Products and Pathways
Lead Research Organisation:
John Innes Centre
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
The exponential rise in the numbers of sequenced genomes of plants and microbes presents unparalleled opportunities to expand and consolidate understanding of the biosynthesis and accumulation of valuable chemicals in Nature. We will exploit these opportunities using JIC’s excellent facilities for research on the synthesis of plant and microbial natural products with high actual or potential value as nutritionally-important components of food, as antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals, and as industrial raw materials. Discoveries in the preceding ISP have opened opportunities for broader and deeper investigations of how different metabolites are made, exploiting new methods of genome mining, systematic approaches to the expression and characterisation of whole metabolic pathways, and the capacity for rational design of new molecules in heterologous systems. Objective 1 explores the origins of chemical diversity in plants and microbes. For both types of organism, we will use our expertise in the identification of gene clusters for natural product pathways and in the transcriptional control of these pathways to uncover new chemical diversity. For bacteria, our focus is on classes of compounds with known on potential antibiotic properties. For plants, our focus is on species of known medicinal value. Objective 2 builds on our world-leading expertise in the synthesis and diversification of terpenes in plants. Its outcomes are relevant for the development of new therapeutics and industrial raw materials. In Objective 3 we seek to understand the assembly of macromolecular storage glucans, building from our deep understanding of the synthesis and turnover of glucan polymers. The outcomes will be used directly in the development of nutritionally improved crops, and have wider relevance for the development of new materials for industrial processes. Objective 4 brings together expertise in the accumulation of zinc and iron in plants to achieve an understanding of the homeostatic mechanisms involved. As in Objective 3, the outcomes feed into the development of nutritionally improved crops.
Planned Impact
unavailable
Organisations
- John Innes Centre (Lead Research Organisation)
- Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Collaboration)
- Macquarie University (Collaboration)
- University of Glasgow (Collaboration)
- California State University, Bakersfield (Collaboration)
- Fundacion MEDINA (Collaboration)
- KEELE UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- Newcastle University (Collaboration)
- University of York (Collaboration)
- Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (Collaboration)
- Syngenta International AG (Collaboration)
- National Defense Medical Center (Collaboration)
- University of Calabria (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER (Collaboration)
- University of Leon (Collaboration)
- BioAustralis (Collaboration)
- Alan Turing Institute (Collaboration)
- Carnegie Mellon University (Collaboration)
- DSM (Collaboration)
- Stanford University (Collaboration)
- Xiamen University (Collaboration)
- University of Queensland (Collaboration)
- Government of Taiwan (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA (Collaboration)
Publications

Ahmadipour S
(2019)
Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of C6-Modified Sugar Nucleotides To Probe the GDP-d-Mannose Dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
in Organic letters


Ahmadipour S
(2023)
ß-1,2-Oligomannan phosphorylase-mediated synthesis of potential oligosaccharide vaccine candidates
in Carbohydrate Research

Ahmadipour S
(2021)
Prospects for anti-Candida therapy through targeting the cell wall: A mini-review.
in Cell surface (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Alagna F
(2023)
OeBAS and CYP716C67 catalyze the biosynthesis of health-beneficial triterpenoids in olive (Olea europaea) fruits.
in The New phytologist

Albert NW
(2021)
Discrete bHLH transcription factors play functionally overlapping roles in pigmentation patterning in flowers of Antirrhinum majus.
in The New phytologist

Aldholmi M
(2022)
Euglenatides, Potent Antiproliferative Cyclic Peptides Isolated from the Freshwater Photosynthetic Microalga Euglena gracilis.
in Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)

Aldholmi M
(2020)
Epigenetic modulation of secondary metabolite profiles in Aspergillus calidoustus and Aspergillus westerdijkiae through histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition by vorinostat.
in The Journal of antibiotics

Appelhagen I
(2018)
Colour bio-factories: Towards scale-up production of anthocyanins in plant cell cultures.
in Metabolic engineering

Aron AT
(2020)
Reproducible molecular networking of untargeted mass spectrometry data using GNPS.
in Nature protocols
Title | Anne Osbourn Ordering her life and origins as a scientist through poetry/Branco Weiss Fellowship |
Description | 2020 Publication of Poetry Collection - "Mock Orange" - 3rd Prize winner of the Sentinel poetry competition 2018 https://spmpublications.com/shop/mock-orange-anne-osbourn.html |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | Mock Orange is a collection of poems in which Anne Osbourn attempts to order her life and her origins and to try to understand how and why she became a scientist, specifically a plant biologist. From early childhood she has tried to make sense of the world through plants. In mid-eighteenth century Sweden Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, spent his life trying to understand his Maker through the classification of plants. Osbourn's poetry encompasses Linnaeus's adventures and experiences and his fascination with living things. Mock Orange is therefore about journeys from origins, both personal and global, in which negotiations between scientific and non-scientific languages and points of view form a central theme. |
URL | https://brancoweissfellowship.org/news-2021/anne-osbourn-ordering-her-life-and-origins-as-a-scientis... |
Title | Antibiotics Posters |
Description | We took elements from the SAW antibiotics book and had them designed as 5 public information posters suitable for schools, surgeries and other public spaces to improve understanding of what antimicrobial resistance means and how people can help. |
Type Of Art | Artwork |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | We are currently in discussions with a local NHS GP surgery and the regional CCG about distribution of a SAW antibiotics book along with these 5 supplementary posters to all GP surgeries in the county in the first instance. |
Title | Glowing oat seedlings |
Description | Young oat seedling roots glow under UV due to the accumulation of the antimicrobial triterpene avenacins. Oats naturally produce avenacins exclusively within the root tip epidermal cells, which protects them from soil pathogens. Image supplied by researchers in the Osbourn laboratory at the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park. |
Type Of Art | Image |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Impact | Image placed on the Norwich Research Park image library, for free sharing and dissemination. |
URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/imagedetails.aspx?imgid=229 |
Title | Image of Nicotiana benthamiana |
Description | Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant, is commonly used in plant research. Here, the leaf is used as a host organism to produce components of avenacin, a fluorescent antimicrobial produced by oat roots, which protects the roots from soil pathogens. A cluster of genes - the Sad genes - have been identified in oat as the instructions used to produce avenacin. The blue spots indicate the presence of parts of the avenacin compound introduced by inserting some of the Sad genes into the host plant. The other spots are controls to test the expression system. Image supplied by Aymeric Leveau, Osbourn laboratory. |
Type Of Art | Image |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Impact | Image placed on the Norwich Research Park Image Library, for free sharing and dissemination. |
URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/imagedetails.aspx?imgid=103 |
Title | Interacted with artist |
Description | JIC hired an artist to celebrate 50 years of JIC in Norwich. I spent a lot of time interacting with this artist so that she could create an exhibit of our work. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | The public saw our research. |
Title | SAW Antibiotics - Science from the Norwich Research Park - Book published by the SAW Press (2017) - ISBN 978-0-9550180-3-9 |
Description | A book illustrating research on the Norwich Research Park on antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, assembled following Science, Art and Writing (SAW) projects led by NRP scientists in local schools |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | The book was appreciated by the government chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, whose comments are on the front - 'I thoroughly enjoyed this stunning book. Educating children in such an interactive way is so important. I am passionate about addressing AMR, as are the researchers, and I hope this can help inspire future generations to engage in the efforts to save modern medicine.' This project is being captured by the University of East Anglia as an example of effective impact for the next REF. |
Title | Winner of Norwich Research Park Image Library Competition: Dr Thomas Louveau |
Description | More than 150 images of work were submitted by researchers, clinicians and scientists who work at the site, for the NRP image library competition. These were narrowed down to 12 finalists - which will form part of a calendar - from which an overall winner was selected. The winning image, entitled A New Planet, was taken by Thomas Louveau, a post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Metabolic Biology at the John Innes Centre. The image show a dried plant extract in a round flask taken from behind on a dark background. The extraction is part of the purification process of new-to-nature metabolites produced by synthetic biology approaches. The new metabolic pathway has been engineered in Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of tobacco by scientists at the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park who are studying natural products.. |
Type Of Art | Image |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Impact | A calendar was produced from the 12 final images, with "A New Planet" on the cover. The images are also displayed in the Centrum building on the Norwich Research Park. |
URL | http://edp24.co.uk/news/tech/sheer_beauty_of_science_showcased_in_competition_at_norwich_research_pa... |
Description | Key Findings are summarised below, where they are subdivided into each yearly reporting period. The ISP funding finished in March 2023, but multiple studies supported by this funding were published throughout 2023 and 2024. This work is summarised first. UPDATE 2023 - 2024 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN, GHILAROV) Isoflavones are a group of phenolic compounds mostly restricted to plants of the legume family, where they mediate important interactions with plant-associated microbes, including in defence from pathogens and in nodulation. We identified a specialized wheat-specific isoflavone synthase that catalyses a different reaction from the leguminous isoflavone synthases, thus revealing an alternative path to isoflavonoid biosynthesis and providing a non-transgenic route for engineering isoflavone production in wheat (Polturak et al., Nat. Commun., 2023, 14, 6977). Pathogen-induced production and in vitro antimicrobial activity of the product of this pathway suggest a defence-related role for this molecule in wheat. The most abundant phenolic compound in Solanaceous plants is chlorogenic acid (CGA), which possesses protective properties such as antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. These properties are particularly relevant when plants are under adverse conditions, such as pathogen attack, excess light, or extreme temperatures that cause oxidative stress. In tomato and potato, CGA is produced through the HQT pathway mediated by the enzyme hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA:quinate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase. To assess whether this pathway is the major route to CGA, we used CRISPR technology to generate multiple knock-out mutant lines in the tomato HQT gene. This showed that biosynthesis depends almost entirely on the HQT pathway in tomato and, likely, other Solanaceous crops (D'Orso et al., Front. Plant Sci., 2023, DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1124959). Formicamycins and their biosynthetic intermediates the fasamycins are polyketide antibiotics produced by Streptomyces formicae. We assessed the ability of Streptomyces coelicolor and Saccharopolyspora erythraea to heterologously express the formicamycin biosynthetic gene cluster. This led to the identification of eight new glycosylated fasamycins modified at different phenolic groups with either a monosaccharide or a disaccharide (McDonald et al., J. Nat. Prod., 2023, 86, 7, 1677). It is important for bacteria to sense their environment to survive in dynamic and changing niches. Two-component systems (TCS), typically consisting of a membrane-bound kinase and a cognate response regulator, are a common example of these types of sensors, such as the CutRS system in the genus Streptomyces. Deletion of the cutRS genes from the Streptomyces coelicolor genome led to abnormally high levels of the redox active antibiotic actinorhodin being produced. We identified the genome locations where CutR binds to show that the direct effect of this TCS is not on the actinorhodin biosynthetic gene cluster but rather genes involved in secretion stress responses (McLean et al., Microbiology, 2023, 169, 001358). Our work highlights the importance of understanding the regulation of bacterial specialized metabolite production for the purposes of new molecule discovery and industrial production. Further Objective 1.1 publications: Vazquez-Vilar et al., Plant Biotechnol. J., 2023, 21, 2683; Liu et al., Metab. Eng., 2024, 81, 182; Li et al., Nat. Food, 2024, 5, 19. OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (OSBOURN) QS-21 is a potent vaccine adjuvant currently sourced by extraction from the Chilean soapbark tree, which is the only current commercial source of QS saponins due to their chemical complexity. QS-21 is a key component of human vaccines for shingles, malaria, coronavirus disease 2019 and others under development. The molecule is a glycosylated triterpene scaffold coupled to a complex glycosylated 18-carbon acyl chain that is critical for immunostimulant activity. We reported the early pathway steps needed to make the triterpene glycoside scaffold (Reed et al., Science, 2023, 2023, 379, 1252) and then the biogenic origin of the acyl chain, where we characterized the series of enzymes required for its synthesis and addition and reconstitute the entire 20-step pathway in tobacco, thereby demonstrating the production of QS-21 in a heterologous expression system (Martin et al., Nat. Chem. Biol., 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41589-023-01538-5). Working with collaborators at Ghent University, we identified the transcriptional regulatory network that underlies cell-specific biosynthesis of triterpenes in Arabidopsis thaliana root tips (Nguyen et al., Nat. Plants, 2023, 9, 926). This work provides an insight into how cell-specific gene expression is controlled in plants for these high-value compounds. OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, SEUNG, FIELD) Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum) is widely grown for pasta production, and more recently, is gaining additional interest due to its resilience to warm, dry climates and its use as an experimental model for wheat research. To enable further research into endosperm development and storage reserve synthesis, we generated a high-quality transcriptomics dataset from developing endosperms of variety Kronos, to complement the extensive mutant resources available for this variety. This work provides a valuable resource for studying endosperm development in this increasingly important crop species (Chen et al., BMC Plant Biol., 2023, 23, 363). The determination of starch granule morphology in plants is poorly understood. The amyloplasts of wheat endosperm contain large discoid A-type granules and small spherical B-type granules. To study the influence of amyloplast structure on these distinct morphological types, we isolated a mutant in durum wheat defective in the plastid division protein PARC6, which had giant plastids in both leaves and endosperm (Esch et al., New Phytol. 2023, 240, 224). Endosperm amyloplasts of the mutant contained more A- and B-type granules than those of the wild-type. The mutant had increased A- and B-type granule size in mature grains, and its A-type granules had a highly aberrant, lobed surface. This morphological defect was already evident at early stages of grain development and occurred without alterations in polymer structure and composition. Plant growth and grain size, number and starch content were not affected in the mutants despite the large plastid size. We therefore reveal an important role of amyloplast structure in starch granule morphogenesis in wheat. Beta-(1,2)-mannan antigens incorporated into vaccines candidates for immunization studies, showed that antibodies raised against Beta-(1,2)-mannotriose antigens can protect against disseminated candidiasis. Until recently, Beta-(1,2)-mannans could only be obtained by isolation from microbial cultures, or by lengthy synthetic strategies involving protecting group manipulation. The discovery of two Beta-(1,2)-mannoside phosphorylases has allowed efficient biochemical access to these compounds, which has enabled the generation of Beta-(1,2)-mannan antigens, tri- and tetra-saccharides, decorated with a conjugation tether at the reducing end, suitable to be incorporated on a carrier en-route to novel vaccine candidates (Ahmadipour et al., Carbohydr. Res., 2023, 528, 108807) OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) Working with collaborators at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research in India, we identified and functionally characterized a rice citrate transporter, OsCT1, which differs from known plant citrate transporters and is structurally close to rice silicon transporters (Panchal et al., Plant J., 2023, 116, 1748). This work provides insights into a mechanism of citrate-metal transport in plants and its role in mineral homeostasis. Our programme on understanding the molecular mechanism of BRUTUS and BRUTUS-LIKE proteins for crop biofortification led to new insights into the role of BRUTUS-LIKE proteins in fine-tuning the balanced uptake of iron and zinc (Stanton et al., 2023, J. Exp. Bot. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erad243). UPDATE 2022 - 2023 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN, GHILAROV) Working with colleagues from across the four JIC ISPs (Nicholson, Brown, Uauy, and Borrill labs) we have uncovered six previously unknown pathogen-induced biosynthetic pathways implicated in plant defence in bread wheat (Polturak et al., PNAS, 2022, 119, e2123299119). Wheat suffers major yield losses due to attack by pests and pathogens. A better understanding of biotic stress responses in wheat is thus of major importance. The recently assembled bread wheat genome coupled with extensive transcriptomic resources provides unprecedented new opportunities to investigate responses to pathogen challenge. Here, we analyse gene coexpression networks to identify modules showing consistent induction in response to pathogen exposure. Within the top pathogen-induced modules, we identify multiple clusters of physically adjacent genes that correspond to six pathogen-induced biosynthetic pathways that share a common regulatory network. Functional analysis reveals that these pathways, all of which are encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), produce various different classes of compounds-namely, flavonoids, diterpenes, and triterpenes, including the defence-related compound ellarinacin. Through comparative genomics, we also identify associations with the known rice phytoalexins momilactones, as well as with a defence-related gene cluster in the grass model plant Brachypodium distachyon. Our results significantly advance the understanding of chemical defences in wheat and open up avenues for enhancing disease resistance in this agriculturally important crop. They also exemplify the power of transcriptional networks to discover the biosynthesis of chemical defences in plants with large, complex genomes. In collaboration with the Hinman lab (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) and colleagues at the Ocean University of China and National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China, we have investigated the biosynthesis of saponin defence compounds in sea cucumber (Thimmappa et al., Nat. Chem. Biol. 2022, 18, 774-781). Soft-bodied slow-moving sea creatures such as sea stars and sea cucumbers lack an adaptive immune system and have instead evolved the ability to make specialised protective chemicals (glycosylated steroids and triterpenes) as part of their innate immune system. This raises the intriguing question of how these biosynthetic pathways have evolved. Sea star saponins are steroidal, while those of the sea cucumber are triterpenoid. Sterol biosynthesis in animals involves cyclization of 2,3-oxidosqualene to lanosterol by the oxidosqualene cyclase (OSC) enzyme lanosterol synthase (LSS). Here we show that sea cucumbers lack LSS and instead have two divergent OSCs that produce triterpene saponins and that are likely to have evolved from an ancestral LSS by gene duplication and neofunctionalisation. We further show that sea cucumbers make alternate sterols that confer protection against self-poisoning by their own saponins. Collectively, these events have enabled sea cucumbers to evolve the ability to produce saponins and saponin-resistant sterols concomitantly. In collaboration with the group of Jiming Jiang (Michigan State University, USA) we have provided the first evidence for the existence of super-enhancers (SEs) in plants, and have provided evidence for a role for one of these in regulating a BGC (the thalianol cluster) that is expressed in the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana (Zhao et al., PNAS, 2022, 119, e2215328119). We have previously shown that the thalianol pathway plays a critical role in shaping the root microbiota (Huang et al. Science 2019). SEs play prominent roles in cell type identity and function in mammalian species. We identified a set of 749 putative SEs in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We demonstrate that the SEs share the functional characteristics of mammalian SEs. We developed several small deletions within an SE located in the middle of the thalianol BGC. The deletion lines show distinct phenotypic changes and transcriptional repression of all five thalianol cluster genes. Our results suggest that SEs play important roles in regulating genes associated with development and tissue identity and in coordinating the coexpression of BGCs in A. thaliana. In collaboration with Sanwen Huang and Yi Shang (Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China), we have characterised two Multidrug and Toxic Compound Extrusion (MATE) proteins from diverse cucurbits (cucumber, melon, watermelon) that are involved in the transport of species-specific specialized metabolites (cucurbitacins) from the roots into the soil (Zhong et al., Nat. Plants 2022, 8, 887-896). We showed that the transport of cucurbitacin B from the roots of melon into the soil modulates the rhizosphere microbiome by selectively enriching for two bacterial genera, Enterobacter and Bacillus, and we demonstrate that this, in turn, leads to robust resistance against the soil-borne wilt fungal pathogen, Fusarium oxysporum. Our study offers insights into how transporters for specialised metabolites manipulate the rhizosphere microbiota and thereby affect crop fitness. We have also characterised another MATE transporter involved in the sequestration of cucurbitacins associated with bitterness in cucumber in the leaves (Ma et al., New. Phytol., 2023, DOI: 10.1111/nph.18786). The genes encoding these MATE transporters are located within BGCs in the curcurbit genomes. Most antibiotics in clinical use are produced in nature by biosynthetic assembly lines catalysed by modular pathways. This modular organisation suggests the possibility for rational reprogramming through genetic engineering. However, despite over 20 years of effort, such approaches have so far met with a limited success, constraining our ability to produce new antibiotics with improved bioactivity. To gain greater insight into the design process, we wanted to examine how nature creates assembly lines and searched for biosynthetic pathways that might represent evolutionary transitions. By examining the biosynthesis of the anti-tubercular wollamides, we uncovered how whole gene duplication and neofunctionalization can result in pathway bifurcation and the evolution of new structures (Booth et al., Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 3498). This was the first report of a modular biosynthetic pathway that is captured in the process of evolving and offers the promise to develop new and better ways to reprogram modular pathways and design new peptide antibiotics for screening against drug resistant pathogens. Dr Dmitry Ghilarov joined the ISP in Dec 2021 following the award of a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellowship. The Ghilarov lab used single-particle cryo-electron microscopy to elucidate the mode of action of albicidin, a non-ribosomal peptide produced by the plant pathogen Xanthomonas albilineans. Albicidin is a potent antibiotic and phytotoxin with nanomolar range activity, but the molecular mechanism of how albicidin inhibits its target, bacterial topoisomerase DNA gyrase, had not been established for decades. By determining 2.6-A resolution cryo-EM structures of Escherichia coli gyrase complex with DNA and albicidin (Michalczyk et al., Nat. Catal. 2023, 6, 52-67), we established a novel class of topoisomerase inhibitors that are active against Gram-negative bacteria and unaffected by existing fluoroquinolone resistance. This structure demonstrates that albicidins use a unique way of binding. Thioamitides are ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) that have promising anticancer activity. We had previously used genomic data to discover multiple thioamitides from actinobacterial strains, including thioalbamide from Amycolatopsis alba. Working with the Cappello group (University of Calabria, Italy), thioalbamide was shown to inhibit breast cancer cell invasiveness in mouse models (experiments conducted in Italy). Further insights were obtained on its mechanism of action, where it inhibits mitochondrial respiration (Frattaruolo et al., Mol. Metab. 2023, 68, 101674). These results are an important step in determining whether thioamitides could be suitable candidates for clinical trials in the future. Studies are nearing completion on the identification and engineering of new thioamitide pathways. We developed a high-quality assembly of the 415 Mb genome of Scutellaria barbata into 13 pseudochromosomes. Using phylogenomic and biochemical data, we mapped the plastidial metabolism of kaurene (gibberellins), abietane, and clerodane diterpenes in three species of the family Lamiaceae (Scutellaria barbata, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Salvia splendens), facilitating the identification of genes involved in the biosynthesis of the clerodanes, kolavenol, and isokolavenol (Li et al., Mol. Plant, 2023, 6, 549-570). We showed that clerodane biosynthesis evolved through recruitment and neofunctionalization of genes from gibberellin and abietane metabolism. Despite the assumed monophyletic origin of clerodane biosynthesis, which is widespread in species of the Lamiaceae, our data showed distinct evolutionary lineages and suggest polyphyletic origins of clerodane biosynthesis in the family Lamiaceae. Our study not only provided significant insights into the evolution of clerodane biosynthetic pathways in the mint family, Lamiaceae, but also will facilitate the production of anticancer clerodanes through future metabolic engineering efforts. A similar study was undertaken on the widely cultivated medicinal and ornamental plant sage (Salvia officinalis L.), which is an evergreen shrub of the Lamiaceae family, native to the Mediterranean. We assembled a high-quality sage genome of 480 Mb on seven chromosomes and identified a BGC encoding two pairs of diterpene synthases that, together with the cytochromes P450 genes located inside and outside the cluster, form two expression cascades responsible for the shoot and root diterpenoids, respectively, thus extending BGC functionality from co-regulation to orchestrating bioactive metabolite production in different organs (Li et al., Cell Rep. 2022, 40, 111236). We have elucidated the complete biosynthetic pathways of baicalein and wogonin. However, the transcriptional regulation of flavone biosynthesis in S. baicalensis remains unclear. We have now shown that the SbMYB3 transcription factor functions as a transcriptional activator involved in the biosynthesis of RSFs in S. baicalensis (Fang et al., Hortic. Res. 2022, 10, uhac266). We showed that SbMYB3 binds to the promoter of flavone synthase II-2 (SbFNSII-2) and enhances its transcription. In S. baicalensis hairy roots, RNAi of SbMYB3 reduced the accumulation of baicalin and wogonoside, and SbMYB3 knockout decreased the biosynthesis of baicalein, baicalin, wogonin, and wogonoside, whereas SbMYB3 overexpression enhanced the contents of baicalein, baicalin, wogonin, and wogonoside. This study provided a potential target for metabolic engineering of RSFs in S. baicalensis. Further Objective 1.1 publications: Aldholmi et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202203175; Feeney et al., Microb. Genom. 2022, 8, DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000824. OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (OSBOURN) As part of a BBSRC IPA grant, and in collaboration with the group of Prof. Beth Sattely (Stanford University, USA), we have uncovered a multi-step pathway for the biosynthesis of structurally complex triterpenes (tetranorterpenes) known as limonoids (De La Pena, Hodgson, Liu et al., Science, 2023, 379, 361-368). Limonoids are responsible for the bitter taste in citrus (e.g., limonin) and the active constituents of neem oil, a widely used bioinsecticide (e.g., azadirachtin). Despite the commercial value of limonoids, a complete biosynthetic route has not been described. We reported the characterisation of the biosynthetic pathways to kihadalactone A and azadirone, products that bear the signature limonoid furan. These results enable access to valuable limonoids and provide a template for discovery and reconstitution of triterpene biosynthetic pathways in plants that require multiple skeletal rearrangements and oxidations. Osbourn co-authored a review of the growing body of evidence highlighting the impact of translational, transcriptional, epigenetic and chromatin-based regulation and evolution of specialised metabolism genes and metabolic networks (Meteignier et al., Nat. Plants, 9, 22-30). This review also covers how this new knowledge could help in improving strategies to produce useful plant-derived pharmaceuticals. Further Objective 1.2 publication: Chen et al., J. Adv. Res. 2023, 43, 247-257 OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, SEUNG, FIELD) Leaves of Arabidopsis plants accumulate starch as a product of photosynthesis during the day, then degrade it to support growth during the night. Degradation is highly controlled: it occurs at a constant rate such that starch is consumed almost exactly at dawn and the use of photosynthetic products for growth is optimised. We have provided three new insights into the mechanism that exercises control over degradation. First, we showed that the mechanism causes starch degradation during the day - at the same time as starch synthesis - as well as at night (Ishihara et al., Plant Physiol. 2022, 189, 1976-2000). Hypothetically, the mechanism sets the rate of degradation by mathematically dividing starch content by time remaining to dawn. Immediately after dawn the rate is very low because starch content is low and time to the next dawn is long. As the day proceeds, starch content increases and time to dawn decreases, resulting in a slow rise in starch degradation in the light. We have shown that this is the case using tools including a staggered succession of 13CO2 pulse experiments. Degradation at the same time as synthesis in the light serves to buffer carbon availability during natural twilight when synthesis declines. Second, using a whole-plant Arabidopsis Framework Model, we showed that circadian control of diel growth is exercised largely through clock control of starch degradation, which ensures continued growth at night (Chew et al., in silico Plants, 2022, 4, diac010). Third, we disproved a widely publicised idea that carbon for starch synthesis in leaves comes from turnover of cytosolic sucrose. We showed that it comes directly from the Calvin-Benson cycle (Fünfgeld et al., Nat. Plants, 2022, 8, 574-582.). We have extended our studies beyond biochemical factors involved in starch granule formation, as we discovered that plastid architecture plays a major role in determining starch granule morphology. Arabidopsis mutants lacking AtFZL, a protein involved in chloroplast membrane organisation, had misformed stromal pockets within chloroplasts in which starch granules form. This led to a striking change in granule morphology, with the mutant producing granules with aberrant shape and size (Esch et al., manuscript submitted, preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.20.512996). We hypothesise that the stromal environment surrounding developing starch granules impacts granule morphogenesis, and we are currently exploring whether similar concepts apply to starch granule formation in wheat amyloplasts. Further Obj. 1.3 publications: Ebenezer et al., Biology Open, 2022, 11, bio059561; Watson-Lazowski et al., J. Exp. Bot. 2022, 73, 6367-6379; Cross et al., J. Biol. Chem. 2022, 298, 101903; Singh et al. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 2992. OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) Balk spent 4 months in the laboratory of Prof. Sabeeha Merchant (University of California, Berkeley), on a sabbatical visit funded by the Royal Society. The aim was to learn about iron homeostasis in single-cell algae as possible model organisms for higher plants. Mutant strains in the BRUTUS gene of two algal species, Auxenochlorella protothecoides and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, were isolated and the phenotypes described. The expression patterns of the BRUTUS protein in response to iron in the medium were also characterised. The data feed into continuing efforts to unravel the molecular mechanism of BRUTUS and BRUTUS-LIKE proteins in the Balk lab and harness these important regulators for crop biofortification. Further Objective 1.4 publications: Sun et al., New Phytol. 2022, 235, 1796-1806; Gu et al., Genes, 2022, 13, 158. UPDATE 2021 - 2022 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN) We have continued our study of the formicamycins, a new structural class of antibiotics with a very high barrier to the selection of resistant isolates. A limitation to developing these compounds further is the low titre of the producing organism Streptomyces formicae; this is compounded by the fact that formicamycins are not produced in submerged culture and only occurs on solid agar. To alleviate these issues, we undertook a detailed study of the regulation of formicamycin biosynthesis and defined the limits of the biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) and the roles of the four cluster-situated regulatory genes (CSRs). The 24 genes that comprise the BGC are expressed on 9 transcripts, and we showed that the CSR ForJ represses expression of 7 transcripts which include the key biosynthetic genes and a second CSR ForGF; this is a two-component system that is required to initiate biosynthesis. By overexpressing ForGF in a DforJ background increase formicamycin production more than 10-fold and leads to their production in submerged culture (Devine et al., Cell. Chem. Biol., 2021, 515-523.e5). This provides a platform for the production of formicamycins in order to facilitate mode of action studies and their preclinical evaluation. We have built on our prior work on the identification of novel ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) using the genome mining tool RiPPER, including the publication of a user guide to help the wider research community use the tool for their own discovery efforts (Moffat et al., Methods Mol. Biol., 2021, 2296, 227-247). In addition, we used RiPPER to identify new examples of RiPPs by searching for BGCs containing YcaO domain proteins, which can catalyse cyclisation and thioamidation in RiPP pathways. We showed that these are a reliable signature for unexplored BGCs in Actinobacteria. This led to the discovery of an amidine-containing RiPP that is widely distributed in nature (Russell et al., Chem. Sci. 2021, 12, 11769-11778). The cyclic amidine group is a rare chemotype in natural products, so our findings provide the platform for future discovery efforts for novel bioactive RiPPs. The thioamitides are a family of RiPPs with potent anticancer activity. They are one of the most structurally complex RiPP families, yet very few biosynthetic steps had been elucidated. We therefore used a combination of pathway engineering and untargeted metabolomics to obtain a detailed understanding of the biosynthetic pathway of a thioamitide we previously discovered, thiostreptamide S4 (Eyles et al., Chem. Sci. 2021, 12, 7138-7150). This study led to the identification of a protein critical for amino acid dehydration that has homology to HopA1, an effector protein used by a plant pathogen to aid infection. We used RiPPER with HopA1-like proteins to bioinformatically identify thousands of new RiPP-like BGCs, paving the way for future RiPP discovery and engineering. Glycopeptide antibiotics are important medicines used to treat multidrug-resistant Gram-positive bacterial infections. In collaboration with the Marinelli group at the University of Insubria (Italy), we used genomic data to guide the discovery of a new glycopeptide antibiotic produced by Nonomuraea coxensis (Yushchuk et al., ACS Chem. Biol. 2021, 16, 915-928). Further collaborative glycopeptide discovery efforts are ongoing. Additionally, we were involved in the publication of high-quality genome sequences for the important industrial strain Streptomyces clavuligerus (Gomez-Escribano et al., Microb. Genom., 2021, 7, 000669), the producer of starting materials for manufacture of the WHO essential medicine amoxicillin, and for the model organism Streptomyces venezuelae (Gomez-Escribano, et al., J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 2021, 48, kuab035). We engineered L-DOPA production in tomato (Breitel et al., Metab. Eng. 2021, 65, 185-196). L-DOPA is a non-standard amino acid, and the gold standard drug for the treatment for Parkinson's Disease. We engineered tomato fruit enriched in L-DOPA through overexpression of BvCYP76AD6, which encodes a tyrosinase from beetroot, in a fruit specific manner. Analysis of the transgenic fruit revealed the feasibility of accumulating L-DOPA in a non-naturally betalain-producing plant with potential for 'growing your own' medicines in regions of the world (particularly Africa) where supplies of L-DOPA are limited due to prohibitive costs of pharmaceuticals or access restricted by inadequate infrastructure. Medicinal plants are an excellent source of structurally diverse, bio-active compounds with potential in the fight against cancer. One of the most promising is Scutellaria barbata, prescribed traditionally for the treatment of cancers. Scutebarbatine A is the major diterpenoid, produced in specialized large, peltate trichomes on leaves of S. barbata. It induces dose-dependent apoptosis, specifically in cancer cells. The major class of proteins down-regulated are pro-survival proteins, the Inhibitors of Apoptosis (IAPs), and IAP regulating proteins. Scutebarbatine A works by releasing the molecular brakes (the IAPs) on apoptosis in cell death-evading cancer cells. Comparison between the cytotoxicity of methanolic extracts of S. barbata leaves and decoctions (Ban Zhi Lian) prepared traditionally, showed substantially different chemical compositions and differential induction of apoptosis. Analyses suggest polyvalency between the constituents in both extracts, and ways to produce enhanced chemopreventive preparations for the treatment of cancer (under review in Medicinal Plant Biology). The medicinal plant Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is rich in specialized 4'-deoxyflavones, which are reported to have many health-promoting properties. We assayed Scutellaria flavones with different methoxyl groups on human cancer cell lines and found that polymethoxylated 4'-deoxyflavones, like skullcapflavone I and tenaxin I have stronger ability to induce apoptosis compared to unmethylated baicalein, showing that methoxylation enhances bioactivity as well as the physical properties of specialized flavones, while having no side-effects on healthy cells (Cui et al., Plant Biotechnol. J., 2022, 20, 129-142). This work showed that both type I and type II O-methyltransferase enzymes are involved in biosynthesis of methoxylated flavones in S. baicalensis. The use of these genes to synthesise polymethoxylated flavones either in S. baicalensis or in heterologous hosts may offer a route to produce more effective chemoprotective therapeutics. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench) is a popular native North American herbal plant. Its major bioactive compound, chicoric acid, is reported to have various potential physiological functions, but little is known about its biosynthesis. We have identified two cytosolic BAHD acyltransferases that form two intermediates, caftaric acid and chlorogenic acid. Surprisingly, a unique serine carboxypeptidase-like acyltransferase uses chlorogenic acid as its acyl donor and caftaric acid as its acyl acceptor to produce chicoric acid in vacuoles. This novel enzyme has evolved its acyl donor specificity from the better-known 1-O-ß-D-glucose esters typical for this specific type of acyltransferase to chlorogenic acid. This unusual pathway seems unique to Echinacea species suggesting convergent evolution of chicoric acid biosynthesis. (Fu et al., Nat. Commun., 2021, 12, 156). Choices of blue food colourants are extremely limited, with only two options in the USA, synthetic blue no. 1 and no. 2, and a third available in Europe, patent blue V. The food industry is investing heavily in finding naturally derived replacements, but with only limited success to date. We reviewed the complex and multifold mechanisms whereby blue pigmentation by anthocyanins is achieved in nature and explained how structure determines the functionality of anthocyanin pigments, particularly their colour and their stability. We described the impact of progressive decorations on colour and stability and discussed how this understanding could be harnessed to develop blue food colourants on the basis of understanding of how anthocyanins create blues in nature (Houghton et al., Plants, 2021, 10, 726). Further Objective 1.1 publication: Miethke, et al., Nat. Rev. Chem., 2021, 5, 726-749. OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (OSBOURN) In our work on oat, we have investigated the origin of a large BGC for production of defence compounds - the avenacin cluster. In collaboration with Bin Han (Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, China) we have generated a pseudochromosome-level assembly for the 41 Gb genome of diploid oat (Avena strigosa). We have elucidated the structure and organisation of the entire 12-gene avenacin cluster and characterised the last two missing pathway steps (Li et al., Nat. Comms. 2021, 12, 2563). We show that the cluster has formed de novo since the divergence of oats in a subtelomeric region of the genome that lacks homology with other grasses, and that gene order is approximately colinear with the biosynthetic pathway. We speculate that the positioning of the late pathway genes furthest away from the telomere may mitigate against a 'self-poisoning' scenario in which toxic intermediates accumulate as a result of telomeric gene deletions. Our investigations reveal a striking example of adaptive evolution underpinned by remarkable genome plasticity. This work represents a significant advance towards understanding non-random gene organization and genome evolution in eukaryotes. Avenacins are triterpene glycosides. Oats are unusual amongst the cereals and grasses in producing these types of compound. The elucidation of the complete pathway for avenacin biosynthesis opens up opportunities for enhancing disease resistance in wheat and other cereals by metabolic engineering. A project is underway with NIAB to generate stable transgenic lines of wheat expressing the avenacin pathway genes and evaluate these lines for resistance to take-all, a soil-borne disease that causes major yield losses in wheat. In a collaboration with the group of Alain Goosens, University of Ghent/VIB, we have shown that the thalianol pathway is controlled by phytohormonal cues, and may also modulate phytohormonal action itself, thereby affecting root development and interaction with the environment (Bai et al., New Phytol., 2021, 230, 228). Further Objective 1.2 publications: Polturak and Osbourn, PLoS Pathog., 2021, 17, e1009698. Polturak and Osbourn, Science Bull., 2021, 67, 13-16. Polturak et al., Curr. Opin. Green Sustain. Chem., 2022, 33, 100568. OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, SEUNG, FIELD) We investigated the effect on developing wheat grains of introducing a starch-synthase-like bacterial enzyme GlgA into the cytosol, rather than the amyloplast in which endogenous starch synthesis occurs (Schreier et al., Plant J., 2021, 106, 1431-1442). We wanted to discover whether glgA could "hijack" some of the starch synthase substrate, ADP-glucose, to make novel cytosolic glucans. In fact, glgA caused accumulation of maltose, a very high water content and a very low starch content during seed development. We speculate that a cytosolic beta-amylase converted the GlgA product into maltose, which drew in water and inhibited normal starch synthesis. Elimination of the cytosolic beta-amylase and/or introduction of a starch branching enzyme into the cytosol should permit accumulation of cytosolic glucans. Leaves of Arabidopsis plants accumulate starch as a product of photosynthesis during the day, then degrade it to support growth during the night. Degradation is highly controlled: it occurs at a constant rate that permits complete consumption of starch reserves almost exactly at dawn, thus ensuring optimum use of photosynthetic products for growth over the 24-h cycle. To elucidate the control mechanism, we selected a mutant that degrades starch too fast, resulting in starvation and cessation of growth towards the end of the night. Surprisingly, the mutation is dominant and causes a gain of function in a minor starch-degrading enzyme BETA-AMYLASE2. Analysis sheds light on a crucial role for BAM2 as part of a dynamic complex of starch-degrading enzymes (Feike et al., Plant Physiol., 2021, DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiab603). To extend our work on the diversity in storage carbohydrate metabolism in grasses, we compared the impact of inhibiting starch granule initiation in three different grass species. We studied the effect of loss-of-function mutations in a key starch granule initiation protein, PTST2, in barley, wheat and Brachypodium. Loss of PTST2 had relatively mild effects on the growth of wheat and barley - two species that mainly store sucrose. By contrast, loss of PTST2 in Brachypodium, which mainly stores starch, led to severely stunted growth and reduced photosynthetic capacity. This highlights differences in the importance of starch synthesis and granule initiation among different grasses (manuscript submitted). We also continued work to discover the mechanism by which amylose-free starch arose in Gentiana. Our findings suggest an early loss of the GBSS gene during the divergence of the Gentianeae tribe (Family: Gentianaceae). The Gentianeae contains >900 known species and 17 genera, where all studied members had no detectable amylose or GBSS in starch. It appears that the lack of amylose did not prevent the widespread diversification of Gentianeae species, which challenges the notion that amylose is highly conserved and that it provides a physiological advantage in all plants. Further Objective 1.3 publications: Wagstaff et al., Environ. Sci. Technol., 2021, 55, 24, 16538-16551; Nigmatullin et al., Langmuir 2021, 37, 30, 9215-9221; Hawkins et al. New Phytol., 2021, 230, 2371-2386; Gabrielli et al., Chem. Eur. J., 2021, 27, 15688-15698. OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) Highly coordinated homeostatic mechanisms have evolved to maintain optimal cellular Zn and Fe concentrations, although little is known about the regulatory proteins involved in cross-talk between these homeostatic networks. In Arabidopsis a new role for BRUTUS-LIKE (BTSL) proteins in regulating Zn and Fe cross-homeostasis in plants has been demonstrated. Both BTSL1 and BTSL2 were identified as partially functionally redundant E3 ubiquitin ligases that negatively regulate Fe uptake by targeting the transcription factor, FIT, for proteasomal degradation. The btsl double mutant demonstrates tolerance to Fe deficiency by enhancing Fe uptake capacity. The BTSLs also impact Zn uptake and distribution, conferring an Fe-mediated Zn tolerance phenotype. The btsl double mutant shows constitutive expression of FIT-dependent and FIT-independent metal homeostasis genes in roots, suggesting that BTSL proteins have additional transcription factor targets upstream of FIT as well. Furthermore, the btsl mutant is insensitive to systemic Fe signalling, showing that BTSL proteins are regulated by both local and systemic Fe signals, probably mediated by the cellular ratio of Zn and Fe. Plant growth at increased concentrations of CO2 decreases seed Zn and Fe. Using Arabidopsis, we investigated if this could be mitigated by reducing CO2-induced decrease in transpiration. Using mutants displaying wild type stomatal responses to ABA and light but compromised in their response to elevated CO2 we show that by increasing transpiration it is possible to partially mitigate the reduction in seed Fe and Zn at elevated CO2. The genetic screen for iron-sensing mutants in Arabidopsis has been delayed due to Covid-19, but good progress has been made with identifying mutations that underly hyper-accumulation of iron in pea (Pisum sativum). Using an exome sequencing approach, we have identified a small deletion in a regulatory gene which segregates with the mutant phenotype. We are currently undertaking genetic complementation studies to provide further evidence and publish the results. Further Objective 1.4 publication: Stanton et al., Mol. Plant, 2022, 15, 65-85. UPDATE 2020 - 2021 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN) Formicamycins are a new structural class of antibiotics produced by Streptomyces formicae that inhibit the growth of MRSA and these bacteria do not become resistant to formicamycins, even after growing in the presence of sub-inhibitory concentrations. The formicamycins derive from intermediate compounds called the fasamycins that exhibit antibacterial activity in their own right and are reported to be produced by several different species of Streptomyces bacteria. We undertook a detailed analysis of how the fasamycins are converted into the formicamycins, which showed that the process involves a two-step ring expansion-ring contraction pathway. The first step is catalysed by a Baeyer-Villigerase enzyme to give stable lactone intermediates. The second step is catalysed by a unique flavin dependent reductase enzyme that proceeds via a mechanism that is reminiscent of a Favorskii-like ring contraction (Qin et al., Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 8125-8131). Streptomyces species are environmental bacteria which live in the soil and a rich source of medically and agriculturally useful molecules such as antibiotics and anticancer drugs. Unfortunately, when we 'domesticate' these organisms by bringing them into the laboratory they often lose the ability to produce these valuable molecules over time; an example of this is Streptomyces platensis which produces the investigative anticancer compound pladienolide. We show that production of pladienolides can we re-established by engineering Streptomyces platensis to constitutively express a regulatory gene that activates expression of the biosynthetic genes required to make pladienolide. This leads to production of new pladienolide variants in addition to the known compounds (Booth et al., Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 8249-8255). Bottromycin is a structurally unique ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPP) with antimicrobial activity towards clinically relevant pathogens, such as MRSA and a key structural feature of bottromycin is a D-amino acid. In collaboration with the Koehnke group (University of Glasgow), we showed that this is generated by an unusual alpha/beta-hydrolase fold enzyme that functions as a peptide epimerase. Bioinformatic analysis highlights that similar enzymes are found in diverse BGCs (Sikandar et al., Nat. Chem. Biol., 2020, 16, 1013-1018). Novel RiPPs are difficult to identify bioinformatically, which led us to develop the genome mining tool RiPPER (reported previously for Theme 1). We have now used RiPPER to identify new examples of RiPPs by searching for biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) containing YcaO domain proteins, which can catalyse cyclisation and thioamidation in RiPP pathways. We showed that these are a reliable signature for unexplored BGCs in Actinobacteria. This led to the discovery of an amidine-containing ribosomally-synthesised peptide that is widely distributed in nature (Russell et al., bioRxiv, 2020, DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.04.076059). Blocks of contiguous chromatin markings are highly unusual in plant genomes and are reminiscent of groups of physically linked development and immunity-related multi-gene complexes in animals and of clustered genes for specialised metabolism in fungi. We carried out an in-depth analysis of the chromosomal topology of plant BGCs and their positioning in nuclear space, and demonstrated that these BGCs reside in highly interactive domains that undergo marked changes in local conformation and nuclear positioning in cluster expressing and non-expressing organs (Nützmann et al., PNAS, 2020, 117, 13800-13809). We have reviewed the relationship between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine to establish whether benefits for patients can be derived by combination therapies (Fu et al., Med. Res. Rev. 2021, DOI: 10.1002/med.21793). The success of Western Scientific approaches to medicine has been confirmed by substantial increases in life expectancy, reductions in infant mortality and the virtual elimination of many infectious diseases accompanied by development of effective management practices for non-communicable diseases. However, major challenges remain in the form of infectious diseases that evolve resistance rapidly, new diseases, particularly those caused by viruses, and effective long-term treatments for chronic, noncommunicable diseases. TCM can offer complementary treatments based on personalised interventions, informed by knowledge accumulated from empirical observations gathered over centuries of practice, that address the impact of disease on the whole body. We have provided examples of both infectious and non-communicable diseases where the combination of Western Medicine and TCM can benefit patients in terms of the speed and efficacy of recovery or disease management. Against this background, an understanding of the mechanisms of action of traditional Chinese medicinal preparations offers fresh routes to discovery and development of new therapeutics as well as patented medical prescriptions, which will rely heavily on modern scientific methodologies for their adoption and success. This review has set the frame for outputs promoting therapeutics developed from Traditional Chinese Medicinal plants. These are being developed for extracts from both Scutellaria baicalensis (Huang Qin; ??) and Scutellaria barbata. (Ban Zhi Lian; ???). Further Objective 1.1 publications: Franz et al., Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021, DOI: 10.1039/d0np00097c; Montalbán-López et al., Nat. Prod. Rep., 2021, 38, 130-239; Russell et al., Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J., 2020, 18, 1838-1851; Bai et al., New Phytologist, 2020, DOI:10.1111/nph.17144; Devine et al., Cell Chem. Biol., 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2020.12.011 OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (OSBOURN) Numerous examples of BGCs have now been discovered in plant genomes, including BGCs for compounds of agricultural and medicinal importance. However, little is known about how these complex traits are assembled and diversified. We examined a large number of variants within and between species for a paradigm BGC (the thalianol cluster), which has evolved recently in a common ancestor of the Arabidopsis genus. Comparisons at the species level reveal differences in BGC organization and involvement of auxiliary genes, resulting in production of species-specific triterpenes. Within species, the thalianol cluster is primarily fixed, showing a low frequency of deleterious haplotypes. We further identify chromosomal inversion as a molecular mechanism that may shuffle more distant genes into the cluster, so enabling cluster compaction. Antagonistic natural selection pressures are likely involved in shaping the occurrence and maintenance of this BGC. Our work sheds light on the birth, life and death of complex genetic and metabolic traits in plants (Liu et al. Nat. Comms., 2020, 11, 5354). Further Objective 1.2 publications: Hao et al., Plant Cell Physiol. 2020, 60, 1747-1760; Stephenson et al., The Biochemist, 2020, 42, 34-39; Stephenson et al., in Comprehensive Natural Products III: Chemistry and Biology, ISBN 978-0081026908. Lee et al., Plants, People, Planet. 2020, 2, 602-613; Kemp et al., eLife, 2020, 9, e54489. OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, SEUNG, FIELD) Work in the last two years revealed that grasses differ profoundly from Arabidopsis in both the pattern and the importance of starch synthesis for carbohydrate availability in leaves. We found that leaves of grasses in the Pooideae (temperate grasses including major cereal crops) accumulate large amounts of sucrose and relatively small amounts of starch in the day and consume both at night. This contrasts with Arabidopsis in which starch, not sucrose, is turned over in the day-night cycle. It is also apparent that the control of starch/sucrose consumption at night in grass leaves is very different from control of starch turnover in Arabidopsis. The basis of these differences is being explored. Further, we extended our study on natural variation in starch composition from Arabidopsis to other species. Previously, we reported the discovery of Arabidopsis accessions that lack the amylose component of starch due to natural mutations in the amylose biosynthesis gene, GBSS. We have now discovered an extant population of amylose-free Arabidopsis in southern Germany, suggesting that the mutation can persist across multiple generations in the wild. To discover similar losses of amylose during plant evolution, we mined transcriptome data from 1,173 plant and algae species (from the 1KP Plants initiative) to identify candidate species that have lost components of amylose biosynthesis. We discovered at least one genus (Gentiana) in which all species examined so far lack GBSS and amylose. We are currently investigating the mechanism by which the amylose-free phenotype arose in these species. The Field group have moved to the University of Manchester, but a number of outcomes continue to be associated with MfN. Projecting beyond the original starch-oriented goals of the ISP, knowledge and resources are being transferred from plant to human and microbial metabolism. Through EU collaboration, the goal is to compare and contrast starch and glycogen metabolism, to disentangle the range of enzymatic and inherent polysaccharide self-assembly processes involved (Raguin et al., Photosynthesis Research, 2020, 145, 45-70). Human glycogen storage disorder SNPs are providing a focus and a complement to small molecule inhibitors of carbohydrate-active enzymes. SOPs established for investigating starch within MfN and being translated for use in glycogen and fragment analyses. Further work associated with JIC include understanding the role of calcium-binding in fructooligosaccharide synthesis by inulosucrase (Charoenwongpaiboon et al, ACS Omega, 2020, 5, 28001-28011) and work with UK collaborators has concerned the targeted chemoenzymatic synthesis of sugar nucleotide probes reveal an inhibitor of the GDP-D-mannose dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Keele University; Beswick et al, ACS Chem. Biol., 2020,15, 3086-3092), ascertaining the biochemical function of an essential pectin methylesterase in the gut microbe Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Newcastle University and QIB; Duan et al, J. Biol. Chem., 2020, 295, 18625-18637) and chemoenzymatic synthesis of fluorinated cellodextrins that identify a new allomorph for cellulose-like materials (UEA and Bristol University; de Andrade et al, Chem. Eur. J., 2021, 27, 1374-1382) Further Objective 1.3 publications: Wangpaiboon et al., Int. J. Biol. Macromol., 2020, 152, 473-482; Baruah et al., Int. J. Biol. Macromol., 2020, 164, 53-65; Pal Singh et al., ChemBioChem, 2020, 21, 1043-1049; Chaliha et al, Plant Defence: Biological Control, 2020, 22, 99-118; Seung, New Phytol. 2020, 228, 149; Chen et al., Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2021.102013; J. Exp. Bot., 2021, 72, 1850-1863; Smith et al., Annu. Rev. Plant Biol., 2020, 71, 217-245. OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) Our functional understanding of two closely related root-specific iron regulators, the hemerythrin E3 ubiquitin ligases BTSL1 and BTSL2, has been extended to their role in protecting plants from excess zinc. A manuscript is in preparation on this work. The genetic screen for iron-sensing mutants in Arabidopsis has been delayed due to Covid-19, but good progress has been made with identifying the underlying genetic defect in pea (Pisum sativum) that hyper-accumulates iron. We are using an exome sequencing approach, which has identified a region with mutant-specific SNPs on chromosome 6. UPDATE 2019 - 2020 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN) Through our investigation of how the soil bacterium Streptomyces formicae makes three structurally distinct, but biosynthetically related natural product antibiotics we identified a new, non-catalytic role for a well-known family of oxidation enzymes. Using mutagenesis and chemical analysis we showed these proteins can act as fidelity factors, facilitating antibiotic biosynthesis and ensuring that the production of aberrant products is minimised (Qin et al., Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 3611; doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11538-6). The discovery of novel antibiotics to tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance is impeded by difficulties in accessing the full biosynthetic potential of microorganisms. The development of new tools to unlock the biosynthesis of cryptic bacterial natural products will greatly increase the repertoire of natural product scaffolds. Here, we report a strategy for the activation of cryptic antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters. This allowed the discovery of a new peptide antibiotic directly from the native host and via heterologous expression. (Vikeli et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2020, 86, e01876-19; doi: 10.1128/AEM.01876-19). Working with colleagues in Spain, we identified a strategy to activate antibiotic and antifungal biosynthetic gene clusters by showing that a 'pathway-specific' transcriptional regulator can activate the expression of other biosynthetic gene clusters in the industrially important strain Streptomyces clavuligerus (Martínez-Burgo, et al., Front. Microbiol., 2019, 10, 580). We developed a genome mining tool (RiPPER, https://github.com/streptomyces/ripper) to enable the discovery of novel ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). This enables the discovery of new types of RiPP that are overlooked by existing genome mining methodologies. We used this tool to show that thioamidated RiPP natural products are likely to be widely distributed and diverse, despite currently being incredibly rare. To illustrate this, we characterised the structure and biosynthetic pathway to a new natural product family, the thiovarsolins (Santos-Aberturas, et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 2019, 47, 4624; doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz192) and have subsequently used this tool to guide the identification and characterisation of widespread RiPP families, thereby providing an insight into RiPP evolution and diversification (manuscript in preparation). The triterpenes are one of the largest and most structurally complex groups of plant natural products, with numerous medicinal, agritech and industrial applications. Within the last year we have made major inroads into understanding how these molecules are made (see Objective 1.2 for further findings associated with triterpenes). Systematic analysis of the genomes of 13 members of the Brassicaceae has shed light on how triterpene pathways evolve and diversify (Liu et al., New Phytologist 2019; doi: 10.1111/nph.16338). Our results indicate that plant genomes are remarkably plastic, and that dynamic genome neighbourhoods generate new biosynthetic pathways in different Brassicaceae lineages by shuffling the genes encoding a core palette of triterpene-diversifying enzymes, presumably in response to strong environmental selection pressure. These results illuminate a genomic basis for diversification of plant-specialized metabolism through natural combinatorics of enzyme families, which can be mimicked using synthetic biology to engineer diverse bioactive molecules. We reported a high-quality reference genome sequence for Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Zhao, et al., Mol Plant, 2019, 12, 935; doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2019.04.002), an important component in Chinese Traditional Medicine where preparations of dried roots, 'Huang Qin', are used for liver and lung complaints including complementary cancer treatments. Comparison of this sequence to those of closely related species in the order Lamiales revealed how the specialised metabolic pathway for the synthesis of 4'-deoxyflavone bioactives evolved in the genus, Scutellaria. This showed that gene duplications, segmental duplication, gene amplification and point mutations coupled to gene neo- and sub-functionalisations were involved the evolution of 4'-deoxyflavone synthesis. Comparison of the reference genome of S. baicalensis to high-quality genome sequence of two closely related species has allowed us to propose how this new metabolic pathway evolved and revealed that a range of different evolutionary mechanisms have resulted in the emergence of a specialised metabolic pathway within a single genus. In citrus, the production of anthocyanin pigments requires the activity of the transcriptional activator Ruby. Consequently, loss-of-function mutations in Ruby result in an anthocyaninless phenotype. Several citrus accessions, however, have lost the ability to produce these pigments despite the presence of wild type Ruby alleles. These specific mutants have captivated the interest of botanists and breeders for centuries because the lack of anthocyanins in young leaves and flowers is also associated with a lack of proanthocyanidins in seeds and, most notably, with an extreme reduction in fruit acidity (involving about a three-unit change in pH). These mutants have been defined collectively as 'acidless'. We have identified Noemi, which encodes a bHLH transcription factor, that controls these apparently unrelated processes (Butelli, et al., Curr. Biol., 2019, 29, 158; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.040). This work helps illuminate the path of domestication of Citron, the first citrus species to be cultivated in the Mediterranean. OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (OSBOURN) The microbes that grow in and around plant roots can have diverse effects on plant growth and fitness. However, how plants recruit and shape their microbial communities is not well understood. In Huang et al. (Science 2019, 364, eaau6389; doi: 10.1126/science.aau6389) we report that a previously undiscovered specialized metabolic network of plant triterpenes selectively modulates the root microbiota of thalecress (Arabidopsis thaliana). This study paves the way for selectively engineering root microbiota and for further investigations into the functions of root microbiota. Further advances in understanding triterpenes include: (a) new insights into how structurally diverse triterpene scaffolds are generated (Stephenson et al., Nat. Prod. Rep. 2019, 36, 1044; doi: 10.1039/C8NP00096D); (b) the discovery of the first three steps in the pathway to the biosynthesis of a major class of triterpenes known as limonoids, the best known of which is the potent insect deterrent azadirachtin, produced by the neem tree (Hodgson et al., PNAS 2019, 116, 17096; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1906083116); (c) the characterisation of enzymes that add sugars to the oat triterpenes avenacin A-1, modifications that are critical for antifungal activity and hence plant defence (Orme et al., PNAS 2019, 116, 27105; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1914652116). OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, SEUNG, FIELD) We have made new discoveries about the role of the amylose component of starch. This linear polymer is synthesised by a specific isoform of starch synthase, Granule Bound Starch Synthase or GBSS. We showed previously that its action requires a partner protein, PTST1, which ensures its location in the starch granule. Although GBSS and amylose have been found in all plants examined thus far, its role is currently unknown. Mutants of crop plants lacking GBSS (selected because of the commercially valuable properties of amylose-free starch) have no apparent phenotypes, and no mutations have been found in non-domesticated species. To explore the role of amylose/GBSS further, we looked for polymorphisms in the GBSS gene in over 1000 sequenced accessions of Arabidopsis. We found three naturally-occurring and independently-derived polymorphisms that result in amylose-free starch (Seung et al., Plant Physiol. 2020, 182, 870; doi: 10.1104/pp.19.01062). This surprising result sheds new light on role and importance of the amylose component of starch. The Field group have continued their extensive exploration of the development of chemical and enzymatic tools for the production of natural and non-natural carbohydrates, to investigate structure-properties relationships and to assess antimicrobial/anti-biofilm activity (Pal Singh, et al., ChemBioChem, 2020, doi: 10.1002/cbic.201900440; Beswick, et al., Carbohydr. Res., 2019, 488, 107896, doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2019.107896; Kuhaudomlarp, et al., Proteins 2019, 87, 885, doi: 10.1002/prot.25745; Ahmadipour, et al, Org. Lett., 2019, 21, 4415, doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.9b00967; Kuhaudomlarp, et al., J. Biol. Chem., 2019, 294, 6483, doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.007712). In part, this capitalises on biosynthesis studies, spanning starch granule biogenesis (Raguin, et al., Photosynthesis Research, 2020; doi: 10.1007/s11120-019-00704-y) and the glycobiology of microalgae (Wagstaff, et al., J. Biol. Chem., 2019, 294, 9172; doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.006440). Sugar binding has also been exploited in new approaches to photodynamic therapy for cancer (Hu, et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2019, 11, 22181; doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b06016). OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) Plants are the primary source of iron in our diet. They take iron up from the soil, and mobilize it into all organs which then serve as food or animal fodder. We have unravelled the function of two regulatory factors (BTSL1 and BTSL2) in iron uptake in plants, where they are expressed in the roots only, and their expression is induced when the plant is iron deficient (Rodríguez-Celma, et al., PNAS, 2019, 116, 17584; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1907971116). BTSL1 and BTSL2 encode proteins that target a key transcription factor, FIT, for degradation. The function of BTSL1 and BTSL2 is particularly critical when iron becomes available again after a period of iron deficiency. When seedlings lacking both BTSL genes were first iron-starved and then resupplied with iron, they accumulated toxic amounts of iron. We found this is because they are unable to switch off the iron deficiency response: genes for iron uptake remained actively expressed in the mutant, even 72 hours after iron resupply, whereas in wild-type plants, iron uptake was switched off within 6 hours after iron resupply. Most of the iron uptake genes are regulated by the transcription factor FIT, which forms a heterodimer with one member of a sub-family of related proteins. We found that the BTSL proteins, in particular BTSL2, targets FIT for degradation, by transferring a ubiquitin tag to FIT. Thus, if FIT is not degraded, then iron uptake continues when there is enough iron. The BTSL proteins have iron-binding domains, and are likely to respond to the iron status of the cell. The accumulation of Fe in weaker mutant alleles of the E3 ligases could be exploited for biofortification of crops. UPDATE 2018-2019 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN) We have delineated an unusual ring expansion-contraction mechanism for the biosynthesis of formicamycin polyketides from the fasamycins (manuscript in preparation). This transformation requires a highly unusual two electron reduction with ring contraction step catalysed by a novel flavin dependent oxidoreductase. These two antibacterial chemo-types (fasamycin, formicamycin) have also been shown to interact with two distinct molecular targets, possibly explaining the high barrier for the selection of resistant mutants. We also found that the formicamycin pathway can be naturally shunted to generate a new class of pyridine containing polyketides, meaning a single pathway is responsible for the biosynthesis of three distinct polyketide ring types (manuscript in preparation). From our efforts to mine new anti-infective molecules produced by actinomycete strains isolated from fungus farming ant environments, we have isolated a new lantibiotic which has been named kyamicin. The structure, biosynthesis (including regulation) and antibacterial activity of kyamicin have been characterised, and a platform for activating cryptic lantibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters, and diversifying lantibiotic structures has been developed (manuscript in preparation). As part of our work on developing a platform for the discovery and engineering of actinomycete natural products, we have developed a one-step yeast-based method that enables efficient, cheap, and flexible modifications to biosynthetic gene clusters. Using the gene cluster for the antibiotic bottromycin, we showcase multiple modifications including refactoring, gene deletions and targeted mutations. This facilitated the construction of an inducible, riboswitch-controlled pathway and led to the production of multiple new bottromycin derivatives. This methodology is now being applied with numerous novel actinobacterial pathways to discover new natural products (Eyles et al. 2018). To enable the discovery of novel ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), we have developed a genome mining tool, RiPPER (https://github.com/streptomyces/ripper), which enables the family-independent identification of RiPP precursor peptides (Santos-Aberturas et al. 2018). We used this tool to show that thioamidated RiPP natural products are likely to be widely distributed and diverse, despite currently being incredibly rare. To illustrate this, we characterise the structure and biosynthetic pathway to a new thioamidated natural product family, the thiovarsolins. RiPPER has enabled the bioinformatic identification of many novel gene clusters that are in the process of being investigated. We reported the identification of two flavone hydroxylases from the S. baicalensis, a plant commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine (Zhao et al., 2018a). This work extended our previous work to elucidate the entire biosynthetic pathway for baicalein. It laid a solid foundation for enhancing production of the specific flavones in Scutellaria plants or, alternatively, synthesizing them in novel hosts. We have continued the characterisation of the biosynthetic pathway for bioactive flavones in Scutellaria baicalensis. This work has been submitted to Molecular Plant and is currently under review. We have completed the genome sequence for S .baicalensis (Zhao et al., 2018b) and identified a number of candidate transcription factors regulating the 4'deoxyflavone biosynthetic pathway in roots. We investigated the metabolic origin of the benzenoid moiety of the vital respiratory cofactor, ubiquinone (coenzyme Q), from phenylpropanoid metabolism via b-oxidation of p-coumarate to form 4-hydroxybenzoate (Soubeyrand et al., 2018). A connection between the biosynthesis of ubiquinone and that of flavonoids was uncovered in Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato. Collectively, these data indicated that kaempferol contributes to the biosynthesis of a vital respiratory cofactor, resulting in an extraordinary metabolic arrangement where a specialized metabolite serves as a precursor for a primary metabolite. We have carried out a systematic analysis of gene clusters for terpene biosynthesis in multiple plant genomes and found evidence for a role for Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) in cluster formation in eudicots. Through investigation of the newly sequenced Amborella trichopoda, Aquilegia coerulea and Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi genomes we further show that the 'block' mechanism of founding of biosynthetic gene clusters through duplication and diversification of pairs of terpene synthase and cytochrome P450 genes that is prevalent in the eudicots arose around 90-130 million years ago, after the appearance of the basal eudicots and before the emergence of the super-rosid clade (Boutanaev & Osbourn 2018). OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (O'CONNOR, OSBOURN) We have identified all remaining enzymes involved in biosynthesis of the iridiod-derived alkaloid vinblastine in Catharanthus roseus (Caputi et al, 2018). We have also identified all enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of nepetalactone from Nepeta cateria (Lichman et al, 2019). This discovery includes the discovery of a novel helper cyclase that controls the stereoselectivity of the nepetalactone scaffold. Vinblastine has anti-cancer activity and nepetalactone has insect repellent activity, so these compounds have high potential for industrial translation. We have successfully pinpointed protein protein interactions among various enzymes involved in vinblastine biosynthesis (Caputi et al, 2018); these data point the way toward understanding how pathways are organized in planta, and how we may optimize and improve heterologous production platforms by tweaking these interactions. We are currently assembling transcriptomic data across diverse plant species in the Apocynacecea and Rubiaceae families to discover new bioactive iridoid alkaloids, and to uncover novel enzyme activities responsible for their synthesis. We have elucidated two key steps required for the biosynthesis of the antimicrobial defence compound avenacin, which protects oats against attack by soil-borne pathogens such as take-all disease. These are a C-21beta oxidase required for acylation (Leveau et al. 2019) and an arabinosyltransferase that initiates addition of a glycosyl chain (Louveau et al. 2018). Both of these modifications are critical for antifungal activity and hence disease resistance. We further identify a second arabinosyltransferase potentially implicated in the biosynthesis of saponins that determine bitterness in soybean. Our investigations suggest independent evolution of UDP-arabinose sugar donor specificity in arabinosyltransferases in monocots and eudicots (Louveau et al. 2018). Our investigations of enzymes that make complex triterpene scaffolds that form the basis of an enormous array of diverse starting points for metabolic pathways of agronomic, medicinal and industrial importance have led to the discovery of a novel pentacyclic triterpene orysatinol and identified key residues determining product specificity (Xue et al. 2018). The biosynthetic route to orysatinol appears to correspond to an unprecedented divergence from the traditional dichotomous protosteryl/dammarenyl view of triterpene biogenesis. Not only does this discovery widen the potential scope of triterpene scaffolds that could exist in nature, it could call into question the reliability of stereochemical assignments of some existing triterpene structures that are supported by only limited spectroscopic evidence (Stephenson et al., in press). OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, FIELD) As part of our work to identify components of the starch-granule initiation machinery and elucidate their functions (Seung and Smith, 2019), we are developing lines of wheat that lack the orthologues of components discovered thus far in Arabidopsis (using TILLING mutants in tetraploid and hexaploid wheat backgrounds). Full mutants for three components have been confirmed thus far. All have pronounced starch granule abnormalities in the grain endosperm, but these are not identical to the starch granule abnormalities in the equivalent Arabidopsis mutants. To probe these differences, the three wheat proteins have been expressed in the equivalent Arabidopsis mutants to discover whether they are able to complement the mutant phenotypes: characterisation of these transgenic lines is underway. We have defined the activities of isomeric starch debranching isoamylases from cassava (with Limpaseni, Bangkok, Thailand: Panpetch et al, 2018a, Panpetch et al, 2018b) and we have continued our chemical genetics studies, using small molecule probes to uncover new aspects of plant carbohydrate metabolism (with Overkleeft, Leiden, the Netherlands; Svensson, Copenhagen, Denmark: Rugen et al, 2018a, Rugen et al, 2018b). In connection with studies on beta-glucan metabolism in Euglena gracilis, we have discovered a new family of carbohydrate-active enzyme (designated GH149), which encodes a beta-1,3-glucan phosphorylase (with Patron, EI; Henrissat, Marseille, France: Kuhaudomlarp et al, 2018) and we have begun to dissect the molecular basis of substrate recognition by the phosphorylases (with Lawson, JIC protein crystallography platform; Angulo, UEA: Kuhaudomlarp et al, 2019). Tools and techniques established during this work have been applied to collaborative work on: saponin biosynthesis (with Osbourn: Louveau et al, 2018); glucan polysaccharide formation in Erwinia amylovora (causes Fire Blight in apples) (with Benini, Bolzani, Italy: Polsinelli et al, 2019, Salomone-Stagni et al, 2018) and biotech applications of related enzymes (with Pichyangkura, Bangkok, Thailand: Wangpaiboon et al, 2018); surface protein glycosylation in gut commensal bacteria (with Juge, QIB: Latousakis et al, 2019); cell wall biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (with de Carvalho, Crick Institute and GSK: Craggs et al, 2018); cell surface and toxin glycosylation in relation to harmful algal blooms on the Norfolk Broads (with the Environment Agency: Wagstaff et al, 2018a; Hems et al, 2018a, Hems et al, 2018b,Wagstaff et al, 2018b). OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) We have developed an iron-regulated reporter for genetic screens which was previously tested using different iron concentrations in the medium (Balk et al, 2019, Bastow et al, 2018, Kruse et al, 2018, Rodríguez-Celma et al, 2019). We have now validated the reporter in two different iron homeostasis mutants, which at the same time provided new insights into the function of the mutant genes. The results were presented at the International Symposium for Plant Iron Nutrition in Taipei (July 2018). Screening of an Arabidopsis mutant population with the iron reporter has identified 5 mutant lines, one with constitutive iron deficiency, and 4 which are deficient in sensing iron deficiency. Work in ferritin concentration in pea along with associated nutritional consequences was also reported (Perfecto et al, 2018, Moore et al, 2018). The promoters of several zinc-responsive genes have been identified, these include candidates that are responsive to both deficiency and excess zinc. Luciferase reporter lines have been made using these promoters and have been chemically mutagenized. These plants are being screened to identify mutants showing unusual responses to changes in zinc supply. 2018-2019 ASSOCIATED PUBLICATIONS - Balk et al, 2019, Nutr. Bull., in press - Bastow et al, 2018, Plant Physiol. 177, 1267-1276 - Boutanaev and Osbourn 2018, PNAS 115, E6650-6658 - Caputi et al, 2018, Science, 360, 1235-1239 - Craggs et al, 2018, Biochemistry, 57, 3387-3401 - Dangl et al., 2018, Cell 174, 499-500 - Eyles et al, 2018, ACS Synth. Biol. 7, 1211-1218 - Ghosh et al, 2018, Nature Protocols 13, 2944-2963 - Goossens et al, 2018, Trends Plant Sci., 23, 273-276 - Hems et al, 2018a, Chem. Commun., 54, 1223-1227 - Hems et al, 2018b, Carbohydr. Res., 463, 14-23 - Kruse et al, 2018, Biochem. J. 475, 495-509 - Kuhaudomlarp et al, 2018, J. Biol. Chem., 293, 2865-2876 - Kuhaudomlarp et al, 2019, ChemBioChem, 20, 181-192 - Latousakis et al, 2019, Glycobiology, 29, 45-58 - Leveau et al, 2019, New Phytologist, 221, 1544-1555 - Li, et al, 2018, Cell Discovery 4, 29 - Lichman et al, 2019, Nat. Chem. Biol., 15, 71-79 - Louveau et al, 2018, Plant Cell 30, 3038-3057 - Moore et al, 2018, Sci. Rep. 8, 6865 - Panpetch et al, 2018a, Plant Mol. Biol., 96, 417-427 - Panpetch et al, 2018b, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 132, 281-286 - Perfecto et al, 2018, J. Nutr. 148, 1229-1235 - Polsinelli et al, 2019, Int. J. Biol. Macromol, 127, 496-501 - Reed and Osbourn 2018, Plant Cell Rep., 37, 1431-1441 - Rodríguez-Celma et al, 2019, Front. Plant Sci. in press - Rugen et al, 2018a, Meth. Mol. Biol. 1795, 101-115 - Rugen et al, 2018b, Sci. Rep., 8, 16421 - Salomone-Stagni et al, 2018, J. Struct. Biol., 203, 109-119 - Santos-Aberturas, J. et al. 2018, bioRxiv 494286 - Seung and Smith, 2019, J. Exp. Bot., 70, 771-784 - Soubeyrand et al, 2018 Plant Cell, 30, 2910-2921 - Stephenson et al, 2018, J. Visualized Experiments, e58169 - Stephenson et al, 2019, Nat. Prod. Rep. in press - Wagstaff et al, 2018a, J. Biol. Chem., 293, 16277-16290 - Wagstaff et al, 2018b, Biochem. Soc. Trans., 46, 413-421 - Wangpaiboon et al, 2018, Sci. Rep., 8, 8340 - Xue et al, 2018, New Phytologist, 218, 1076-1088 - Zhao et al, 2018a, Mol. Plant, 11, 135-148 - Zhao et al, 2018b, bioRxiv, 398032. UPDATE 2017-2018 OBJECTIVE 1.1: UNCOVERING NEW CHEMICAL DIVERSITY (WILKINSON, TRUMAN, MARTIN, OSBOURN) Using a genomics-guided approach, the Truman group has discovered multiple thioviridamide-like molecules, cytotoxic RiPPs produced by actinomycetes. This discovery will aid our understanding of how these complex natural products are biosynthesised. Truman's group has also discovered the pathways to the metalloproteinase inhibitors actinonin and matlystatin. This aided in the generation of new unnatural matlystatin derivatives. - Frattaruolo, L., Lacret, R., Cappello, A. R., Truman, A. W. (2017) A Genomics-Based Approach Identifies a Thioviridamide-Like Compound with Selective Anticancer Activity. ACS Chemical Biology, 12, 2815-2822. - Leipoldt, F., Santos-Aberturas, J., Stegmann, D. P., Wolf, F., Kulik, A., Lacret, R., Popadic, D., Keinhörster, D., Kirchner, N., Bekiesch, P., Gross, H., Truman, A., Kaysser L. (2017) Warhead biosynthesis and the origin of structural diversity in hydroxamate metalloproteinase inhibitors. Nature Communications, 8, 1965. - Franz, L., Adam, S., Santos-Aberturas, J., Truman, A. W., and Koehnke, J. (2017) Macroamidine Formation in Bottromycins Is Catalyzed by a Divergent YcaO Enzyme. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 18158-18161. - Vior, N. M., Lacret, R., Chandra, G., Dorai-Raj, S., Trick, M., and Truman, A. W. (2018) Discovery and biosynthesis of the antibiotic bicyclomycin in distant bacterial classes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology AEM.02828-17. The Wilkinson group has identified a new methodology for the Accelerated Evolution of modular biosynthetic gene clusters which leads rapidly to the diversification of chemical space around valuable polyketide natural products. We delineated the biosynthetic pathway to the unusual ?-lactone antibiotic obafluorin in Pseudomonas fluorescens and identified a new family of L-threonine transaldolases involved in ?-hydroxy-?-amino acid biosynthesis. In collaboration with colleagues at UEA we have shown that the conserved actinobacterial two two-component system mtrAB links Streptomyces development to antibiotic production, and that its manipulation leads to increased titres and potentially the induction of cryptic compounds. - Wlodek, A. et al (2017) Diversity orientated biosynthesis via accelerated evolution of modular gene clusters. Nat. Commun. 8:1206. - Scott, T.A., et al (2017) An L-threonine transaldolase is required for L-threo-?-hydroxy-?-amino acid assembly during obafluorin biosynthesis. Nat. Commun. 8:15935. - Som, N.F., et al (2017) The conserved actinobacterial two-component system MtrAB coordinates chloramphenicol production with sporulation in Streptomyces venezuelae NRRL B-65442. Front. Microbiol. 8:1145. OBJECTIVE 1.2: UNDERSTAND AND HARNESS TERPENE DIVERSITY (O'CONNOR, OSBOURN) As part of their studies on iridoid biosynthesis, The O'Connor group has established a number of new, key biosynthetic enzymes in these pathways in the Lamiaceae. These biosynthetic genes will have impact in reconstituting these bioactive compounds in heterologous hosts. - Sherden, N.H., Lichman, B., Caputi, L., Zhao, D., Kamileen, M.O., Buell, C.R., O'Connor, S.E.. (2018) Identification of Iridoid Synthases from Nepeta species: Iridoid cyclization does not determine nepetalactone stereochemistry. Phytochemistry. 145, 48-56. The Osbourn group has also discovered a swathe of enzymes for the biosynthesis of sesterterpenes in the Brassicaceae, so opening up the way to access and engineer a previously inaccessible class of plant natural products. - Diverged Plant Terpene Synthases Reroute the Carbocation Cyclization Path towards the Formation of Unprecedented 6/11/5 and 6/6/7/5 Sesterterpene Scaffolds. Huang AC, Hong YJ, Bond AD, Tantillo DJ, Osbourn A. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2018 Jan 26;57(5):1291-1295. doi: 10.1002/anie.201711444. Epub 2017 Dec 28. - Unearthing a sesterterpene biosynthetic repertoire in the Brassicaceae through genome mining reveals convergent evolution. Huang AC, Kautsar SA, Hong YJ, Medema MH, Bond AD, Tantillo DJ, Osbourn A. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jul 18;114(29):E6005-E6014. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1705567114. Epub 2017 Jul 3. OBJECTIVE 1.3: UNDERSTAND THE ASSEMBLY OF GLUCAN POLYMERS AND GRANULES (SMITH, FIELD) As part of their exploration of factors that control starch degradation in leaves at night, the Smith group has established that degradation in "natural" light conditions commences before the onset of complete darkness, during a period in which light levels are falling but light-driven starch synthesis is continuing. This overlap between starch synthesis and starch degradation during twilight permits a transition from light to dark without a fall in sugar availability in the leaf. Starch degradation does not commence in response to the same decline in light levels in the middle of the day, implying that this phenomenon is gated and is under the control of the circadian clock. They are investigating the elements of the clock required for this response, and the implications for starch granule surface dynamics of simultaneous synthesis and degradation. - Fernandez O., Ishihara H., George G. M., Mengin V., Flis A., Sumner D., Arrivault S., Feil R., Lunn J. E., Zeeman S. C., Smith A. M., Stitt M. (2017) Leaf Starch Turnover Occurs in Long Days and in Falling Light at the End of the Day. Plant Physiology 174 2199-2212 In connection with studies on granular beta-glucan metabolism in Euglena gracilis, the Field group has discovered a new family of carbohydrate-active enzyme (designated GH149), which encodes a beta-1,3-glucan phosphorylase. The methodologies that we have devised and implemented have also led to: the identification of unprededented Glc-1-P transferase activity and novel glycoprotein glycan modifications in Euglena; the structural characterisation and exploitation of a bacterial cellulose phosphorylase; rewriting the text book structure of plant cell wall rhamnogalacturonan II; and identification of plant cell wall glycoprotein glycosyltransferases - Identification of Euglena gracilis ?-1,3-glucan phosphorylase and establishment of a new glycosyl hydrolase family GH 149. S. Kuhaudomlarp, N. J. Patron, B. Henrissat, M. Rejzek, G. Saalbach, R. A. Field, J. Biol. Chem., accepted, doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA117.000936. - Exploring the glycans of Euglena gracilis. E. C. O'Neill, S. Kuhaudomlarp, M. Rejzek, J. U. Fangel, K. Alagesan, D. Kolarich, W. G. T. Willats, R. A. Field, Biology, 2017, 6, 45 doi:10.3390/biology6040045. - Fluorescent mannosides serve as acceptor substrates for glycosyltransferase and sugar-1-phosphate transferase activities in Euglena gracilis membranes. I. Ivanova, S. A. Nepogodiev, G. Saalbach, E. C. O'Neill, M. D. Urbaniak, M. A. J. Ferguson, S. S. Gurcha, G. S. Besra, R. A. Field, Carbohydr. Res., 2017, 438, 26-38. - Cellodextrin phosphorylase from Ruminiclostridium thermocellum: X-ray crystal structure and substrate specificity analysis. E. C. O'Neill, G. Pergolizzi, C. E. M. Stevenson, D. M. Lawson, S. A. Nepogodiev, R. A. Field, Carbohydr. Res., 2017, 451, 118-132. - Complex pectin metabolism by gut bacteria reveals novel catalytic functions. D. Ndeh, A. Rogowski, A. Cartmell, A. S. Luis, A. Baslé, J. Gray, I. Venditto, J. Briggs, X. Zhang, N. Terrapon, F. Buffetto, S. A. Nepogodiev, R. A. Field, M. A. O'Neill, B. Urbanowicz, G. J. Davies, D. W. Abbott, M.-C. Ralet, E. C. Martens, B. Henrissat, H. J. Gilbert, Nature, 2017, 544, 65-70. - Identification and evolution of a plant cell wall specific glycoprotein glycosyltransferase, ExAD. S. R. Moeller, X. Yi, S. M. Velásquez, S. Gille, P. L. M. Hansen, C. P. Poulsen, C. E. Olsen, H. H. Wandall, H. Clausen, M. Rejzek, R. A. Field, M. Pauly, J. M Estevez, J. Harholt, P. Ulvskov, B. L. Petersen, Sci. Rep., 2017, 7, 45341. doi: 10.1038/srep45341 OBJECTIVE 1.4: ZINC AND IRON HOMEOSTASIS IN PLANTS (BALK, SANDERS, MILLER) As part of the Balk group's efforts to unravel the pathways of metal cofactor assembly in plant cells, they have characterized the early steps of molybdenum cofactor (Moco) biosynthesis. They found a viable mutant in CNX2, the first step in Moco biosynthesis, in which the positioning of the iron-sulfur clusters is likely to be altered. This leads to lower production of the cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate intermediate. A novel mass spectrometry method was developed to detect cyclic pyranopterin. - Kruse I, Maclean AE, Hill L and Balk J (2018). Genetic dissection of cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate biosynthesis in plant mitochondria. Biochem J. 475, 495-509. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20170559 The Miller and Sanders groups have shown that in cereals the endosperm Zn content can be enhanced through expression of a transporter responsible for vacuolar zinc accumulation (Menguer et al. 2017). Detailed X-ray fluorescence analysis of longitudinal sections demonstrated evidence of homeostasis with the grain as there was a redistribution of grain Zn from aleurone to endosperm. This study provides the basis of a strategy for biofortification of cereal endosperm with Zn. In another paper an irradiated population of spring wheat was used to show that there is the capacity to increase by 4-fold grain iron and zinc without negatively impacting on crop productivity (Kenzhebayeva et al. 2017). - Menguer P, Vincent T, Miller AJ, Brown JKM, Vincze E, Borg S, Holm PB, Sanders D, Podar D (2017) Improving zinc accumulation in barley endosperm using HvMTP1, a transition metal transporter. Plant Biotechnology Journal (in press) doi:10.1111/pbi.12749 - Kenzhebayeva SS, Doktyrbay G, Capstaff NM, Sarsu F, Omirbekova NZ, Eilam T, Tashenev DK, Miller AJ (2017) Searching a spring wheat mutation resource for correlations between yield, grain size, and quality parameters. Journal of Crop Improvement 31 (2):209-228. doi:10.1080/15427528.2016.1276990 |
Exploitation Route | All of these findings can be used by the academic community to serve as a springboard for further research in metabolism. The non-academic translation of this research is currently being explored via a multitude of different ways, with industry, biotechnology companies, plant breeders, farmers, food researchers, spin-outs and numerous public engagement activities. Examples of this translation work are summarised in the Narrative Impact section, as well as the examples provided in the outcomes associated with this Award. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Environment Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Description | INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE IMPACTS Osbourn had a joint studentship with Syngenta on anti-insecticidal triterpenes that has led to a high-profile publication (Hodgson et al., PNAS, 2019, 116, 17096), and subsequently to a BBSRC Industrial Partnership award to continue this collaborative work with Syngenta on the partial characterisation of the pathway for the bee-friendly anti-insect compound azadirachtin (a limonoid produced by the neem tree and its relatives). This work, which was carried out in collaboration with the Sattely group at Stanford, who are focussing on elucidation of limonoids associated with bitterness in citrus, was recently published in Science (De La Pena, Hodgson, Liu et al., 2023). Osbourn has a BBSRC Super Follow-on-Fund award to elucidate the pathway for the vaccine adjuvant QS-21, a triterpene that is currently sourced by extraction from the bark of the Chilean tree Quillaja saponaria. This work also involves the reconstitution of the QS-21 pathway in Nicotiana benthamiana, a wild relative of tobacco, using a powerful and rapid transient expression system developed at JIC, with the aim of developing a heterologous production platform for this important compound. The Osbourn lab filed three new patent applications during the last year. Osbourn and O'Connor work with the Norwich Research Park (NRP) -based Leaf Expression Systems to make high value molecules on a practical scale; some of this work is funded by a BBSRC IPA grant. Two companies were involved, the fertilizer company Biotech Solutions and a large soft fruit grower belonging to the Berry Gardens group. The vinblastine and nepetalcatone biosynthetic genes have been filed in a patent and plans for a spin out company for heterologous production of monoterpene indole alkaloids are being explored. Our research on traditional medicinal plants has expanded significantly to investigate the biosynthesis of bioactives from plants used in traditional Chinese medicine. Medicinal plants are an excellent source of structurally diverse, bio-active compounds with potential in the fight against cancer. Scutebarbatine A, the major diterpenoid of Scutellaria barbata, induces dose-dependent apoptosis, specifically in cancer cells and works by releasing the molecular brakes on apoptosis in cell death-evading cancer cells. A second medicinal plant, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, is rich in specialized 4'-deoxyflavones. We showed that polymethoxylated 4'-deoxyflavones, like skullcapflavone I and tenaxin I have strong ability to induce apoptosis while having no side-effects on healthy cells. Identification of key biosynthetic steps paves the way for the engineered production of more effective chemoprotective therapeutics. Martin is in discussions with a biotechnology park in China (Kotler Medical Park) with funding to invest in trials of bioactives from Chinese Traditional Medicine. She has also started discussions with Zhi Zhang of LifeArc, a UK-based company interested in investing in human trials of 4'-deoxyflavones as a therapy complementary to traditional therapies. The work on the evolutionary pathway of 4'-deoxyflavone production in the genus Scutellaria will form part of a closer link with Alan Paton and Melanie Howes at Kew Gardens. Wilkinson extended his collaboration with the biotech company Isomerase to include the production of natural products that inhibit Gram-negative pathogen virulence factors through an MRC funded CASE studentship. The Wilkinson group also hosted a visiting PhD student from the University of Milan who successfully identified a natural product responsible for inhibiting the growth of wheat pathogenic Fusarium strains. Hutchings leads the ActinoBase community website (http://actinobase.org), which is a freely available resource for the academic and industrial researchers working on Streptomyces and other filamentous actinobacteria. The website now includes a free download of the JIC Streptomyces manual, which opens this resource up to the global research community. Wilkinson, Hutchings and Truman are co-directors of the John Innes/Rudjer Boškovic Summer School in Applied Molecular Microbiology, alongside partners at the Rudjer Boškovic Institute (Croatia) and University of Warwick (UK). This week-long course provides training and lectures on microbial specialised metabolites and their ecological context. During this ISP, the summer school has run in 2018, 2020 (virtual due to the pandemic), and 2022. In collaboration with Malone (Plant Health ISP, JIC), Truman is working with multiple companies on using Pseudomonas bacteria and their natural products to combat plant disease. Truman and Malone have spun out a company (PfBio) based on Pseudomonas natural products and their role in controlling plant disease. In 2022, Truman started a collaboration with Syngenta on the production of herbicidal natural products via a BBSRC-funded CASE studentship. Truman also participated in the International Research Alliance for Antibiotic Discovery and Development (IRAADD, https://www.iraadd.eu/) Workshop Meeting (Saarbruecken, Germany), where a European strategy for Future AMR research and funding concepts was discussed. This strategy for the sustainable discovery and development of new antibiotics has been published as a Roadmap article (Nat. Rev. Chem., 2021, 5, 726-749). Field has started a biotech company on research underpinned by the ISP funding. Field group efforts have seen extensive engagement and training for visitors from Thailand and India. In addition to extensive publication outputs, six individuals have secured academic positions their homeland and continue to work in carbohydrate biotechnology. Balk is in discussions with companies who are interested in producing plant-based iron supplements. They are very excited about the new high-iron pea lines. An IP application regarding the specific gene/mutation has been drafted together with the JIC Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation team. Iron reporter lines were trialled as a tool in an industry-led research project to find the cause of iron deficiency in commercially grown raspberries. Poor vitamin D status is a global health problem; insufficiency underpins higher risk of cancer, neurocognitive decline and all-cause mortality. Most foods contain little vitamin D and plants are very poor sources. Martin engineered the accumulation of provitamin D3 in tomato by genome editing, modifying a duplicated section of phytosterol biosynthesis in Solanaceous plants, to provide a biofortified food with the added possibility of supplement production from waste material (Li et al., Nat. Plants. 2022, 8, 611-616). A patent filing on this methodology is attracting considerable commercial interest. CULTURAL IMPACTS Osbourn has been heavily involved in work spanning science and art, including the publication of a book of poetry (Mock Orange, SPM Publications, London, UK), "The Global Garden Project", which explores societal perceptions of plants and their uses, focusing on high-value chemicals (Lee et al., Plants, People, Planet., 2020, 2, 602-613), and a project inspired by the traditional Japanese artform surimono that brings plants to life through integration of photographs and poetry (Coe, Lee and Osbourn, Plants, People, Planet 2021, https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10235). The resulting 'photo surimono' open new opportunities to engage with the natural world at the juxtaposition of the written and the visual; to combat the cognitive bias of plant blindness; and to introduce more connected ways of thinking about plants, people, and sustainability into educational programmes. Truman shared resources and hosted a visit from an art and design researcher focused on using microbial pigments in the textile industry. SOCIETAL IMPACTS Working with an educational charity that she has founded (the Science, Art and Writing (SAW) Trust), Osbourn and colleagues across the NRP published a science adventure book for children to do over the summer holidays. In collaboration with a CBeebies writer and local illustrator they developed an interactive storybook for local children aged 8-10 years, called 'Help, there's an alien in my park!' (Publisher: The SAW Trust, ISBN: 9780955018046). The story is based on the adventures of two children who witness a spaceship crash in the park. Each chapter introduces a science topic with challenges to complete to help the alien return home. A total of 6,000 copies were printed and distributed to children in schools in deprived areas, and also through foodbanks. In 2022, Osbourn and colleagues published the second book in this series - 'Help, our planet's in peril', which was distributed in schools, food banks, at events and through workshops in libraries (approximately 4,400 books in total). Both books, published by the SAW Press, focus on science activities are linked to different facets of NRP science. Multiple ISP members are regularly involved in SAW activities with schools across the East of England. The Seung lab designed an interactive outreach stall to raise awareness about starch research and its relevance for crop quality and human health. We ran this display at four different events within the year, including the Norwich Science Festival and Royal Norfolk Show, reaching >2,000 members of the general public. Martin has generated transgenic tomato fruit engineered to accumulate L-DOPA, which is a non-standard amino acid and the gold standard drug for the treatment for Parkinson's Disease. This study shows the potential for 'growing your own' medicines in regions of the world (particularly Africa) where supplies of L-DOPA are limited due to prohibitive costs of pharmaceuticals or access restricted by inadequate infrastructure. POLICY IMPACTS Osbourn has advised the Government Office for Science, BEIS and the Minister for Science on visioning for the engineering biology strategy. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Creative Economy,Education,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic 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 | Appointment to the scientific advisory board of the US plant-based technology company Calyxt. |
Geographic Reach | North America |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
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 | BBSRC Global Carbon for Manufacturing Working Group |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Contribution to SAW Antibiotics book |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
URL | http://www.sawtrust.org/buy-the-books/saw-antibiotics/ |
Description | Group members attending first regional cross-sectoral ABS workshop (Implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing in the UK) at the John Innes Centre, 22.11.16 |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | Increased knowledge of implementation of Nagoya Protocol |
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 | 21EBTA Engineering specialised metabolism and new cellular architectures in plants |
Amount | £1,517,514 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/W014173/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2022 |
End | 01/2024 |
Description | Bio-engineering non-sugar modifications of saponins - BBSRC CTP studentship |
Amount | £41,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/R505584/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2017 |
End | 10/2021 |
Description | Elucidating the spatial and temporal control of granule initiation in wheat |
Amount | £468,825 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/W015935/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2022 |
End | 08/2025 |
Description | Engineering Quillaja saponin biosynthesis pathways for bio-production of QS-21 |
Amount | £1,223,712 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/R005508/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 07/2020 |
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 saponin surfactants |
Amount | £71,590 (GBP) |
Organisation | Unilever |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2018 |
End | 06/2019 |
Description | Establishing a new production platform for the antibiotic bicyclomycin (JIC Innovation Fund) |
Amount | £19,583 (GBP) |
Organisation | John Innes Centre |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 06/2018 |
Description | Harnessing enzymes from plants for selective functionalisation of triterpenoid scaffolds |
Amount | £542,505 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/S016023/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2020 |
End | 06/2023 |
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 | Harnessing the biosynthetic potential of bacteria to produce ribosomally synthesised natural products |
Amount | £554,967 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/V016024/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2021 |
End | 09/2024 |
Description | Innovation funding scheme. Productive and sustainable crop and ruminant agricultural systems |
Amount | £1,560,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 26626 |
Organisation | Government of the UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 03/2022 |
Description | International Exchanges 2022 round 1 |
Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2022 |
End | 12/2022 |
Description | NRP DTP |
Amount | £120,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | MARTIN_J18DTP: Natural blues: structure meets function in plant natural products |
Organisation | Norwich Research Park |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 09/2022 |
Description | Newton Bhabha PhD Placement Programme |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | British Council |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2022 |
End | 08/2022 |
Description | Norwich Research Park Translational Fund |
Amount | £51,119 (GBP) |
Funding ID | REF 3.1 - Novel commercial saponins from synthetic biology |
Organisation | Norwich Research Park |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2015 |
End | 06/2016 |
Description | Nybomycin responsive mode follow on |
Amount | £517,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/P021506/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2017 |
End | 09/2020 |
Description | OpenPlant Fund |
Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | Engineering Marchantia polymorpha chloroplasts for the production of high-value specialized terpenes - CY219-W08-C |
Organisation | OpenPlant Fund |
Sector | Academic/University |
Start | 08/2015 |
End | 02/2016 |
Description | Royal Society Enhancement Award |
Amount | £99,859 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RGF/EA/180154 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2017 |
End | 03/2021 |
Description | Royal Society Enhancement Award |
Amount | £170,640 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RGF\EA\181083 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 03/2021 |
Description | Royal Society University Research Fellowships Renewal |
Amount | £363,410 (GBP) |
Funding ID | URF\R\180007 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 09/2021 |
Description | Scientific Outreach Grant - DNA Dave |
Amount | £500 (GBP) |
Organisation | Biochemical Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2019 |
End | 12/2019 |
Description | Syngenta |
Amount | £71,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Syngenta International AG |
Department | Syngenta Ltd (Bracknell) |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2016 |
End | 12/2019 |
Description | Towards machine learning-driven prediction of the product chemical space of oxidosqualene cyclases, key enzymes in triterpene diversification |
Amount | £181,411 (GBP) |
Organisation | Alan Turing Institute |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 06/2021 |
Description | Understanding and Engineering a Natural Herbicide from Cyanobacteria |
Amount | £132,821 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 2744485 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2022 |
End | 09/2026 |
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 | Unravelling novel mechanisms of starch granule biogenesis in potato |
Amount | £386,236 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/X001520/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2022 |
End | 11/2025 |
Description | Using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to facilitate antibiotic discovery in novel Streptomyces species |
Amount | £495,383 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/X00967X/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | Using synthetic biology to make anticancer peptides |
Amount | £16,997 (GBP) |
Organisation | Norwich BioScience Institutes |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2022 |
End | 03/2023 |
Title | Establishment of a common syntax for plant synthetic biology |
Description | Inventors in the field of mechanical and electronic engineering can access multitudes of components and, thanks to standardization, parts from different manufacturers can be used in combination with each other. The introduction of BioBrick standards for the assembly of characterized DNA sequences was a landmark in microbial engineering, shaping the field of synthetic biology. Here, we describe a standard for Type IIS restriction endonuclease-mediated assembly, defining a common syntax of 12 fusion sites to enable the facile assembly of eukaryotic transcriptional units. This standard has been developed and agreed by representatives and leaders of the international plant science and synthetic biology communities, including inventors, developers and adopters of Type IIS cloning methods. Our vision is of an extensive catalogue of standardized, characterized DNA parts that will accelerate plant bioengineering. To this end we have proposed a common syntax for exchange of DNA parts for plant synthetic biology. This is supported by the international community and has been published. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The establishment of a common plant syntax has paved the way for the introduction of an Open MTA for material transfer, now trialled and published (Kahl et al. 2018, Nature Biotechnology 36: 923), simple and open systems for recusrsive fabrication of DNA circuits (Pollak et al. 2018, New Phytologist: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15625) and for discussions with Addgene, the nonprofit global plasmid repository, archives and distributes plasmids for scientists. These advances are catalytic and we envisage that they will promote and accelerate plant biology research within the UK and internationally. |
Title | Establishment of a reverse genetics TILLING platform for diploid oat |
Description | We have established a TILLING platform for diploid oat (Avena strigosa accession S75) using a sodium azide-generated mutant population that we have generated. The platform has been made available to the international research community through the RevGen platform at the John Innes Centre |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This platform will enable identification of mutants in target genes for scientific research and crop improvement. |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/research-impact/technology-platforms/genomic-services/reverse-genetics/ |
Title | RIPPER genome mining |
Description | RiPPER is a command line computational tool that assists in the identification of biosynthetic gene clusters and associated precursor peptides for RiPPs, a large and important class of natural product. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This has assisted in research projects in my group and I have had contact with researchers in other groups who have benefited from the tool and the results we have reported from its use. It assisted in the identification of a new family of natural products, the thiovarsolins, which were characterised by my group. The identification of these natural products and the development of the tool were reported in a BioRxiv pre-print (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/494286v1) and have just been accepted for publication in Nucleic Acids Research. |
URL | https://github.com/streptomyces/ripper |
Title | Speed breeding for crop breeding and model plant research |
Description | To meet the challenge of feeding a growing population, breeders and scientists are continuously looking for ways to increase genetic gain in crop breeding. One way this can be achieved is through 'speed breeding' (SB), which shortens the breeding cycle and accelerates research studies through rapid generation advancement. The SB method can be carried out in a number of ways, one of which involves extending the duration of a plant's daily exposure to light (photoperiod) combined with early seed harvest in order to cycle quickly from seed to seed, thereby reducing the generation times for some long-day (LD) or day-neutral crops. We have developed glasshouse and growth chamber-based SB protocols with supporting data from experimentation with several crop species. These protocols describe the growing conditions, including soil media composition, lighting, temperature and spacing, which promote rapid growth of spring and winter bread wheat, durum wheat, barley, oat, various members of the Brassica family, chickpea, pea, grasspea, quinoa and the model grass Brachypodium distachyon. Points of flexibility within the protocols are highlighted, including how plant density can be increased to efficiently scale-up plant numbers for single seed descent (SSD) purposes. Conversely, instructions on how to perform SB on a small-scale by creating a benchtop SB growth cabinet that enables optimization of parameters at a low cost are provided. We also outline the procedure for harvesting and germinating premature wheat, barley and pea seed to reduce generation time. Finally, we provide troubleshooting suggestions to avoid potential pitfalls. |
Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This methodology opens up opportunities to accelerate and revolutionise crop improvement programmes and the field of plant biology research more broadly. |
URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-017-0083-8 |
Title | Transient plant expression technology for triterpene production at preparative scale |
Description | We have develop a method for transient heterologous expression of biosynthetic enzymes in N. benthamiana for production of high-value triterpenes. Agro-infiltration is an efficient and simple means of achieving transient expression in N. benthamiana. The process involves infiltration of plant leaves with a suspension of Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying the expression construct(s) of interest. Co-infiltration of an additional A. tumefaciens strain carrying an expression construct encoding an enzyme that boosts precursor supply significantly increases yields. After a period of five days, the infiltrated leaf material can be harvested and processed to extract and isolate the resulting triterpene product(s). This is a process that is linearly and reliably scalable, simply by increasing the number of plants used in the experiment. We have developed a protocol for rapid preparative-scale production of triterpenes utilizing this plant-based platform. The protocol utilizes an easily replicable vacuum infiltration apparatus, which allows the simultaneous infiltration of up to four plants, enabling batch-wise infiltration of hundreds of plants in a short period of time. |
Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Generation of gram-scale quantities of 98% pure triterpenes and demonstration that we can rapidly carry out combinatorial expression of enzymes from our triterpene toolkit to generate known and new-to-nature compounds. This had attracted considerable interest from industry and led to four new projects directly funded by different companies in the pharma, ag, food and drink and home and personal care sectors. |
URL | https://www.jove.com/video/58169/transient-expression-nicotiana-benthamiana-leaves-for-triterpene |
Description | A pipeline for antibiotic disovery |
Organisation | University of East Anglia |
Department | School of Biological Sciences UEA |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Natural products chemistry and biosynthesis; actinomycete genetics; genome mining; bioinformatics; anti-infective assays |
Collaborator Contribution | Entomology; actinomycete biology; genetic regulation; bioinformatics; anti-infective assays |
Impact | Publications and subseqeunt grant applications |
Start Year | 2013 |
Description | Actinobacterial plant pathogen |
Organisation | California State University, Bakersfield |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are investigating natural products associated with a plant pathogen and their role in pathogenicity. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partner has generated bacterial mutants and provided expertise in plant pathogenicity assays. |
Impact | Research is ongoing. Multidisciplinary: plant pathology, genetics, microbiology, chemistry |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Biosynthesis of natural products from an Australian actinomycete strain library |
Organisation | BioAustralis |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Biosynthesis; genome mining; natural products chemistry |
Collaborator Contribution | Strain and compound provision; data on metabolite profiles; fermentation data |
Impact | Successful grant applciations |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Biosynthesis of natural products from marine microbes, e.g. heronamide biosynthesis |
Organisation | University of Queensland |
Department | Institute for Molecular Bioscience |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Streptomyces genetics; natural products chemistry; biosynthesis; genome mining |
Collaborator Contribution | Strain isolation and provision |
Impact | Publication |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | CDs |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
PI Contribution | Evaluation of a glycosynthase for novel cyclodextrin production |
Collaborator Contribution | Provision of clone of wild type enzyme and active site mutant |
Impact | Too early to judge |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Calabria thioviridamides |
Organisation | University of Calabria |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We established a project to discovery new thioviridamide-like molecules (TLMs) by the use of a genome mining method. This involved pathway identification, strain fermentation, pathway cloning and mutagenesis, and then purification and chemical analysis of the products of these pathways. |
Collaborator Contribution | The group of Anna Rita Cappello determined the biological activity of our purified compounds against bacteria, fungi and human cell lines. |
Impact | Publication: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschembio.7b00677 This collaboration is multi-disciplinary. We carry out microbiology, genetics and chemistry and the partners carry out cell biology assays. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Elucidation of the biosynthesis of anti-insect triterpenoids |
Organisation | Syngenta International AG |
Department | Syngenta Crop Protection |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Joint-funded (JIC KEC/Syngenta) collaborative studentship to elucidate the early steps in the limonoid pathway. |
Collaborator Contribution | Syngenta have provided co-supervision, a one-week industrial placement for the PhD student and access to screening platforms. |
Impact | A patent has been filed and a paper published (Hodgson et al. PNAS 116, 17096 2019). A BBSRC IPA proposal with Syngenta has also been submitted. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | HIPS Bottromycin Biosynthesis |
Organisation | Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres |
Department | Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research, Saarbrucken |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Using tandem mass spectrometry, we characterised enzymatic transformations to the bottromycin precursor peptide. In addition, we generated mutant forms of the bottromycin producing organism (Streptomyces scabies) to determine the importance of a number of enzyme residues for catalysis. This was assessed by looking at the metabolites produced by these mutants using LC-MS. |
Collaborator Contribution | They expressed and purified enzymes involved in bottromycin biosynthesis, and then carried out enzymatic assays. The products of these assays were then sent to us for analysis. They also carried out mutagenesis of these enzymes, which guided our mutations in Streptomyces scabies. |
Impact | Publication: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.7b09898 |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Human milk oligosaccharides |
Organisation | DSM |
Department | DSM Biotechnology Centre |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Know-how and expertise for the chemical modification of carbohydrates. |
Collaborator Contribution | Provision of 100mg-1g quantities of 6 human milk oligosaccharides. |
Impact | Only just started |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Kidney glycobiology - Taiwan |
Organisation | National Defense Medical Center |
Country | Taiwan, Province of China |
Sector | Hospitals |
PI Contribution | Technical insight on glycan analysis |
Collaborator Contribution | Provision of access to clinical samples |
Impact | Taiwan Govt funding application - unsuccessful |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Limonoid biosynthesis |
Organisation | Stanford University |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Stanford University have investigated the early steps in limonoid biosynthesis in citrus and have contributed knowledge and findings to a paper that we have published on early limonoid biosynthesis in plants more widely. |
Collaborator Contribution | Investigation of limonoid biosynthesis in citrus. |
Impact | Joint publication - Hodgson et al. PNAS 116, 17096 2019. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | MD starch |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Experimental evaluation of glycan structure and enzyme sensitivityt |
Collaborator Contribution | Microsecond molecular dynamics simulation to assess glycan-glycan interactions |
Impact | Too early |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Macquarie University collaboration |
Organisation | Macquarie University |
Department | Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Biosynthetic chemistry and molecular microbiology |
Collaborator Contribution | Natural products chemistry, structural chemistry |
Impact | Manuscript in preparation |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Nrf2- ligand interactions |
Organisation | Government of Taiwan |
Country | Taiwan, Province of China |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Provision of peptide ligand |
Collaborator Contribution | In vivo assessment of prospective drug delivery agent |
Impact | too earyl to judge |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | PPase |
Organisation | University of York |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Work up of scalable synthesis of N-glycan analogues |
Collaborator Contribution | Clone of N-glycan phosphorylase |
Impact | Too early |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | RiPP biosynthesis |
Organisation | University of Glasgow |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This is a collaboration with the research group of Jesko Koehnke at the University of Glasgow (previously Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Germany). We have carried out genetic and bioinformatic analyses of biosynthetic pathways to ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), with a focus on the biosynthesis of bottromycin. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Koehnke group have characterised multiple biosynthetic enzymes using a combination of biochemistry and structural biology. They have also led the writing of multiple papers from the resulting work. |
Impact | Papers published: Sikandar, A. et al. The bottromycin epimerase BotH defines a group of atypical a/ß-hydrolase-fold enzymes. Nature Chemical Biology 16, 1013-1018 (2020). Franz, L., Kazmaier, U., Truman, A. W. & Koehnke, J. Bottromycins - biosynthesis, synthesis and activity. Nat. Prod. Rep. (2021). doi:10.1039/d0np00097c Franz, L., Adam, S., Santos-Aberturas, J., Truman, A. W. & Koehnke, J. Macroamidine Formation in Bottromycins Is Catalyzed by a Divergent YcaO Enzyme. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 18158-18161 (2017). Grant: BBSRC responsive mode, BB/V016024/1, Harnessing the biosynthetic potential of bacteria to produce ribosomally synthesised natural products, 2021-2024 Multidisciplinary: chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, structural biology, bioinformatics |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Sugar nucleotides |
Organisation | Keele University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Enzymatic synthsesis |
Collaborator Contribution | Chemical synthesis - methods development and target synthesis. |
Impact | New integrated chemical and enzymatic methods for sugar nucleotide synthesis |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Towards machine learning-driven prediction of the product chemical space of oxidosqualene cyclases |
Organisation | Alan Turing Institute |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The PDRA on this grant is based in my group, carrying out computational work on oxidsqualene cyclase product prediction. He is co-supervised by Brooks Paige of the Alan Turing Institute. |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr Paige brings critical expertise in machine learning to the project. |
Impact | This is a multidisciplinary project involving computational and experimental work. |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | University of León Collaboration |
Organisation | Fundacion MEDINA |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | This collaboration was started to identify the natural products that were responsible for antifungal activity in Streptomyces clavuligerus following introduction of a regulatory gene into this strain. We also mapped the global changes to metabolism in this strain too using LC-MS. This led to the identification of a wide variety of tunicamycins, where a few specific versions of this molecule exhibited antifungal activity. We helped write the resulting research paper. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partners led this research project, where they genetically manipulated Streptomyces clavuligerus and assessed changes to gene expression using microarrays. They also assessed the changes in production of other natural products known to be produced by Streptomyces clavuligerus , including the beta-lactam antibiotic cephamycin and the beta-lactamase inhibitor clavulanic acid. They led the writing of the research paper. |
Impact | A paper was published in Frontiers in Microbiology that reports this work: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00580/abstract |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | University of León Collaboration |
Organisation | University of Leon |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This collaboration was started to identify the natural products that were responsible for antifungal activity in Streptomyces clavuligerus following introduction of a regulatory gene into this strain. We also mapped the global changes to metabolism in this strain too using LC-MS. This led to the identification of a wide variety of tunicamycins, where a few specific versions of this molecule exhibited antifungal activity. We helped write the resulting research paper. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partners led this research project, where they genetically manipulated Streptomyces clavuligerus and assessed changes to gene expression using microarrays. They also assessed the changes in production of other natural products known to be produced by Streptomyces clavuligerus , including the beta-lactam antibiotic cephamycin and the beta-lactamase inhibitor clavulanic acid. They led the writing of the research paper. |
Impact | A paper was published in Frontiers in Microbiology that reports this work: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00580/abstract |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | University of Tübingen Actinonin Biosynthesis |
Organisation | Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen |
Department | Department of Pharmaceutical Biology |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We sequenced the genome of the actinonin producing organism to identify its biosynthetic gene cluster, as well as identifying the gene cluster of the related compound matlystatin in a different organism. We carried out chemical feeding experiments to determine the biosynthesis of actinonin and also carried out feeding experiments to make novel matlystatin derivatives. |
Collaborator Contribution | They independently identified the same gene clusters as ourselves. Following this, they cloning the matlystatin gene cluster and investigated its biosynthesis by mutating most genes in the pathway. They also carried out different feeding experiments to ourselves to support biosynthetic proposals. |
Impact | Publication: http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/29213087 |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | VHinman |
Organisation | Carnegie Mellon University |
Department | Department of Biological Sciences |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My lab is investigating triterpene biosynthesis in plants. We have collaborated with the US lab to extend our investigations into marine organisms. |
Collaborator Contribution | The US lab has expertise in handling and investigating marine animals. We have worked with them to carry out gene cloning, transcription analysis and investigation of metabolite content. |
Impact | A manuscript is in preparation. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Xiamen University Bicyclomycin Project |
Organisation | Xiamen University |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In the process of fermenting a natural product antibiotic from a Streptomyces strain that will then be purified for use by collaborators in Xiamen University. |
Collaborator Contribution | Assessing the biological activity and mechanism of action of the Streptomyces antibiotic. |
Impact | Collaboration started recently so no outputs so far. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Title | Biosynthesis |
Description | The present invention relates to a biosynthetic route to the QS-21 and QS-18 molecules including the C-18 acyl chain and precursors thereof, as well as enzymes involved, the products produced and uses of the products. |
IP Reference | WO2023180677 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2023 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | N/A |
Title | METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS |
Description | The present invention relates to a biosynthetic route to intermediates of the QS-21 molecule, as well as routes to make the QS-21 molecule, enzymes involved, the products produced and uses of the product. |
IP Reference | WO2022136563 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2022 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | N/A |
Title | METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS RELATING TO THE SYNTHESIS OF THE QS-7 MOLECULE |
Description | The present invention relates to a biosynthetic route to precursors of the QS-7 molecule, as well as routes to make the QS-7 molecule, enzymes involved, the products produced and uses of the product. |
IP Reference | WO2024003514 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2024 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | N/A |
Title | Metabolic engineering |
Description | The invention relates generally to materials and methods for biosynthesising quillaic acid in a host by expressing heterologous nucleotide sequences in the host each of which encodes a polypeptide which in combination have said QA biosynthesis activity. Example polypeptides include (i) a Beta-amyrin synthase; (ii) an enzyme capable of oxidising Beta-amyrin or an oxidised derivative thereof at the C-28 position to a carboxylic acid; (iii) an enzyme capable of oxidising Beta-amyrin or an oxidised derivative thereof at the C-16a position to an alcohol; and (iv) an enzyme capable of oxidising Beta-amyrin or an oxidised derivative thereof at the C-23 position to an aldehyde. Preferred nucleotide sequences are obtained from, or derived from, Q. saponaria. |
IP Reference | WO2019122259 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | This patent has been pivotal to the development of a large collaboration with a major pharma company. |
Title | SAPONARIOSIDE BIOSYNTHETIC ENZYMES |
Description | This invention relates to methods of producing triterpenoids using one or more of (i) Saponaria officinalis ß-amyrin synthase (SobAS) (ii) S. officinalis C28 oxidase (SoC28) (iii) S. officinalis C28C16 oxidase (SoC28C16) (iv) S. officinalis C23 oxidase (SoC23); (v) S. officinalis QA 3-O glucuronosyl transferase SoCSL; (vi) S. officinalis QA-GlcA SoC3Gal; (vii) S. officinalis QA-GlcA-Gal x SoC3Xyl (viii) S. officinalis QA-Tri fucosyl transferase SoC28Fu (ix) S. officinalis QA-TriF rhamnosyl transferase SoC28Rha (x) S. officinalis QA-TriFR xyl SoC28Xyl1; (xi) S. officinalis QA-TriFRX xyl SoC28Xyl2; (xii) S. officinalis QA-TriFRXX quinovosyl SoGH1 and (xiii) S. officinalis QA-TriF(Q)RXX acetyl SoBAHD1 polypeptide. Methods, host cells, isolated polypeptides, nucleic acids, and plants are provided. |
IP Reference | WO2024003012 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2024 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | N/A |
Title | SAPONIN PRODUCTION IN YEAST |
Description | The present invention relates inter alia to methods of biosynthetic production of QS-21, precursors and variants thereof, and to related aspects. |
IP Reference | WO2023122801 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2023 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | N/A |
Title | Scaffold modification |
Description | he present invention relates generally to methods and materials for use in glycosylation of chemical scaffolds, such as triterpenes. |
IP Reference | GB1808617.3 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | This patent is pivotal to the pending establishment of a spin-out company |
Title | TRANSFERASE ENZYMES |
Description | The present invention relates generally to genes and polypeptides which have utility in glycosylating quillaic acid in host cells, including enzymes capable of successive glycosylation at the C-3 position of quillaic acid. The invention further relates to systems, methods and products employing the same. |
IP Reference | WO2020260475 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2020 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | TBC |
Company Name | HotHouse Therapeutics |
Description | HotHouse Therapeutics develops natural biotechnology solutions. |
Year Established | 2020 |
Impact | A shell company has been set up and discussions with potential investors are underway. |
Company Name | Pfbio |
Description | Pfbio develops biological alternatives to agrochemicals for use in crop farming. |
Year Established | 2022 |
Impact | Funding has been obtained from a variety of sources, as well as multiple interactions with companies across agriculture and agritech. Work is already ongoing with a UK plant science research company. |
Website | http://pfbio.co.uk |
Company Name | Persephone Bio Ltd |
Description | |
Year Established | 2014 |
Impact | Proprietary TomPro production system for making extracts from tomatoes without use of chemicals |
Description | "Meet the Scientist" Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | During the Norwich Science Festival we organised a "meet the scientist" event where scientists who had won a space to have their images exhibited in a display were invited to come and give a 5 minute presentation next to their image about their work. This was a free ticketed event for a maximum of 50 people, all tickets went and the audience response was excellent with everyone staying behind after the presentations to chat to the scientists. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | "You can't judge a book from its cover". A series of 15 workshops for different ages/groups run for SAW Trust by Jenni Rant and Sami Stebbings. |
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 | The first project was on 11.05.18, for elderly people. The writing and artwork was displayed at the Norwich Science Festival in October 2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | 2020 Virtual Summer School on Applied Molecular Microbiology |
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 | I was on the organising committee for this summer school. This is usually held in person every two years but was held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic. Along with helping organise this event, I provided a seminar and led multiple small group discussions. This was attended by 40 postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers from around the world to learn about concepts and methods in natural product biosynthesis. Following the summer school, I have been contacted by multiple attendees regarding various aspects of the work I discussed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/summer-schools/applied-molecular-microbiology/2020-applied-mo... |
Description | 2022 CEPAMS Workshop on Traditional Chinese Medicine 9 - 10 January 2022 Virtually on Zoom Session 2: Natural Products and Quality of Traditional Chinese Medicine - |
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 | Chaired by Evangelos Tatsis 08:55 - 09:15 16:55 - 17:15 Anne Osbourn (John Innes Centre) "Triterpene pathway discovery and engineering" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
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 | Abhimanyu Sakar and Anne Edwards Display of Grass Pea Research for a Meeting of the Genetics Society: June 2019 |
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 | Abhimanyu Sakar and Anne Edwards Display of Grass Pea Research for a Meeting of the Genetics Society: June 2019 Attended by academics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
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 - one of EDP 150 Norfolk Heroes of Science and Nature |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Published: 10:24 AM October 13, 2020 Updated: 7:06 PM November 22, 2020 Anne Osbourn. The professor of biology and director of the Norwich Research Park biotechnology alliance has been involved in discoveries to help agriculture and medicine and is also a writer and founder of an initiative linking science, art and writing. She and her scientist sister were both made OBEs last year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/edp-150-norfolk-heroes-of-science-and-nature-6407500 |
Description | Anne Osbourn gave a seminar at a symposium at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn gave a seminar at a symposium at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot in October 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Anne Osbourn interviewedon the Stephen Bumfrey programme on BBC Radio Norfolk on 10 February 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn interviewed on the Stephen Bumfrey programme on BBC Radio Norfolk (from approximately 1:44:02) - 10 February 2022 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bj2cbr |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bj2cbr |
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 | Anne Osbourn was on the Scientific Advisory Review Committee for the Weizmann Institute |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | President of the Weizmann Institute of Science invited the assistance of Anne Osbourn with a Scientific Academic Advisory Committee (SAAC) review of Plant and Environmental Sciences (2022) at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, scheduled to take place on October 23, 2022 through October 27, 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Attendance and presentation at Sensors in Food and Agriculture 2018 meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Field testing and the research underpinning the soil sensor development was reported at the Sensors in Food and Agriculture 2018 meeting. At this meeting an industrial partner was identified who has relevant expertise to commercially develop the soil sensor technology. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/33486/sensors-in-food-and-agriculture-2018 |
Description | BBSRC virtual meeting |
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 | AEO gave a presentation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Biochemistry Focus Webinar Series: Developments in Industrial Biotechnology |
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 | Developments in Industrial Biotechnology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj3gNIInKA0&feature=emb_title |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj3gNIInKA0&feature=emb_title |
Description | Biodiversity 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 | New SAW workshop delivered at Bignold Primary School on World Biodiversity Day to introduce year 4 children to the importance of biodiversity for people and the planet and to some of the factors that are causing species decline across the globe. The children were amazed by the wealth of species, their importance in the ecosystem and how humans utilise natural products and shocked by the driving forces to extinction, a term they believed to only apply in the past, linked to dinosaurs, and not something that was ongoing. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/in-schools/world-biodiversity-day-at-bignold-primary-school/ |
Description | CEPAMS Symposium |
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 | Symposium reporting CEPAMS activities with International guest speakers as well |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Centre Of Excellence For Plant And Microbial Science (CEPAMs) Symposium 2019 |
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 | Poster presented at the Centre Of Excellence For Plant And Microbial Science (CEPAMs) Symposium 2019, held in Shanghai, China. This led to interactions with numerous researchers at Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Institutes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Chair and Organiser for RSC Directing Biosynthesis V Conference |
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 | Chaired the organising committee and conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/22912/Directing%20Biosynthesis%20V |
Description | Chaired inaugural meeting of EPSO working group on Nutritional Security |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chaired inaugural meeting of EPSO working group on Nutritional Security |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Conscious Consumers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Working with the Food and Farming Discovery Trust, Youth STEMM Award and LEAF Education, we have produced a set of activity materials for teenagers on the topics of food miles, plant-based diets, personalised nutrition, animal welfare, rewilding and climate change. The resources are a mix of activities, videos from experts and links to case studies and further info for teenagers to access. The similarity between all the topics is that it challenges young people to question sources of information on topical issues on social media sites to enable them to filter information by its reliability and quality to make informed decisions as young adults. We are now working with the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development on an additional set of resources focused on gene editing plants as this is another topic in the media that we want young people to be able to engage with and understand in a non-biased way. We trialed the resources with some teenagers and they all said that they learned a great deal and had an increased understanding of the topics. The resources are being promoted through the British Science Association and are currently hosted on the Countryside Classrooms website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
URL | https://www.countrysideclassroom.org.uk/resources?search=conscious%20consumers |
Description | Creative Collaborations: Bringing Science and the Arts Together (Virtual event, Norwich Science Festival) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | https://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/creative-collaboration-bringing-science-and-arts-together Creative Collaboration: Bringing Science and the Arts Together, 26 October 2020 https://youtu.be/OZ8qn4huj8Q Q&A Led by Jenni Rant and Anne Osbourn |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/creative-collaboration-bringing-science-and-arts-toget... |
Description | Curriculum Hacks event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presented a large display on engagement activities developed and run by the SAW Trust for OpenPlant at a variety of events to share ideas with other people working in synthetic biology. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | DNA Dave Presentation at the Biomakers Fayre |
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 | We were awarded Biomaker and biochemical society funding to progress ideas for creating resources and designing a workshop for schools to build their own robot and presented our prototype teaching kit at the Biomakers Fayre in Cambridge in November 2020. We will be running pilot workshop for secondary schools in 2020 to test the resources and we will follow each schools progress as they work towards building their own biology-themed robots before hosting a sharing event for students to bring their robots along to present and to discuss their experiences during the process. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/news/dna-dave-at-the-biomakers-fayre/ |
Description | DNA workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | We delivered a Science Art and Writing workshop on the theme of DNA at a local Junior school in a deprived area who were hosting a visiting group of Chinese children. Due to the language barriers, the local children paired up with a Chinese child to work through the activities together which meant they had to first understand the required process before helping their partner to complete tasks. This gave a new depth to the learning process which was reinforced by the local children having to take on the role of the instructor in their pair. This built confidence in the children. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Dubrovnik Summer School |
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 | I provided a seminar and led multiple small group discussions as part of the Dubrovnik Summer School in Applied Molecular Microbiology. This was attended by 45 postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers from around the world to learn about concepts and methods in natural product biosynthesis. Following the summer school, I have been contacted by multiple attendees regarding various aspects of the work I discussed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/summer-schools/applied-molecular-microbiology/ |
Description | EI Innovate: Linking datasets and bioscience |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | EI Innovate 2021: Linking datasets and bioscience Through effectively linking datasets we can accelerate bioscience and deliver the key innovations needed to improve food security, environmental management, conservation, health and wellbeing. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.earlham.ac.uk/ei-innovate-2021-linking-datasets-and-bioscience#SpeakersandOrganisers-1 |
Description | EI SAB meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Member EI SAB: Meeting held 4-5 November 2020 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | EPSO/FESPB Joint Congress |
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 | I was chair of the scientific advisory committee for this biennial meeting held in Copenhagen in 2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Early Years Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Set up an exhibition stand at the Early Years conference to showcase SAW materials and in particular our Plant Growth and Development lesson plan developed for OpenPlant. We had a lot of interest from early years educators and we are now working with a local nursery school to trial some new plant-themed activities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Edible East |
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 set up online workshops for scientists to discuss their work with artists interested in plants, health and the future of food security and climate change. The sessions led on to the artists creating installations for an art trail around the city utilising public spaces such as empty shops, churchyards and museums all inspired by the science stories. As well as the art trail, we put on a number of workshops for the public that provided new experiences in a range of activities from science, art, dance and horticulture with a central aim to spark discussions on our use of outdoor space for food growing as communities. The project was the start of a longer term aim to bring people together to make Norwich more food secure and to bring the latest scientific studies into everyday discussions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
URL | https://edibleeast.org.uk/news/ |
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 | Engaging Images Competition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We ran an image competition for researchers across the Norwich Research Park to win a spot in an image exhibition at the Norwich Science Festival. Entrants were asked to upload high quality images of their work with accessible legends to the NRP Image Library Website. A mixed judging panel comprised of representatives from business, the media and the arts were brought together to judge the images and decide on the final 11 winning entries. The winning images were put on display in the Forum building in the centre of Norwich for 2 weeks and the images were also featured in print in a double-page spread in the Eastern Daily Press as well as on their website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://images.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/ |
Description | Evaluation Committee Laureat program Ireland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Reviewing applications for the Irish Laureat Program which assigns funding to individual scientists as a primer for ERC applications |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Exhibit at Cereals 2017, Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibit on the NIAB stand with demonstrations of wheat tissue culture and the effect of takeall fungus infection on wheat roots, plus preliminary project results. This provided an excellent visual demonstration of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. Visitors to the stand were very interested to see the impact of the fungus on roots and to discuss the strategy and progress made in the project with the NIAB staff involved. Whilst this is primarily a national event, there were also a good number of international visitors (wheat breeders and scientists) who were interested and engaged with us over the two day event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | FABI awards |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Keynote talk by Anne Osbourn 26 November 2020 Osbourn A Key Note Address by Professor Anne Osbourn 17:30 PM Presentation of FABI Awards | 18:00 PM Director's Address | 18:30 PM |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Faculty member at Summer School for Applied Molecular Biology |
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 | The 2018 Summer Schools in Applied Molecular Microbiology took place at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, from 8 - 16 September. It was designed to bring together some pf the mos. talented PhD students and postdocs from around the world and engage with them - we aimed to make them aware of the work done and the John Innes Centre, and to evaluate them as potential future leaders in the field and therefore potential postdocs or faculty members. The focus for this meetingwas 'Microbial Specialised Metabolites: From Genome to Molecule' and recognises the recent development of interest in microbial metabolites that has resulted from the sequencing of small molecule-producing microorganisms, coupled with the explosive development of sequencing technology, bioinformatics and chemical analysis. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/summer-schools/applied-molecular-microbiology/ |
Description | Fascination in Plants Day - Stall about starch research |
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 | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This event was run by the institute to promote plant sciences to the general public. We designed and ran a stall to demonstrate open questions in starch research, and how addressing them can improve crop quality and human health. The stall was interactive, and we answered many questions from the audience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Finding drugs in the garden: Harnessing plant metabolic diversity |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Conference Title: Hope for the Future - RIKEN Symposium on Sustainable Resource Science - 28 May 2021 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.yokohama.riken.jp/topics/img/Symposium_Hope%20for%20the%20Future.pdf |
Description | Forest Gardens for schools 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 are participating in a project to encourage schools to have more agency on the planting schemes in their school grounds to create better plant science learning opportunities for children. We are piloting a project with 4 schools that will ultimately lead to them creating forest gardens on their sites (an agroforestry approach to planting for food and materials) that uses the principles of forest ecology to be a less labour-intensive approach to growing food compared to exposed vegetable beds which have traditionally been more common in school gardens. We are also looking at species that may be more resilient to our changing climate, create shade and help to remove carbon from the atmosphere to give children the knowledge they will need for their future. We began working with them in July 2022 and are running regular sessions that have so far helped them to survey their existing flora and begin to create herbariums for their schools. We shall be extending this by collecting samples for DNA sequencing in collaboration with the Earlham Institute, to add genetic information about their plants to their herbariums. We are also partnering with Gressenhall Museum of Rural Life's new Eco-hub to explore the heritage and cultural past of the landscape around their schools, working with maps from 1880 right through to LIDAR created heat maps from 2020 that show plant density across the wider locality. This will enable them to explore what habitats might be close by and what species they could attract by choosing certain plants or by creating wildlife corridors. We are currently sourcing trees for planting at the schools through the Million Tree Project with Norfolk County Council. The children are excited by the concept that the maps of the future are as yet unknown and that they can make choices with their planting plans that can shape their environment. Working in this way, nurturing plants, understanding the relationship between species and working with climate change we hope this will contribute to not only children's understanding of plants and ecosystems but will also have a positive impact on their wellbeing. We plan to share our findings from the pilot project with schools across the county and are creating a project template that schools can use if they would like to create their own forest garden. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
Description | Gardeners Question Time Display |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The John Innes Centre hosted Gardeners Question time for BBC Radio 4 and as part of the event put up several displays for the audience to view before and after the recorded event. We put a display up about the Global Garden workshop we have been running to showcase the outputs and to raise awareness for future workshops. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | George's Marvelous Medicines |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We took a workshop to the Latitude Festival for children to explore natural products from plants. We gathered a group of science undergraduate students to work with us as volunteers and spent three full days running 20 minute sessions for children visiting the Latitude Festival in July 2021. The students gained a great deal from the experience, growing in confidence over the time and I have since found that many of them are keen to get involved with more public engagement opportunities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Global garden |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Following on from the pilot of the Global Garden workshop in 2017 we ran a public workshop as part of the Norwich Science Festival that invited anyone to explore plant natural products and the regulations and ethics around access and benefit sharing. We then ran another session for a group of scientists which provided an interesting contrast of opinions around ethics compared to those shared by members of the public. This is an ongoing project that seeks to raise awareness of these issues as well as to get people thinking and talking about the importance of plants. In 2019 we took the Global Garden workshop to Cambridge as part of the Festival of Ideas and ran the workshop at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. We also had garden curator Dr Sam Brockington attend and give a presentation on the importance of plant collections for research as well as for enjoyment. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
Description | H2020 TomGEM Project meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Second Annual Meeting of the TomGEM H2020 Collaborative project |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | HVB Management Board Meeting 17 November 2020 |
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 | HVB Management Board meeting 17.11.21 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | High-Value Biorenewables Meeting |
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 | High Value Biorenewables Network Meeting 20-21 October 2020 https://www.highvaluebiorenewables.net/events/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.highvaluebiorenewables.net/events/ |
Description | I was keynote speaker at the Chenshan Meeting on specialised metabolism in plants |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I was keynote speaker at the Chenshan Meeting on specialised metabolism in plants |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | I was keynote speaker at the Hainan first National Meeting on specialised Metabolomics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was a keynote speaker at the Hainan Meeting on metabolomics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
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 | International Research Alliance for Antibiotic Discovery and Development (IRAADD) Workshop Meeting |
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 | Attendance and presentation as part of the International Research Alliance for Antibiotic Discovery and Development (IRAADD) Workshop Meeting (Saarbruecken, Germany), which is a Europe-wide network of researchers and industry partners involved in antibiotic discovery and development. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | International education visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Hosted a group of teachers from Shanghai and took them to visit a range of science-themed SAW workshops running in local schools to show how the academic research community can provide enrichment to the curriculum for children and opportunities for teachers to access information and new activities based on current research straight from the lab. Also organised a sharing event for teachers and representatives from the County Council to hear about how SAW is being embedded in Chinese schools and the impact it has on teaching and learning. All parties took new ideas away from the experience to try and implement in their own settings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | https://fivebooks.com/best-books/science-2020-royal-society-book-prize-anne-osbourn/ The Best Science Books of 2020: The Royal Society Book Prize recommended by Anne Osbourn The Royal Society is the world's oldest independent scientific academy, dedicated to promoting excellence in science-and that includes an annual prize for the best popular science book. Here Professor Anne Osbourn, Fellow of the Royal Society and chair of this year's judging panel, talks us through the six books that made the 2020 shortlist-and what makes them intriguing, accessible and exciting. Interview by Caspar Henderson |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Interview with BBC Radio Five Live for a podcast |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview with BBC Radio Five Live for a podcast relating to the science of weather. In particular, the smell and role of bacterial metabolites. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Interview with science writer (Kat Arney) about antibiotic discovery and combating antimicrobial resistance. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Interview with science writer (Kat Arney) about antibiotic discovery and combating antimicrobial resistance. In particular a focus on the re-purposing of old antibiotics for treating multi-drug resistant infections. This was in relation to an in-depth article she is preparing on AMR and antibiotic discovery, which was later published in the Daily Mail. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5623417/Could-antibiotics-mens-beards-soil-weapons-battle... |
Description | Invited Seminar at Bristol University |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar speaker at Bristol University - title 'The Plant Lytic Vacuole: Space-Filler, Garbage Bag, or Something More Interesting?' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited Speaker: Women in Biotech meeting |
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 | Our Women in Biotech continues in virtual format this September. Join us for an early evening event with networking and thought-provoking discussion. We're thrilled to have three incredible speakers for you - Jane Osbourn OBE and Ann Osbourn OBE, chaired by Jo Pisani - discussing their career highlights, defining moments, and their approaches to managing disruption and resilience in uncertain times. The BIA's Women in Biotech event series has been running for over 12 years and aims to connect, inspire, and support women across the sector. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.bioindustry.org/event-listing/women-in-biotech-september.html |
Description | Invited speaker at York University |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited speaker to York University: Plant Biology Seminar - The Plant Lytic Vacuole: Space-Filler, Garbage Bag, or Something More Interesting? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited talk at China-UK AMR Workshop |
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 | A UKRI-funded workshop held in Beijing to discuss ongoing and recent UK-China research projects on AMR (antimicrobial resistance), as well as future directions and prospects for this research area. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited talk at Environmental Genomics and Advanced Microbiological Techniques Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Presented a talk about using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics in microbiology to PhD students attending an Environmental Genomics and Advanced Microbiological Techniques Workshop at the University of East Anglia. I received multiple questions after the seminar. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited talk at the University of Ghent |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited talk on natural product discovery at the University of Ghent (Belgium). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited talk at the University of Leeds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited talk for the seminar series in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds. Participation in a discussion about my research with a group of MSc students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | JIC 50 Open Day |
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 | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Outreach stand for Department of Molecular Microbiology as part of an Open Day in relation to the 50th anniversary of the John Innes Centre in Norwich. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news-and-events/blog-copy/2017/09/open-day/ |
Description | JIC50 public open day |
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 | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Open Day at JIC celebrating 50 years on the Norwich site. Soil columns featuring the N sensors were displayed to the public. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news-and-events/blog-copy/2017/08/john-innes-celebrates-50-years-norwich-2017 |
Description | John Innes Centre 50th Anniversary Open Day. (16 September 2017) |
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 | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Approximately 3000 people attended. The support of our local community, and allowing as many people as possible to find out more about what we do is important to us, so in the build-up to the event we were delighted to welcome both BBC Look East and BBC Radio Norfolk onto the site, to chat to scientists and preview the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news-and-events/blog-copy/2017/09/open-day/ |
Description | John Innes/Rudjer Boškovic Summer School in Applied Molecular Microbiology |
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 | I was a co-director of the John Innes/Rudjer Boškovic Summer School in Applied Molecular Microbiology. This is a longstanding workshop targetted at early-career researchers in the field of natural product biosynthesis. 45 students/post-docs are selected from a global application list, who then attend an 8-day course in Dubrovnik (10th and 17th September 2022). The attendees came from 21 different countries. Following the summer school, multiple faculty have been contacted by attendees for advice on projects and collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/summer-schools/applied-molecular-microbiology/2022-applied-mo... |
Description | Judge for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom celebrate the past accomplishments and future potential of the UK's most innovative young faculty-rank (academic staff) scientists and engineers working in the three disciplinary categories of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK/Blavatnik Family Foundation and independently administered by the New York Academy of Sciences. |
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 | Judge for the 2022 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom (held in 2021) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Keynote Speaker Future Food Festival Toowoomba Queensland Australia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was a Keynote Speaker at the Future Food Festival Toowoomba Queensland Australia, giving 3 presentations to scientists, two to school kids and one grand discovery presentation at Queensland University of Technology to the general public |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Keynote Speech: Plants and Human Health at the Wellcome Trust China-UK Life Science Summit |
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 | Keynote Speech: Plants and Human Health at the Wellcome Trust China-UK Life Science Summit |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Legume 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 | Working with LEAF Education we developed a plant science project for secondary schools to learn outside the classroom using mini trial plots in school playing fields. The theme of the project was looking at symbiotic relationships between legume plants and rhizobia to harness Nitrates from soils. Students explored if intercropping wheat plants with legumes would be beneficial compared to wheat growing on its own in the absence of applied nitrogen fertilizers. The project encourages use of scientific methods and enables students to consider the benefits of understanding symbiotic relations for growing food whilst also exploring the need to apply less polluting nutrients to soils and improve soil quality by fostering microbial relationships with plant roots. Learning outside the classroom brought benefits to students well being and exposure to 'real research' topics gave them insight into careers in plant science. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/blog/legume-learners-and-the-nitrogen-fix/ |
Description | London International youth science Forum 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | About 30 students visited the John Innes Centre. I presented a short talk about starch research, followed by a discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | London international science forum visit. 16-21 yr olds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | 23 undergraduate students from around the world came to the John Innes Centre as part of the London International Science Forum. I delivered a talk and led a discussion about the importance of starch research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Meet the Poet - Heidi Williamson & Anne Osbourn |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Mon 4th Aug, 8PM (UK time) - via YouTube Meet the Poet - Heidi Williamson & Anne Osbourn Free poetry event hosted by Home Stage. Featuring a selection of readings on ideas of place, belonging and science, plus interviews with the two poets and discussions on their work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dZQ6DVbAt4 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dZQ6DVbAt4 |
Description | Meeting (Virtual) SynbiTECH2020: Food and the Environment - Working with the Natural World |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | 26-27 October 2020 Prof Anne Osbourn, Group Leader, John Innes Centre - CHAIR for Company Presentations: Food and the environment - working with the natural world Pascoe Harvey, Senior Scientist, Biotangents Annabelle Cox, CEO, Tensei Chris Reynolds, Co-Founder and CTO, Better Dairy Niall Dunne, CEO, Polymateria |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.synbitech.com/conference-programme |
Description | Meeting with Novozymes Industry representatives |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Discuss future collaborations with Novozymes representatives (led by Jeanne Kjaer). Skype call with contacts in USA and India. (11 March 2019) I presented my current research and we discussed opportunites for future collaboration. Meeting facilitated by Jon Clarke at JIC. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Member of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council |
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 | Member of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Member of the UK Science Partnership for Animal and Plant Health |
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 | Member of the UK Science Partnership for Animal and Plant Health - quarterly meetings are held |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Member of the interviewing panel for Herchel Smith Professorship of Biochemistry |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Member of the interviewing panel for Herchel Smith Professorship of Biochemistry position - University of Cambridge |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Membership of Scientific Advisory Committee to the Plant Energy Biology ARC Centre of Excellence |
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 | Membership of Scientific Advisory Committee to the Plant Energy Biology ARC Centre of Excellence. An Australian National Centre. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | NIAB Directors Day display |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Exhibit in the NIAB marquee covering a number of BBSRC funded projects using crop transformation. Demonstrations of wheat tissue culture and the effect of takeall fungus infection on wheat roots provided an excellent visual demonstration of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. Other exhibits demonstrated our implementation of gene editing techniques and its use in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | NIAB Open Day display |
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 | Exhibit in the NIAB marquee covering a number of BBSRC funded projects using crop transformation. Demonstrations of wheat tissue culture and the effect of takeall fungus infection on wheat roots provided an excellent visual demonstration of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. Other exhibits demonstrated our implementation of gene editing techniques and its use in a number of wheat and rice projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | NUBPL fundraising event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
Results and Impact | Presentation on progress in research on the NUBPL gene, for a patient group and clinicians. The main outcome is fundraising by the patient group for this research (to labs in the US, not my own lab). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | New Phytologist Next Generation Scientists meeting - Open Address |
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 | Opening Address at New Phytologist Next Generation Scientists meeting - Scientific meeting |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | New Phytoloigist Trustees meeting (virtual) 14:30 - 16:30, 19 November 2020 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | New Phytologist Trustees |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | New initiative uses science to inspire creative writing in Eastern Daily Press (edp24.co.uk) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | New initiative uses science to inspire creative writing in Eastern Daily Press (edp24.co.uk) Writers and researchers have come together through an exciting new project to spread the word about the world-leading science Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science'. It aims to engage more people in science through creative writing that has been inspired by some of the research conducted by scientists working at the Park. Translating Science paired several established writers and poets with researchers at the various institutes based at Norwich Research Park. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-translating-science-project-at-norwich-research-park-8643544 |
Description | Norwich Science Festival 2023 - Stall about starch research |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We ran an interactive stall that communicated the importance of starch research in wheat and potatoes, and the potential impacts of the research on crop productivity and quality. Members of the team were available to answer questions from the attendees. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Norwich Science Festival Training week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Parties of school children from across the region visited the Norwich Science Festival held in the Forum in Norwich city centre on the 18/19 October 2017. We displayed zinc staining of various different types of food grains to show the zinc rich parts of the seed. The display was also visited by members of the public who passed through the Forum. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
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 | Norwich and Norfolk Science Festival - Starch Stall |
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 | Members of my laboratory, led by a postdoctoral scientist in my group, set up a stall to discuss the importance of starch research with the general public at the Norwich Science Festival. This involved several demonstrations and posters, aimed at both young children as well as adults. Questions from the general public about starch were answered. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Nourishing ten billion sustainably: resilient food production in a time of climate change |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | CLIMATE CHANGE : SCIENCE AND SOLUTIONS | BRIEFING 10 The global food system accounts for around one third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by human activity. It therefore offers a major opportunity for progress towards net zero if emissions can be reduced at the same time as delivering food security and building resilience to the inevitable impacts of climate change. Research shows how solutions can be found in diet change, respectfully approached, sustainable agricultural practices and harnessing the continuing wave of innovation in food biotechnology |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/climate-change-science-solutions/climate-science-so... |
Description | Nourishing ten billion sustainably: resilient food production in a time of climate change |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk to retired medical doctors. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Opening address at Breeders Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Opening address at Breeders Day at the John Innes Centre |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Oral presentation at Directing Biosynthesis VI (Edinburgh, UK) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation provided at Directing Biosynthesis VI, an international meeting focussed on the biosynthesis of natural products. Received some follow up enquiries about the research presented following the talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Oral presentation at the Monogram (small grain cereals) meeting in Bristol |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation by Emma Wallington on "Engineering wheat for take-all resistance" given at the Monogram (small grain cereals) meeting at the University of Bristol, 2017 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2017 |
Description | P153 - ALL ROADS LEAD TO LIMONOIDS: ANALYSIS OF A COMPLEX BIOSYNTHETIC NETWORK IN CITRUS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 4th International Conference on Natural Product Discovery & Development in the Genomic Era |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://sim.confex.com/sim/np2023/meetingapp.cgi/Session/5182 |
Description | PGCE training workshops |
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 | Delivered Science Art and Writing (SAW) workshops for the 2022 cohort of PGCE students at the University of East Anglia. The session included theory and practical activities and showcased a range of resources we have created by delivering science outreach in classrooms, including the synthetic biology for schools package and the limonoid extraction and identification practical. The trainee teachers are developing their craft and looking for teaching resources that they can try out when they progress into being NQT's going out to placement schools across the region. This is a good way to disseminate our resources widely to our target audience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | PODCAST with Anne Osbourn in Bumps In The Road series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Podcast series: Bumps In The Road - https://emmaelvidge.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/episode_4_anne_osbourn/ PODCAST No 4 (Science, art, reflection and following your own path) is by Anne Osbourn and is entitled "Science, art, reflection and following your own path"Guests come from all walks of HE/research life: from PhD students to Royal Society Fellows, spanning Physical and Social Sciences and the Humanities and Arts. "The project was designed by Emma Elvidge to help reconcile the inevitability of 'failure' (setbacks, difficulties - pick your terminology!) within the research process with how little it's often honestly discussed. But this podcast series ended up going far beyond thatand anyone with an interest in excellent HE teaching/redesigning the curriculum, mental health, resilience, research community and careers will find something of interest." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://emmaelvidge.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/episode_4_anne_osbourn/ |
Description | Panel Meeting of Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu Committee - Madrid, Spain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Panel Meeting of Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu Committee - Madrid, Spain |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Panel discussion for the Royal Society for Hay Festival |
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 | Hay Festival - panel discussion for the Royal Society exploring the public attitudes to the range of applications that genetic technologies might have, and the differences in such attitudes depending on context. This might look at the difference in public opinion in areas like food and medicine, for example, or explore concepts like 'naturalness' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Participation in a Coaching and Mentoring Workshop at John Innes Centre |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Initial training for Mentors, to getting them to understand coaching and mentoring, the wider pool, as well as some tools and techniques to use. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Plenary Speaker IAPB Congress Dublin Ireland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was a Plenary Speaker at the IAPB Congress Dublin Ireland |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Plenary Speaker SEB Meeting Florence |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Plenary speaker at SEB Meeting in Florence. England beat Colombia on penalties in the World Cup. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Plenary Speaker at Foods of the Future Workshop in Koln |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was a Plenary Speaker at Foods of the Future Workshop in Koln |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Plenary speaker, International meeting on plant genomics, Verona Italy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was a Plenary speaker, at the International meeting on plant genomics, Verona Italy |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Podcast following publication of "Natural polymorphisms in Arabidopsis result in wide variation or loss of the amylose component of starch" |
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 | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I presented a GARNet podcast discussing the key findings of the paper: Seung D., Echevarría-Poza A., Steuernagel B., Smith A. M.(2019) Natural polymorphisms in Arabidopsis result in wide variation or loss of the amylose component of starch. Plant Physiology The primary audience was students and research staff working in plant sciences. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Post Doctoral Retreat |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presented career pathways in science communication to a large group of Post Doctoral Researchers and led a discussion on the need and importance of engaging society with research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Poster and Oral Presentation by Ingo Appelhagen Colour bio-factories: towards scale-up production of anthocyanins in plant cell cultures |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentations by Ingo Appelhagen at the 3rd Conference of the International Society for Molecular Farming, Helsinki, 11-16 June 2018 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Poster presentation at Annual Zinc Net Meeting (Cambridge UK) |
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 | Poster title of presentation: Finding new components of the zinc homeostasis network in Arabidopsis. Authors: Stanton C., Sanders D., Miller T. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Presentation at BISON workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Presented synthetic biology-themed science engagement approaches to a group of academics for a BISON workshop in Norwich. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://bison.ceitec.cz/ |
Description | Presentation at Chinese University Lecturers Conference - Fujian Agricultural University |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Miller A. J.(2018) Nitrogen uptake and assimialtion in Crop Plants (2 lectures) Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China. Chinese University Lecturers Conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Presentation at Mardlers dinner |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The Mardlers are a group of approximately 25-30 Norfolk farmers, which all have reach beyond the farm gate, either through processing and marketing of their crops or stock, or through membership of industry bodies, political, research or marketing. There are also members who are involved with banking, accountancy and land agency, and as such they have a very broad range of interests across the agricultural, food and business sectors, both regionally and nationally. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Presentation at Science for Innovation Showcase Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Provided presentation entitled "Discovery and biosynthesis of bacterial peptides with antibacterial and anticancer activities" to an audience of industry and research council representatives invited to the John Innes Centre. Participated in a follow-up panel discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Presentation at UK-China Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 15-17 October Workshop at UEA. Chinese representatives from Anhui Agricultural University (AAU) and Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS). Meeting organized by Dr Yuelai Lu (SAIN, School of International Development, UEA). Title of presentation: Soil Nitrogen and Crops |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Presentation at Xiamen University (China) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited presentation given to faculty, post-docs and students at Xiamen University in China. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Presentation at a Symposium: (Metabolic Diversification in Plants) ISMPMi |
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 | https://www.ismpmi.org/Events/2021Congress/Pages/default.aspx December 1 - 2 Plant-microbe interactions in the environment - Navigating a complex world This symposium was held December 1-2, 2021, hosted by Cara Haney (British Columbia, Canada) and Paul Schulze-Lefert (Cologne, Germany). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.ismpmi.org/Events/2021Congress/Program/Pages/December.aspx |
Description | Presentation to Suffolk Organic Gardners, Bury St Edmunds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'Soils: root/microbial relationships and nutrient cycling' - presentation to the Suffolk Organic Gardeners Association in Bury St Edmunds (11 th February 2020). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/suffolk-organic-gardeners |
Description | Presentation to the Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Patient Participation Group at Oak Street Surgery |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We were invited to present our work on the SAW antibiotics book to the Norfolk CCG who are interested in working with us to improve understanding on AMR in communities but also on other health-related topics. We also presented our work to the PPG at a local GP surgery who are interested in running an AMR-themed workshop for patients and potentially developing subsequent workshops on topics such as flu and norovirus to help limit the spread of infection. The work we are developing here is being fed back to Public Health England representatives from the Healthcare-Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance Unit. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | PrimeAg visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Eight visitors from PrimeAg visited JIC for half a day. Prime Agriculture LLP is a consultancy partnership of 11 BASIS and FACTS qualified agronomists, working with growers in in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. http://www.primeag.co.uk/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.primeag.co.uk/ |
Description | Public art and poetry competition |
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 | Using a collection of 11 science images featuring our research on display as part of the Norwich Science Festival we invited the public to create art or poetry inspired by the images. We had a judging panel choose favourites from several catagories and the winners work was put on display at the Sainsburys Centre for Visual Arts during December. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Public engagement training for undergraduate science students |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Delivered a training workshop for undergraduate science students to show how a cross-disciplinary approach to science outreach can open up topics to people with varied interests and therefore widen audience participation. We used a plant-natural products example to work through a case study to give the students some practical ideas on how they could develop their own activities on a variety of science research topics. Several of the students were keen to hear about opportunities to volunteer at public engagement events to develop their confidence and science communication skills further. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Royal Norfolk Show 2022 - Display about starch research |
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 ran an interactive stall that demonstrated the importance of starch research, especially in wheat and potatoes. We communicated the implications of starch research on crop quality and human health. The activities were aimed primarily at school children, but many parents, teachers and other members of the general public attended and asked questions about our research, and about starch in general. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Royal Norfolk Show plant science stand |
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 | We designed and delivered science activities in the Discovery Zone at the Royal Norfolk Show for visiting children to learn about the properties of gluten in wheat and the use of insect predators as biocontrol for crop protection. Hundreds of children participated in our activities and most had heard of gluten as it is commonly mentioned now in terms of food allergies so we were able to give them some context around what gluten actually is, where its found and the properties it has. Many children were surprised by this! |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Royal Society Meeting for New Fellows introductory presentation |
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 | I presented my research that underpinned my election as a Fellow of the Royal Socity |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Royal Society fact finding visit to Beijing |
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 | Royal Society fact finding visit to Beijing, 22 to 26 October for Royal Society's genetic technologies programme |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | SAW Project on DNA and Cells |
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 with a year 6 class at a local primary school on DNA and cells and also talked about careers in science with the children. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | SAW Seminar - Sowing the seeds for science outreach |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presented creative outreach projects and ways to capture impact at the department seminar to encourage scientists to be bold with their outreach plans and to demonstrate the value of documenting the process and the outcomes for reporting, reflection and to improve the method. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | SAW Training Workshop for PhD Students |
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 | We provided a SAW Training workshop for PhD Students from Cambridge and Germany who are working on an EU collaborative project entitled PlaMatSu to help them think creatively about how to communicate their research topics to diverse audiences. They completed practical tasks in science, art and writing and made presentations in small groups. The students undertook this training as part of their studentships to prepare them for designing and developing an installation to be put on display at the Cambridge Botanic Garden and in a host venue in Germany. The day concluded with a brainstorming session where the students pulled together their ideas and mapped out next steps as they work to progress their designs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.plamatsu.eu/About-Us/Events/Training-Workshop-4 |
Description | SAW Trust activity at a School (Thetford) |
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 | A one-day outreach activity organised by Edward Hems (Wilkinson group, JIC) with the SAW Trust, which combines Science, Art and Writing. The day focussed on bacteria and the molecules they make. Two members of the research group participated, where they ran an activity based around "Beautiful Bacteria" - looking at the colours, smells and shapes of bacteria. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | SAW workshop at Barford Primary School 11 March 2014 |
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 | Saw (Science, Art and Writing) project in Barford primary school together with Jenni Rant, Gemma Farré Martinez, James Reed, Chris Hann (artist) and Mike O'Driscoll (writer). We spent an entire day at school, explaining my project (Engineer wheat for "Take all" resistance) and opening a dialog about GMOs with 10 to 11 years old pupils. This project took place on the Tuesday 11th of March 2014. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | SAW workshop on Limonoids |
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 are developing a Science Art and Writing workshop on the topic of Liminoids to enable sixth form students to explore mining and synthesis of natural products from plants that are of interest/value to society. The project was designed and trialed with A Level students in Norwich in March 2022 and will then be used as the basis for a teacher-training workshop in the autumn to enable science teachers to run the project themselves. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | STEMM Conference |
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 | Helped to set up a STEMM conference aimed at sixth form students and provided a workshop on plant breeding, nodulation and working towards reduced toxicity in grass pea for consumption in Africa. The session was well attended (students got to choose from a range of sessions) and the pupils enjoyed the hands-on activities but also liked hearing about the research into grass peas and its potential impact. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
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 week presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Gave a one hour talk on the role that microbes and insects play in the carbon cycle and bioremediation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | School Visit at Sir Isaac Newton sixth form science day |
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 | A postdoctoral scientist in my laboratory organised and led a stall about starch at Sir Isaac Newton sixth form, for their Science day. The stall had hand-on activities, displays and posters for demonstrating the importance of starch, and the goals of starch research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | School visit (Cambourne Cambs) |
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 | Deliver a Science, Arts and Writing workshop event on the topic 'Antibiotics: what they are and where they come from'. Delivered a one day event, to two Year 6 classes (one each day). The event generated significant discussion, and involved hands on learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://sawtrust.org/buy-the-books/saw-antibiotics/ |
Description | School visit (Cambourne Cambs) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Spent two days presenting a cross curriculum presentation to two classes of Year 6 pupils at a primary school in collaboration with the SAW Trust (http://sawtrust.org/ ). Much debate and discussion about the topics of microbes, antibiotics, ecology and antimicrobial resistance. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://sawtrust.org/buy-the-books/saw-antibiotics/ |
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 Communication Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Delivered a science communication workshop on the Science Art and Writing (SAW) methodology for third year science undergraduates at the University of East Anglia to show how they can design accessible science activities for non-specialists and can extend into creative writing and arts to provide a rich, memorable experience for participants. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Science Museum Superbugs Late Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | "Antibiotic Hunters" exhibit at a Science Museum Superbug Late Event. This was an adult-only event held in the evening at the Science Museum in London and attended by thousands of people. The exhibit was organised jointly between members of my research group and members of the Wilkinson group (also at JIC). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Scientific Advisory Board Centre for Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) Barcelona |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I chaired the Scientific Advisory Board Centre for Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) Barcelona, and compiled the report for the institution. I also set up the twinning program between JIC and CRAG through liaison with the director, Jose-Luis Reichmann |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Scientific Advisory Board Meeting, on Banana Biofortification Gates project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I advised on scientif direction for the Biofortification of Banana project funded by BMGF in Kampala Uganda |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Scientific Advisory Board Member for Max PIanck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Golm, Germany |
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 | Scientific Advisory Board Meeting for Max PIanck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Scientific Advisory Board Plant and Food Research, New Zealand |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | I attended the Scientific Advisory Board Meeting Plant and Food Research, New Zealand, listened to and advised their emerging scientists and advised on scientific policy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
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 | Seminar: Enhancing Vitamin Content of Tomato Using Gene Editing |
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 SOL Meeting Thessaloniki Greece |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Seminar: Transcription factors as gateway for metabolic engineering |
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 | OpenPlant Forum seminar entitled Transcription factors as gateway for metabolic engineering Presenter Ingo Appelhagen |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
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 | Soil and Plant conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation was titled: Soil health and nutrient supply to plants. Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum 2015 Conference |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Summer Activity Adventure Book |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Using scientific themes from across the research park, we produced an inspiring new summer adventure activity book, that was given out to 5,000 students in years 4 and 5 across Norfolk and Suffolk, to 120 children on the Isle of Skye and to foodbanks across the County. The book, entitled 'Help, there's an alien in my park!' is divided into six sections, each based on a different area of scientific research and includes challenges for young readers to complete. Children worked through the book and completed challenges over the summer holidays, using materials commonly found in and around the home, with little to no parental support. The initiative was developed to lessen the negative impacts of the COVID-19 school closures on science education within the region, where disadvantaged households have been disproportionately affected, widening the attainment gap and leaving many students in need of extra support. Designed to be accessible, the challenges encouraged investigation and creativity that will help the young readers develop as independent learners and nurture an interest in science topics. The feedback from children was excellent and we are working on a book for 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/news/help-theres-an-alien-in-my-park/ |
Description | Synbio and bioinformatics 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 | A lesson plan was developed to cover how bioinformatics is used in research and how this links to synthetic biology and delivered in a secondary school to a group of science sixth form students. Synthetic biology is not well represented in the curriculum and so we worked with a teacher to create a session that enabled students to learn about the processes and to see real examples of how this is being used to create products of use to society. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/news/saws-latest-intern/ |
Description | Synthetic Biology: 4th New Phytologist Workshop, Bristol, UK June 2012 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
Results and Impact | Synthetic biology. Published in New Phytologist, Wiley; 0028-646X no actual impacts realised to date |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
URL | http://0028-646X |
Description | Talk at Kew Gardens |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A Kew organized event called "State of the World's Plants" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk at MfN joint workshop with Rothamsted Research |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Speaker at a joint MfN workshop with Rothamstead Research on Discovery and bioenginnering of plant triterpene pathways |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Talk at Royal Society Club (Zoom) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Informal introductory talk to the Royal Society Club 'Opening the door to science through poetry'. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Talk given at the 1st International RiPPS Conference |
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 | Talk given on natural product discovery at the 1st International RiPPS Conference, held in Granada, Spain |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.rippsconference.org/ |
Description | Talk to JIC All by ingo Appelhagen From colourful mysteries to natural blues |
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 | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | JIC All presentation on use of Metabolomics by Ingo Appelhagen From colourful mysteries to natural blues |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Talking Plants Conference |
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 | Delivered a workshop at the Talking Plants Conference at Cambridge Botanic Garden. This conference takes place at a different botanic garden nationally each year and brings together garden staff and other organisations that work with plants and the public. Our workshop showcased some of the best plant-themed outreach projects we have delivered to share ideas and activities that provide a platform to engage people with plants. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://bgen.org.uk/conferences/talking-plants-2018-conference-proceedings/ |
Description | Translating Science: Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-translating-science-project-at-norwich-research-park-8643544 Norwich Research Park has teamed up with the National Centre for Writing (NCW), based in Norwich, to launch a project called 'Translating Science'. It aims to engage more people in science through creative writing that has been inspired by some of the research conducted by scientists working at the Park. Translating Science paired several established writers and poets with researchers at the various institutes based at Norwich Research Park. The writers each spent time with a nominated researcher who explained their work and discussed the real-life applications. Following these meetings, the writers used the science as their inspiration to create a literary piece. Broadly speaking, the research that the writers based their pieces on were focused on the themes of Healthy Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet. The initiative is being led by Chris Gribble of the NCW and Prof Anne Osbourn of the John Innes Centre, who has engaged people in science through arts and writing projects delivered by the SAW Trust, which she founded. Scriptwriter Shey Hargreaves wrote three poems that explore the discovery and development of new medicines from plants. Her inspiration was the ground-breaking research that Prof Anne Osbourn has led over many years. During the project Shey visited the Osbourn laboratory and had a tour of the glasshouses. "Writers are always looking for inspiration and to have such a wealth of fascinating research at Norwich Research Park to generate ideas is fantastic," said Shey. "It is only when you speak to someone like Anne that you really realise the seismic difference the researchers' work can have on the future of our planet. "Not only am I truly inspired by it but I also feel compelled to share her knowledge and expertise through my poems. I hope my writing can help articulate what Anne is doing and that I can continue to create further pieces that will be inspired by this sort of research." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/new-translating-science-project-at-norwich-research-park-8643544 |
Description | UKRI/BBSRC UK-Japan Workshop (Virtual) 23.10.20 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Plans made for follow up |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | University of Cambridge, Dept. of Plant Sciences student visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation with exhibits of some of our wheat and rice GM projects for two groups of undergraduate plant science students from University of Cambridge. The students were able to see all of the tissue culture stages in the wheat transformation process from immature embryo to transgenic wheat plants. The takeall project was presented as an example of a project which uses genetic modification to tackle a disease in wheat for which there is no resistance which can be bred in traditionally. New developments such as CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing were discussed, and the rationale for its implementation in a number of wheat and rice projects. The students were interested and engaged with our team to discuss the technologies, the practical applications and the regulatory landscape. We subsequently received applications for summer placements. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | University of Geneva - PhD Retreat |
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 | University of Geneva - PhD Retreat, participation in a debate: " Technological advances - A new chance for changing public perception on GMOs". Also speaker title: 'The plant lytic vacuole: space-filler, garbage bag, or something more interesting'. A two-day retreat for PhD students in molecular plant sciences at universities in French-speaking Switzerland. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Webinar at Bristol University: Plant Metabolic Clusters - From Genetics to Genomics (Bristol BioDesign Institute) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre 6 May 2020, 1.00 PM - 2.00 PM Zoom Webinar Plant Metabolic Clusters - From Genetics to Genomics lease email k.sedgley@bristol.ac.uk or agatha.hewitt@bristol.ac.uk - we would also love your feedback post seminar. Plants produce a wealth of natural products. The vast majority of the natural product diversity encoded by plant genomes remains as yet untapped. The explosion in plant genome sequence data, coupled with affordable DNA synthesis and new DNA assembly technologies, now offer unprecedented opportunities to harness the full breadth of plant natural product diversity and generate novel molecules in foreign hosts using synthetic biology approaches. The recent discovery that genes for the synthesis of different kinds of natural products are organised in biosynthetic gene clusters in plant genomes opens up opportunities for mining for new pathways and chemistries. This advance, in combination with powerful new transient plant expression technology, is enabling the development of rational strategies to produce known and new-to-nature chemicals tailored for food, health and industrial applications. This presentation will focus on our work on developing a translational synthetic biology pipeline for rapid preparative access to plant natural products and novel analogs using synthetic biology approaches. It will also highlight recent advances in our understanding of the genomic rearrangements underpinning the formation of new plant biosynthetic gene clusters, and of the functions of plant natural products in nature. https://www.jic.ac.uk/people/anne-osbourn/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biodesign-institute/events/2020/webinar--anne-osbourn.html |
Description | Wimpy Weeds Outreach Stand at County Show |
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 developed an outreach stand for the Discovery Zone area of the Royal Norfolk Show entitled 'Wimpy Weeds'. The purpose was to tackle 'plant blindness', particularly on species that people often overlook and group them into the category of being weeds and of no value. The stand celebrated a host of native species with a tremendous amount of genetic diversity. We looked at the value of these plants in terms of the environmental services they provide to ecosystems for things such as contributing to soil health, climate resilience and as nectar sources for insects. We discussed the importance of protecting biodiversity and of the many plant-derived products that are already important in our lives and the many, as yet, undiscovered products that will provide benefits in the future. Visitors were able to create a plant ident key using ink and rollers for leaf printing and make seedbombs to take away to encourage the growing and appreciation of wildflowers at home. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Workshop for schools (DNA Dave) |
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 a workshop for secondary schools to learn how our DNA Dave robot was built. The workshop first introduces the students to the biological messages DNA Dave tells around DNA transcription and translation, and then teaches them coding using BBC Microbits and LED strings to represent strings of DNA and then amino acids. Finally they learn about the physical build of the robot using a combination of mathematics, materials science and design. Schools are given basic starter kits and then invited to build their own versions of a robot to tell a biological story. This was trialled in March 2020 with the first cohorts of students from schools around Norfolk, with children from ages 14 to 17. The pandemic meant that the robot-building clubs in schools were unable to meet (mixed year groups = mixed bubbles) and so we are developing a video tutorial so that we can restart the programme as a virtual workshop. The teachers who participated in the first workshop are keen to get this project going again once schools are running normally and so have volunteered to try out the video tutorial to assess if the level of instruction given is sufficient for children to participate in the project. In the future we hope to have a real-life event for schools who have built a robot to bring it along to present and share stories. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Workshop for the "International Partnership in Plant Science" |
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 | Online event Harnessing & maintaining biological diversity for plant and crop improvement by UKRI. This invitation-only workshop is part of the "International Partnership in Plant Science" and will enable knowledge-sharing on key themes in plant research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Workshop on UN Sustainable Development Goals |
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 | Workshop organised by EPSO on UN SDGs and how Plant Science could contribute |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Workshops and conference presentation in Shanghai |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | We visited Shanghai to deliver some training workshops for teachers new to the SAW methodology and also for teachers who have been working with SAW for several years. We introduced the Plant growth and development lesson plan to teachers at our hub school and we also presented SAW at a large international education conference showcasing a plant natural products projects to describe the process, |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.sawtrust.org/news/saw-returns-to-shanghai/ |
Description | World Life Science Conference (Sustainable Agriculture Session), Beijing, 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | China National Convention Center presentation: The Plant Vacuole: Roles in Plant and Human Nutrition, and Cellular Signaling 27th - 29th October 2018 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Year 10 Science Camp Talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A talk on natural product discovery to attendees of the year 10 Science Camp at the John Innes Centre. This was followed by questions on antibiotic and anticancer compound discovery. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.jic.ac.uk/training-careers/work-experience/year-10-science-camp/ |
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 |
Description | co-cahired borden research conference |
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 | I organised and fund-raised the 2015 Plant metabolic engineering gordon research conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | sense about science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I am a panel member for sense about science- they forward me questions from the genera public about science and I provide answers in plain english. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |