Staff within the research theme

Dr Florian Busch is a theoretical and experimental plant physiologist interested in all aspects of photosynthesis. His focus is on linking different photosynthetic processes with mathematical models to study the biochemical limitations of carbon fixation and to gain a quantitative understanding of how plant carbon uptake responds to changes in the environment.

Dr Catoni integrates computational biology with a range of experimental molecular biology approaches to study the epigenetic mechanisms controlling genome plasticity in plants.

The group investigates the relations between epigenetic and evolution, and develops epigenetic-based approaches to improve plant production, to support a more sustainable agriculture.

View Marco Catoni's Lab Website

Dr Coates's research interests include development, evolution, plant science and cell biology - in particular understanding how plants made the transition to land and how they survived once they got there. Dr Coates has a very strong interest in supporting inclusion and diversity in research, teaching and academic processes.

Dr Compton is a Lecturer in Genetics in the School of Biosciences and her work is focused on understanding the genetic basis of complex traits in crops and the application of this knowledge for improving crop breeding. 

Chris Franklin is a leading expert on meiosis in plants. Work in his laboratory has made a major contribution to the understanding of how meiotic recombination is controlled in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This knowledge is currently being transferred to crop species where the ability to modify genetic recombination will help plant breeders develop the new varieties that will be needed ...

Noni Franklin-Tong’s research focuses on the cellular mechanisms involved in the model cell-cell recognition system of self-incompatibility (SI) in Papaver rhoeas (the Field Poppy). She is recognized at an international level for her work elucidating the cellular mechanisms responsible for regulating the rejection of “self” pollen.

Sexual reproduction in higher plants ...

Prof Gibbs' group studies how plants use targeted protein degradation as a mechanism for sensing and transducing signals and regulating cellular processes, with a particular focus on the N-degron pathway of the ubiquitin proteasome system.  The group uses a range of genetic, cell biology and biochemical approaches to uncover new functions for protein degradation in the control of growth, ...

Professor Rob Jackson is an expert in bacteria-plant interactions, making major contributions to the understanding of how pathogens cause disease and how pathogens evolve to evade host immunity. He also has interests in applied biology questions relating to biocontrol approaches to treat plant diseases.

Dr Graeme Kettles is a molecular plant pathologist with diverse interests across the range of biotic threats that plants encounter. His most recent projects involved study of the virulence strategies used by fungal pathogens of wheat. He is currently establishing a program of tree pathology at Birmingham, in collaboration with the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR).

Originally from Spain, Dr Estrella Luna-Diez is a plant pathologist working in the UK since early 2009. Her work is aimed towards plant protection and biosecurity. Dr Luna-Diez studies the sophisticated immune system of plants in order to exploit their resistance capacity to a maximum.

Professor Zewei Luo is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of Statistical Genetics. Research of his team has been focused on genetics of quantitative traits through theoretical and empirical approaches.

Nigel Maxted is Professor of Plant Genetic Conservation, with specific expertise in in situ and ex situ conservation related to crops, their wild relative and other socio-economically important plants.

Nigel has led National, European and International crop, their wild relative and other socio-economically important plant conservation projects with funding from international (FAO, GEF, Bioversity ...

Megan uses next-generation sequencing tools identify and characterise virulence genes from fungal pathogens of wheat and barley. To do this Megan has worked extensively with long-read de novo genome assembly, genome annotation and transposon annotation. Megan’s background is in population genetics of plant pathogens, studying their origins and global movement during her graduate studies. ...

I am a Professor of Life Sciences Education at the University of Birmingham and Director of Education or the College of Life and Environmental Sciences (LES). My research career started with roots in Wales and focused on aphids in Birmingham with stops in the USA, New Zealand and Europe in between. I started looking at single cells under the ground and now as director of Education for the ...

Dr Mojgan Rabiey is experts in molecular plant-microbe interaction. She works on biological control of tree diseases caused by bacteria. Her main interest is the evolution of tree pathogenic bacteria and bacteriophages, and how bacteriophages can be utilised as an alternative to antibiotics to control fungal and bacterial diseases in plants.