have been found to produce significantly more triterpene scaffolds per gram of leaf weight compared to wild type lines (WP1, Objective 1.2). We have made substantial progress in quantifying the effects of construct architecture on plant expression constructs (WP1, Objective 1.3). The outcomes of our initial experiments to optimise the architecture of plant expression constructs were applied to the production of insect sex pheromones in N. benthamiana. Subsequently, we expanded this experiment to independently investigate construct topology and active transcription. These experiments have confirmed that increasing levels of active transcription have corresponding suppressive effects on neighbouring genes. We are continuing to investigate this at the molecular level, to derive design principles and, with new funding (APP29680), to investigate the molecular mechanisms underpinning this. We have established and implemented a computational strategy for large-scale genome mining for discovery and classification of plant sugar transferases (UGTs), resulting in 394,831 mined and annotated full-length UGT sequences from 2216 unique plant species, with cross-reference to taxonomic information and key residues for each sequence. We have cloned ~50 UGT genes from various plant species into plant transient expression constructs for use in combinatorial biosynthesis experiments (WP3, Objective 3.1). Preliminary experiments have demonstrated that these UGTs can be deployed interchangeably with different ß-amyrin-based triterpene scaffolds, paving the way for engineering bespoke saponins. We have also identified and cloned triterpene acyl transferases associated with the production of anti-inflammatory triterpenoids that accumulate in Calendula officinalis (pot marigold) flowers (Objective 3.2). This pathway for the production of triterpene fatty acid esters has been successfully reconstructed in N. benthamiana (WP3, Objective 3.2). This work has been submitted for publication doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.11.632544. In terms of sharing the emerging technologies with national and international research communities, we have developed a DNA Web Portal (accessible via https://hub.reclone.org/) for standardising and sharing parts developed in the other work packages (e.g. the Marchantia collection in https://github.com/openplant/openplant_dna_collections), in advance of linking to a pre-existing database https://synbiohub.org/ that forms the backend to the Web Portal; WP4, Objective 4.1). We have also created and curated a library of tutorials, protocols, and automation scripts for use on the Opentrons OT-2 platform (available via https://openplant.github.io/openplant_automation_protocols/; https://www.openplant.org/open-sharing). The OT-2 is a low-cost laboratory automation platform, and the curated technical resources should enable more researchers to increase the throughput and efficiency in general molecular biology work (like pathway engineering) by adapting their workflows for automation (WP4, Objective 4.2). |
| Exploitation Route | In order to share the emerging toolkits and technologies with research communities through WP4, we have focused on i) web portal development to share DNA collections and toolkits; ii) training and protocol development for democratisation of automation using low-cost Opentrons liquid handlers; iii) community building activities. To date we have hosted an online workshop (Dec-2022) with a dozen international experts in DNA design tools to explore design best practices for sharing synthetic biology toolkits and are currently working with a data visualisation studio to develop the web portal. We have been collaborating with one of the experts from the workshop, Professor Chris Myers (Department Chair at the University of Colorado Boulder, Former Chair of the SBOL steering committee, and SynBioHub developer) to improve plugins for an existing open DNA design repository (https://synbiohub.org/), to form the backend of our DNA Web Portal. By ensuring our data is open and interoperable with SynBioHub, we will reach further users and contributors to the data we share on the DNA Web Portal. With regards to developing content for democratising the use of automation, we have collaborated on the design and delivery of an in-person automation training workshop in Cambridge (18 attendees; Nov-2022) and set up an open access repository (https://github.com/openplant/openplant_automation_protocols) to assemble validated Opentrons automation protocols for distribution amongst the synthetic biology community. We cross-validated these tutorials with students within the University of Cambridge and external research collaborators who use the OT-2 platform. This also included running an automation workshop in Ethiopia (15 attendees, Sep-2023; https://openbioeconomy.org/news/obl-and-ntnu-lead-automation-and-sustainable-biomanufacturing-training-in-ethiopia/), an Opentrons knowledge-sharing networking session at the University of Cambridge (12 attendees, Oct-2023), and an Introduction to Automation workshop at the Earlham Institute (22 attendees, Oct-2023). For community building activities, we have been building out a wider international community of researchers, with a focus on openly sharing knowledge and resources around existing OpenPlant-funded DNA collections as blueprints for future communities that would use the toolkit emerging from this project. Since Dec-2022, up to 30 international researchers have attended each session of our online series of monthly community meetings, and where we have heard from 23 researchers who have used and/or developed upon the DNA collections for low-cost diagnostics, reagent and hardware manufacturing. This culminated in an online symposium (Oct-2023; reaching over 60 researchers; https://reclone.org/reclone-symposia/) in discussing ways of sharing DNA resources openly and equitably. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Description | The PI and co-Is on this award have been active participants in workshops, round tables and meetings (with ministers, GOS, BEIS, DSIT) and in regular meetings of the Engineering Biology Leadership Council Science and Technology subgroup and more recently the Engineering Biology Steering Group to discuss and advise on the future of the UK Engineering Biology programme. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Advice for Government Report on Synthetic Cell. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Description | Attended Roundtable meeting to discuss how Government might further help in the UK's engineering biology sector. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Discussion with Thérèse Coffey MP - Defra Secretary of State |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | Precision Breeding Act passed - highly relevant to JIC science and future crop breeding science. |
| URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/game-changing-genetic-technology-bill-passes-into-law-in-england/ |
| Description | House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Private Briefing on Engineering Biology |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Member, UK Engineering Biology Steering Group (not the Engineering Biology Advisory Panel |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/engineering-biology-advisory-panel |
| Description | Visit by Minister of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Building global collaborations to create reagent distribution hubs for open science and innovation - University of Cambridge EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account |
| Amount | £46,200 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | EBioAct: Environmentally sustainable production of bioactive triterpenes |
| Amount | £1,680,889 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/Y007751/1 |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2024 |
| End | 02/2026 |
| Description | EBioAct: Environmentally sustainable production of bioactive triterpenes |
| Amount | £1,395,148 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/Y007751/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2024 |
| End | 02/2026 |
| Description | Engineering gene regulation in plants to yield predictable expression |
| Amount | £772,877 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | APP36048 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2025 |
| End | 04/2028 |
| Description | Engineering saponin biosynthesis pathways for bio-production of novel vaccine adjuants |
| Amount | £646,458 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W017857/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2022 |
| End | 04/2024 |
| Description | Engineering wheat for take-all resistance |
| Amount | £663,638 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/Y513544/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2024 |
| End | 01/2026 |
| Description | Global Center: International Research Center for Enhancing Plant Resilience |
| Amount | £2,124,544 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | APP41752 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2025 |
| End | 04/2030 |
| Description | Harnessing plant metabolic diversity for human health |
| Amount | £4,817,214 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 227375/Z/23/Z |
| Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2024 |
| End | 12/2031 |
| Description | OpenBioMAPS: shared tools for accelerating UK bio-manufacturing (awarded to J Haseloff & J Molloy) |
| Amount | £1,269,368 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/Y007808/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2024 |
| End | 02/2026 |
| Description | Unlocking the chemical potential of plants: Predicting function from DNA sequence for complex enzyme superfamilies |
| Amount | £650,682 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/V015176/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Description | Drug delivery |
| Organisation | University of Fribourg |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have initiated a collaboration to investigate the anti-cancer properties of plant medicinal compounds |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaborative work involving assays of purified compounds |
| Impact | This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration involving plant metabolic biology and medicinal chemistry |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Nicotine-free benthamiana |
| Organisation | University of Copenhagen |
| Country | Denmark |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Leading joint experiments to develop nicotine-free plants. Produced and characterised gene-edited plants with mutations in nicotine biosynthesis genes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Post-doctoral research associate to work on progressing the project in our laboratory for one month. Metabolic analysis of plants with mutations in nicotine biosynthesis genes |
| Impact | A manuscript has been published. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Title | OpenPlant Automation Protocols Github Repository |
| Description | The Open Bioeconomy Lab and the Earlham Institute are collaborating to validate and make available a library of protocols and automation scripts for the Opentrons OT2 platform via github. We hope this collection of protocols can inspire more researchers to adapt their workflows for automation, enabling a higher throughput and efficiency in general molecular biology work. The current protocols cover minipreps using magnetic beads and custom labware design files. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | Only released in 2023 and will be updated throughout the year, no notable impacts expected yet. |
| URL | https://github.com/openplant/openplant_automation_protocols |
| Company Name | HotHouse Therapeutics |
| Description | HotHouse Therapeutics develops natural biotechnology solutions. |
| Year Established | 2020 |
| Impact | Company operational from July 2024, with a seed fund raise of ~£3.7 M |
| Description | "A million shades of green: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity for therapeutic applications" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | SCI Engineering Biology Conference, theme of translation out of academia into industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | AO attended Synthetic Biology Industrial Translation Showcase @Synbio_Showcase:Synbite Showcase Programme at the Royal Academy of Engineering 17.11.22 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the 1-Day SynbiTECH Showcase was to reflect important issues and changes in the field of synthetic biology/engineering biology. As with the previous SynbiTECH meetings, the focus was primarily be on the development of the U.K.'s industrial and commercial synthetic biology/engineering biology sector. Consequently, the programme did not only reflect industrial and company development, but, also, important associated matters including strategy and policy, finance, policy and biosecurity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://www.synbicite.com/news-events/2022/nov/17/synbicite-showcase-2022/ |
| Description | Activity stand at mixed arts festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We put together an activity for the science marquee at the Latitude Festival, working with colleagues from the University of East Anglia, Food and Farming Discovery Trust, CEFAS, Precious Plastics East and some local artists with the overall topic of microplastics in the environment. Some of the activity was focused on the problems microplastics cause as pollutants in the ocean and in food chains but we also had a section on plastics in our daily lives that enabled exploration of alternative plant-based materials and the potential for greener alternatives from both biological engineering for new materials and better recycling and remaking processes. We feel that by looking at a problem (microplastics in our environment) but then exploring better alternatives we conveyed a sense of agency to the families to seek out and support alternatives in their daily lives. We were particularly pleased to hear many people pledge to give up using clingfilm in favour of beeswax and paper alternatives to wrap their lunch! |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Anne Osbourn Novozymes Prize Symposium - 'A million shades of green: Understanding and harnessing plant metabolic diversity' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This Novozymes Symposium was focused on cutting edge research in understanding and harnessing plant metabolic diversity. Plants are chemical engineers par excellence, collectively making a vast array of structurally diverse natural products. These molecules have important ecological functions in nature. They are also important to humans for food, health and other industrial applications. The rapidly growing body of available plant genome sequence data is leading to a marked acceleration in the discovery of new biosynthetic pathways and chemistries. The focus of the symposium was on plant natural products - biosynthesis, function, mechanisms of metabolic diversification, and metabolic engineering. It included exciting talks from 12 invited speakers - experts in computational biology, integrated 'omics, biochemistry, metabolic biology, plant diversity and evolution, a mix of early career group leaders and more established research scientists from Europe, Asia and North America. Participants had ample opportunity to enjoy good food and networking in the coffee breaks, at lunch and dinner, and during the poster sessions. Registration was free for all attendees. Two publications have been generated as an outcome of this symposium, one already published in PLOS Biology, and another under submission (a commissioned highlight review for EMBO J, written by a team of five postdoctoral researchers from the Osbourn lab). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.tilmeld.dk/anneosbournnovozymesprizesymposium |
| Description | Anne Osbourn meeting with George Freeman MP during visit to Norwich Research Park |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn met George Freeman MP (Minister of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) as one of the NRP Entrepreneurial Researchers. Professor Anne Osbourn, Founder of Hothouse Therapeutics, spoke about Unlocking Nature's Inaccessible Chemistry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Article - Vaccine Adjuvant QS-21 Produced in Tobacco |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | GEN Article quoting AS-21 Work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Article on Spin out - Hothouse Therapeutics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Article published in Biosciencetoday - New spin-out at Norwich Research Park harnessing plant power for next generation drugs |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.biosciencetoday.co.uk/new-spin-out-at-norwich-research-park-harnessing-plant-power-for-n... |
| Description | Biological Diversity Work Group Panel Member |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | UKRI/BBSRC Biological Diversity Working Group in person and on zoom held on 23rd November 2023. Included 5 minute presentation on perspectives on biological diversity (including own research and wider opportunities, trends and drivers relating to biological diversity) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Biomaker Training Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Series of Training Workshops for no-code programming and assembly of scientific instrumentation as documented at https://www.biomaker.org. Follow-on participation in open source projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.biomaker.org |
| Description | Biomaker hands-on workshop for bioinstrumentation at Stanford University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Workshop run by Prof. Jim Haseloff at the Bioengineering Department at the University of Stanford - providing training in no-code data-flow programming for hardare control, sensors and display for instrumentation in biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Cambridge Opentrons Meet n Greet |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A networking event held on 11-Oct-2023 (12 attendees) to learn more about the Opentrons Flex (including demos of some new Flex components: 96-channel pipette, gripper, and onboard tablet display) from Opentrons representatives. This also allowed OT users within the University of Cambridge to showcase what/how different groups currently use their OT-2s and automation workflows, and provide an opportunity to meet others who may be able to provide support for working with automation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.engbio.cam.ac.uk/events/cambridge-opentrons-meet-n-greet |
| Description | Conference Participant SynBITECH: Company Reviews and Panel Discussion: Women in SynBio |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Conference Participant SynBITECH: Company Reviews and Panel Discussion: Women in SynBio, Panel discussions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Cracking Natures Code, Engineering Biology (House Magazine) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Content in magazine following an interview, which is targeted at the Houses of Parliament. Article Title: "Cracking Natures Code" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | DSIT Lunchtime seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Introduction to plant-based synthetic biology and engineering biology for policy developers at Dept of Science Innovation and Technology |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Discussion with Counsellor Kay Mason Billig - Leader of Norfolk County Council |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Visit to discuss site development |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Engagement Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an 'in-house' event where scientists were invited to put up displays of their engagement resources so that other scientists could come and get ideas, see what is available to share and to encourage more scientists to try public engagement. We took a selection of tried and tested outreach resources, including activities that help to explain genome mining, biosynthetic pathway building and biological engineering. We also took our DNA robot, 'DNA Dave' and his new companion 'RNA Ruth' that definitely seemed to encourage people to be bold and creative with their ideas for the tools they could make to help their research come to life for a general audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Hosted school visit to our institute |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We worked with the Country Trust to host a group of children from a local Primary school to visit the John Innes Centre to do some experiments in the training lab on natural products. The children were very excited to come into the lab and enjoyed wearing lab coats and goggles and using real science equipment. We had lots of PhD students help with the activity and the children liked chatting to them about what it's like to be a scientist. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Independent review of UKRI Roundtable discussion co-hosted by the Campaign for Science and Engineering & Sir David Grant |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn was a member of an independent review of UKRI. Roundtable discussion. Co-hosted by the Campaign for Science and Engineering and Sir David Grant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/news/ukri-welcomes-independent-review-report/ |
| Description | Interview with The House Magazine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Interviewed for The Hot House Magazine about work with HotHouse Therapeutics in an article about Engineering Biology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://library.myebook.com/thehouse/house-supplement-focus-on-dsit-house-1760/5275/#page/28 |
| Description | Introduction to Automation Workshop (18 Nov) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This workshop provided an overview of the Earlham Biofoundry platforms and workflows, which are accessible to researchers across the Norwich Research Park. The workshop was prioritised for Norwich Bioscience Institutes (NBI) staff. The course consisted of a mixture of introductory lectures about automation platforms and Opentrons demonstrations of running and adapting protocols on the platforms. We introduced the Biofoundry team members and introduced automation and biofoundries as a way to scale research and to innovate, including advantages and disadvantages of automation. The course then gave an overview of the different platforms and workflows, how to receive training, and how to access the equipment and services available at Biofoundry. Sharing examples of automation protocols from a mixture of publications and use cases we opened for questions from the audience. The next section of the workshop focused on the Opentrons platforms, including modules available, with a description of the app and resources used, the attendees were then guided through the example steps to design a protocol for serial dilutions, followed by a demonstration of the Opentrons itself. There were 15 attendees, including one from Cambridge, one from London, and the majority coming from across Norwich Research Park. Most registrants worked in Technician roles, the course was also attended by PostDoc/Undergrad/PhD students. 100% of the feedback said the Overall Learning Experience was excellent. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.earlham.ac.uk/events/introduction-automation-workshop |
| Description | Introduction to Automation Workshop - Earlham Institute workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The half-day workshop held on 18-Oct-2023 (22 participants) provided an overview of the Earlham Biofoundry platforms and workflows, which are accessible to Norwich Bioscience Institutes (NBI) community researchers across the Norwich Research Park. This workshop provided an overview of the Earlham Biofoundry platforms and workflows, which are accessible to researchers across the Norwich Research Park. The workshop was prioritised for Norwich Bioscience Institutes (NBI) staff. The course consisted of a mixture of introductory lectures about automation platforms and Opentrons demonstrations of running and adapting protocols on the platforms. We introduced the Biofoundry team members and introduced automation and biofoundries as a way to scale research and to innovate, including advantages and disadvantages of automation. The course then gave an overview of the different platforms and workflows, how to receive training, and how to access the equipment and services available at Biofoundry. Sharing examples of automation protocols from a mixture of publications and use cases we opened for questions from the audience. The next section of the workshop focused on the Opentrons platforms, including modules available, with a description of the app and resources used, the attendees were then guided through the example steps to design a protocol for serial dilutions, followed by a demonstration of the Opentrons itself. There were 15 attendees, including one from Cambridge, one from London, and the majority coming from across Norwich Research Park. Most registrants worked in Technician roles, the course was also attended by PostDoc/Undergrad/PhD students. 100% of the feedback said the Overall Learning Experience was excellent. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.earlham.ac.uk/events/introduction-automation-workshop |
| Description | Introduction to Automation and the Opentrons OT2 Workshop (Cambridge) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I participated in the delivery of an Automation workshop (4 hours). The workshop introduced the benefits of automation and in particular the Opentrons OT-2 instrument to interested members of the Engineering Biology community around the Cambridge area. There were approximately 15-20 attendees ranging from phD students, post doc researchers to industrial researchers who all had an interest in how automation could benefit their research/work. The attendees took part in discussion and also had the opportunity to design their own simple protocol to gain insight into how accessible the Opentrons instrument and software are. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Introduction to OT-2/Automation - Ethiopia workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A three-day training workshop at the Bio and Emerging Technologies Institute (BETin), at NTNU in Addis Ababa 25-30 Sep 2023, was attended by 15 participants (from six regional research institutes) as part of the "Spores Against COVID" project funded by Volkswagen Stiftung. The course addressed the question "How can viral diagnostic enzymes be locally produced in low-resource environments?" by proposing Bacillus spore display as a sustainable production platform for diagnostic enzymes, to enable local manufacturing in Ethiopia. Training consisted of three parts: "Getting Started with Lab Automation", "Designing custom automation protocols" and "Bacillus subtilis spore display for sustainable enzyme immobilisation", with an optional Lab Automation Clinic on how the OT2 robot could accelerate specific experiments. Participants were shown and actively participated in activities demonstrating the potential for automation to accelerate their research in using biotechnology to address challenges across different industries in Ethiopia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://openbioeconomy.org/news/obl-and-ntnu-lead-automation-and-sustainable-biomanufacturing-traini... |
| Description | Invited presentation at Stanford University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University on May 111, 2023 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited talk for Ginkgo Bioworks sponsored Grove seminar series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar to discuss plant-based synthetic biology approaches with a diverse audience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Member of Group - UKRI BBSRC Biological Diversity Working Group Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Biological Diversity Working Group in person and on zoom held on 23rd November 2023. Included 5 minute presentation on perspectives on biological diversity (including own research and wider opportunities, trends and drivers relating to biological diversity) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | New Phytologist Workshop: Introducing Transformative Plant Biotechnology Interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gave an interview introducing transformative plant biotechnology. Recorded during the workshop at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh in 2023. Published on YouTube in January 2024. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XrjN3Ye1XA |
| Description | Norwich Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Norwich Science Festival; interacting with the general public, Making Molecules |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Norwich Science Festival satellite event at Diss Corn Hall |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We took an activity stand to a science discovery day at Diss Corn Hall. This event was set up as a satellite venue for the very popular Norwich Science Festival to try and reach a broader audience. There were 3 workshop sessions throughout the day for 50 children per workshop and their families, all of which were fully booked! We took a stand that focused on the instructions held within DNA to 'make stuff' which was explained by inviting people to engage with our robot DNA Dave, pushing buttons and turning cogs to complete transcription and translation to make new products. We used examples from plants that people would be familiar with such as menthol, limonoids, vanillin and anthocyanins and then invited children to extract anthocyanins from red cabbage to use to make colour-changing paint. Many of the parents were amazed how easy the process was and were keen to build on the experiment at home with their children to make a colour palette of paints using pigments from plants and acids and bases. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Novozymes Prize Lecture - From plant defence to therapeutics: The metabolic poetry of science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | From plant defence to therapeutics: The metabolic poetry of science - Anne Osbourn presented the 2023 Novozymes Prize Lecture at John Innes Centre on Monday 12 June 2023 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Open-Source Lab Automation Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The workshop was a hands-on session with the aim to introduce automation to wet-lab researchers interested in implementing it in their workflows.The session was a collaborative effort led by researchers from both the Earlham Institute and University of Cambridge, and led participants from basic to more advanced applications. The first half of the session was dedicated to introducing what automation is, and how to design protocols using the Opentrons Protocol Designer, demonstrate other protocols from the Protocol Library and how to adapt and implement them into workflows. The latter half was a hands-on session where participants worked on making their own protocols, and the workshop leaders/facilitators helped to troubleshoot, before inviting participants to run their protocols on the OT-2 instrument. One outcome of the workshop was that participants were able to take away their own protocols to use within their own labs. The workshop also allowed participants to network with one another (particularly between academic researchers from different institutes, and those working in the biotech industry), which we hope to follow-up on in the near future. One final key impact was increased interest in the use of automation: participants expressed interest in learning more advanced methods of designing protocols, particularly in programming in Python. Given this interest, one of the proposed next steps is to work with Earlham Institute and Cambridge researchers to design a series of automation/OT education workshops tailored to participants' needs and interests. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.engbio.cam.ac.uk/events/open-source-lab-automation-workshop |
| Description | Oral Presentation - "Finding Drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity for therapeutic applications" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oral presentation "Finding Drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity for therapeutic applications" given at the New Phytologist Transformative Plant Biotechnology Workshop in Edinburgh on 20 September 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Panel Member (as a Scientist) for a book Launch 'Looking for Lucie' by Author Amanda Addison (Waterstones Norwich) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Attended Book Launch of "Looking for Lucie" by Amanda Addison discussing themes from the novel (such as DNA, genetics, and the way art and photography shape our identity) with the Author and photographer and lecturer Erin Patel |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Participation in the Steering Committee for Standards and Metrology in Engineering Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participation in the steering committee for the development of standards and metrology in engineering biology with the National Measurement Laboratory. This activity is ongoing and is expected to lead to the development of standards to improve the accuracy of measurements, essential for confidence in engineering biology products that are brought to market/the clinic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Pint of Science 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by PhD student in Norwich as part of the National Pint of Science Festival 2023 followed by questions and discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Policy Workshop on Engineering Biology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Policy workshop organised by the Centre for Science and Policy, based at the University of Cambridge. The workshop had representation from departments across Whitehall. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Poster presentation: Production of terpenes in Marchantia polymorpha oil body cells |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Edith Forestier. PDRA employed on the project delivered a scientific poster describing progress with her work at Terpnet, an international conference that specialised in coverage of terpene biosynthesis and associated science and technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at Ginkgo Grove |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jenny Molloy gave a talk "Common Threads in Open Science and Decentralised Science" at the Ginkgo Bioworks "Grove" Seminar series, which was attended by around 25 attendees from mostly a business and entrepreneurship background. The talk was followed by a lot of discussion and several requests for additional information about the Open DNA Collections. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Global Community Biosummit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Jenny Molloy gave an invited keynote "Building global collaborations for access to reagents" at the Global Community Biosummit organised by MIT. Around 90 people attended on Zoom, who were an international group of people running community biology labs across all areas of the world, students, artists, educators, entrepreneurs and social scientists. There were multiple questions and discussion afterwards and at least five follow-ups via email or Slack, of which one person has started volunteering regularly for the Reclone community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.biosummit.org/ |
| Description | Presentation on HotHouse Therapeutics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented HotHouse Therapeutics at plenary event at the UKRI Connect Stakeholder engagement event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Reclone Community Meetings (monthly) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Since December-2022, we have begun to build out a wider international community of researchers, with a focus on openly sharing knowledge and resources around existing OpenPlant-funded DNA collections as blueprints for future communities that would use the toolkit emerging from this project. Thus far, up to 30 international researchers have attended each session of our online series of monthly community meetings (https://reclone.org/meetings/), and where we have heard from 23 researchers who have used and/or developed upon the DNA collections for low-cost diagnostics, reagent and hardware manufacturing. The meeting in March-2023 saw community members discuss new DNA parts to add to these DNA collections (https://stanford.freegenes.org/collections/open-genes) - these parts will be synthesised and included in a future updated open DNA toolkit collection, which we aim to distribute to up to three institutes in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to act as regional reagent distribution hubs for other local researchers to more easily make use of these collections. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023,2024,2025 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/@reclone_org |
| Description | Reclone Symposium (annual) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Reclone Symposium held on 11-Oct-2023, titled "Reclone Symposium 6.0 - Building Scientific Communities through Open Science Research: Education, Communication, and Collaboration" (https://reclone.org/reclone-symposia/) had 98 registrations and up to 60 attendees. The intention of the interactive event was to showcase scientific communities from around the world who work to openly share their research. One of the key activities for the event were the parallel breakout sessions focusing on attendees sharing best practices for sharing knowledges and resources across different open science fields. We had twice the typical reach as the monthly community meetings, and resulted in two external organisations volunteering to be future reagent distribution hubs. This community could be called upon to share, use, and review the outputs from the EBTA project (e.g. with the DNA Web Portal, or providing user experience of the automation protocols in the WP4 outputs). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://reclone.org/reclone-symposia/ |
| Description | School Science Art and Writing (SAW) project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We delivered a SAW project on the theme of plant defence at Avenues Junior School in Norwich. The children were encouraged to collect samples from the school garden of plants showing symptoms of disease and observe them using microscopes. This enabled them to look closely at plants, learn about a range of pathogens and develop confidence in using microscopes. They moved on to an experiment where they had to identify wheat and oat seedlings by grinding up roots using pestle and mortars and viewing the exudates under UV light to look for the presence of the fluorescent molecule avenacin that is present only in oat and protects it from attack by the 'take all' fungus Gaeumannomyces tritici. We then discussed how scientists are learning how plants make important molecules and reconstructing biosynthetic pathways in model systems and that wheat plants could be engineered to also produce avenacin to protect them from take all disease. The children were then asked to design a defence for a plant to protect it from 1 of 6 potential threats by turning over a 'chance card'. They were very creative and enjoyed dreaming up ideas that could be used for defence. They took the new concepts and vocabulary on to write poetry and create pieces of art that represented the modular building of pathways. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | School Science Art and Writing (SAW) project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We developed and ran a plant stress response workshop for primary schools that showed children how plants have evolved different mechanisms to tolerate stressful environments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | School Science Art and Writing Project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We visited a local Primary school to run a Science Art and Writing Project on the theme of plant pathogens. The children were able to explore their own school grounds to search for evidence of pathogenic microbes by gathering diseased leaf samples that were observed under microscopes. The class also made leaf pressings onto agar plates to grow microbes living in their environment and learned about plant defense responses to invading pathogens. They further explored the concepts and new vocabulary though poetry writing and visual art activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | School Visit (Cambourne) - SAW Trust |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 2 day hands-on SAW workshop for year 6 children at a Primary school in Cambourne. Aim to inspire and inform school children - there were 4 science activity stations followed by a creative writing activity and art activity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Sci Comm East Conference Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Ran a Science Art and Writing workshop at Sci Comm East Conference for people interested in creative approaches to public engagement. The participants worked through a plant natural product activity to learn how to use science topics to explore real research and then extend learning through creative writing and art. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Science Art and Writing (SAW) Project in school |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Delivered a SAW project on the theme of plants at Tacolneston Primary, a very rural school in Norfolk. The school were studying Arctic and Antarctic biomes and so we worked with them to add some plant stories to the very zoocentric approach schools usually take when exploring these regions as habitats. This enabled us to explain adaptations to environments which are particularly fascinating in plants and we touched on some local work by colleagues in Cambridge who discovered alpine plants making a fine wool out of flavonoids to cover its leaves. We explored chemical diversity and its many uses in plants and then looked at chemicals in plants that are useful to humans. The children were surprised to see this dynamic side of plants. We then focused on colours, flavours and fragrances and made extractions and then altered our extracts with acids and bases to make many new versions. The children enjoyed this plant-based chemistry session and then took their new facts, vocabulary and concepts forward to write poetry and create art to explore the topic further. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Science Art and Writing Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We visited a local Primary school to run a Science Art and Writing Project on the theme of natural products from plants. The children explored the diversity of natural products and had a go at extracting colour pigments from a variety of flowers and used acid/base reactions to identify chemicals. Then they learned about inflammation in our bodies and how some medicines have been developed to target this. We looked at boswellic acid which is extracted from frankincense trees and is a potent anti-inflammatory drug and passed around some frankincense for the children to feel and smell. The final experiment gave the children a mock ELISA assay plate and a selection of plant extract samples which they had to test for activity as anti-inflammatories. They further explored the concepts and new vocabulary though poetry writing and visual art activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Science Art and Writing Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We visited a local Primary school to run a Science Art and Writing Project on the theme of natural products from plants. The children explored the diversity of natural products and had a go at extracting colour pigments from a variety of flowers and used acid/base reactions to identify chemicals. Then they learned about adjuvants and which plants provide sources of these. We looked at soapwort plants and the children had a go at making foam bubbles using plant extracts. Then we introduced the story of the soapbark tree, the importance of the adjuvant QS21 for better vaccines and how scientists are replicating this molecule to try and protect the trees. In the final activity the children worked in groups and used molymod to build a range of triterpenes. They further explored the concepts and new vocabulary though poetry writing and visual art activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Science, Art and Poetry activity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Delegates at the Anne Osbourn Novozymes Prize Symposium held at the John Innes Centre on Sep 9th and 10th 2024 participated in plant natural product-themed art and poetry activities run by the SAW Trust, during the refreshment and poster sessions. Colour pigments, ice cubes and diffusion were used to create flower-like patterns that were added to a display that grew over the course of the event and acrostic poems using key words related to the research topics were generated by people each adding a line. These were performed during the closing remarks of the event as a collaborative piece. The activities created an opportunity for delegates to work together, create and play which fostered an atmosphere for relaxed dialogue and a chance to consider novel approaches to science communication. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://sawtrust.org/ |
| Description | Seminar - "Harnessing plant metabolic diversity for food and health applications" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar given at VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology - Title: "Harnessing plant metabolic diversity for food and health applications" on 22nd February 2024 as part of a wider visit to the Center. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Seminar: "Finding drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity" in the @IPS2ParisSaclay amphitheater on Tuesday 22nd November at 2 pm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Anne Osbourn gave a seminar about "Finding drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity" in the @IPS2ParisSaclay amphitheater on Tuesday 22nd November at 2 pm |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Sixth Form/College science students visit to site |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We have been supporting schools to run plant science experiments over the last year and ran a science communication competition for participating schools inviting students to create a poster or report about their experiments to win a tour of the John Innes Centre. We hosted a group of winners and showed them a range of things around the site including; a visit to a research lab investigating nitrogen availability, a trip to the Germplasm Resource Unit to hear about the importance of preserving genetic diversity, a tour of the glasshouse facilities and meeting with a scientist investigating new varieties of legumes for better climate resilience, agricultural approaches and nutrition, a lab session on plant chemical diversity and opportunity to infiltrate Nicotiana benthamiana plants to learn about transient expression, a demo in the metabolomics lab to see how GC and LCMS enable discovery of molecules and a tour of the sequencing facility at the Earlham Institute. The students enjoyed seeing the range of topics being investigated, how some of them fitted together and the diversity of career options within a research facility. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk at 'Enterprise Wednesday' event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A short talk describing the potential of plants for the discovery of new products for medicine and industry. This was followed by a discussion in which there were numerous follow-up questions from attendees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Transforming Tomorrow Together Event Panel Member |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Attended UKRI Connect Transforming Tomorrow Together Event as a panel member. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Visit by Novo Nordisk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | TBC |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | aBIOTECH Virtual Seminar by Professor Anne Osbourn. Title of talk: 'Harnessing plant metabolic diversity'. Zoom meeting. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | "aBIOTECH Virtual Seminar": Zoom Presentation: Presenter: Professor Anne Osbourn (John Innes Centre) at the invitation of Professor Xiaoquan Qi (CAS Institute of Botany, Beijing, China). Title of talk: "Harnessing plant metabolic diversity" JIC organiser: Dr Jie Li. Date and time: 10:00-11:30 (UK time), 24 February 2023. Audience of approximately 1000 people. Hosted by aBIOTECH editor in chief Professor Sanwen Huang. Keywords Notes |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |