Crops for a sustainable planet

Ash dieback disease

We are mapping inheritance of reduced susceptibility to ash dieback disease and emerald ash borer.

Phytoremediation of explosives

We are engineering transgenic plants able to remediate explosives contaminated land.

Improved amaranth varieties

We are developing new Amaranth varieties with improved nutritional content and agronomic traits, such as yield and water use efficiency.

Phytoremediation of metals

We are using biology to understand the mechanisms behind metal uptake and storage to treat contaminated land.

Efficient and resilient wheat

We are looking for novel sources of abiotic stress tolerance in landrace wheat varieties.

Phages to combat wilt disease

We are investigating how phages (plant-specific viruses) can be used to combat wilt disease caused by infection with Ralstonia solanacearum bacteria.

Improved plant immunity

We are using an RNAi gene silencing system in leafy vegetables to test the function of diverse pathogen genes in infection and identify potential targets for biocontrol.

Breeding resistance

We are identifying candidate genes and genetic markers associated with resistance to fungal pathogens in lettuce.

Genomics for sustainable rapeseed production

We use state-of-the-art genomics to explore the molecular basis of both natural and induced genetic variation in rapeseed.

Resilient rice

We developed more resilient commercial varieties of rice carrying different segments of DNA from wild ancestors.