Dr Juliet Coates SFHEA

PhD. University of London (University College London), UK. 'Armadillo homologues in Dictyostelium discoideum'.
Funding: MRC/GlaxoSmithKline 4-year Graduate Programme.

Undergraduate degree. University of Cambridge, UK.
M.A. (Hons) Natural Sciences, Class I (Part II Zoology).

Juliet has worked with many biological systems, beginning with mammalian cell cultures and the social amoeba Dictyostelium during undergraduate and PhD research. Her postdoctoral research investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying social behaviour in the nematode worm C. elegans.

An independent postdoctoral fellowship (Gatsby Charitable Foundation) enabled her to become a molecular plant scientist at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Since then, she has been a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Birmingham. She works part-time.

Her research uses the model plant Arabidopsis, alongside moss, seaweeds, tomatoes, and cereals to address fundamental biological questions about plant evolution, development and stress responses. Her research also informs her teaching. 

She is an advocate for inclusion and social justice. She delivers training (as consultancy) on how the biology of the nervous system drives behaviour and how this knowledge can be used to improve individual and collective wellbeing in education systems and workplaces.

She is currently the School’s Access, Participation and Progress Lead. She is a member of the School’s EDI committee and previously chaired the committee. She has previous had roles as Head of Quality Assurance and Enhancement (QAE), Exams Officer, Athena SWAN lead, and been a member of the University’s Athena SWAN self-assessment team. She instigated the University’s Single Parents’ Staff Network, which is now the University Parents and Carers Network. She is a member of the Enabling Staff Network.

Juliet is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and has received a University of Birmingham Disability and Learning Support Services’ Excellent Practice Award. 

Current undergraduate teaching:

• Level H/M year Responses to Global Environmental Change: Model plants and molecular genetics, techniques for studying plant molecular and cell biology, reading scientific papers.
• Level M Communication and Research Skills – careers and recruitment training (inclusion, diversity, unconscious bias).
• Level I Plant Science: from Cell to Environment – from model plants and algae to crops; plant hormone signalling and development, plant genomics.
• Level C Ecological Concepts and Plant Science (Module Organiser): Plant hormones and development, Plant Cell Biology, plant reproduction. Initiatives around inclusive assessment, groupwork and reflective practice.
• Level C Introduction to Evolution and Animal Biology: Evolution of Multicellularity; How the Nervous System Drives Behaviour.
• Level C Human Sciences: plant science and behaviour.
• Supervision of Level H/M literature reviews, research projects and education projects.
• Personal tutor Level C, I, H and M.

Broad expertise in plant development, plant evolution, plant stress responses, plant cell signalling, molecular plant science and ‘omics.

Juliet has overarching research interests around plant development/cell biology cell signalling, land plant evolution, and evolution of multicellular organisms more generally.

Recent projects include:

1. Translating Submergence Tolerance mechanisms from seaweeds to land plants (EU-Marie Sklowdowska Curie Fellowship SUBTOL with Dr Vishal Gupta; working with MSci student Bethan Soanes; continuing with Juliet’s Leverhulme Trust Fellowship 2024-5 and PhD student Ritu Nakade).
2. Understanding DELLA protein function in the moss Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens (BBSRC-funded PhD project with Dr Alex Phokas; working with MSci student Panida Wadsworth).
3. Understanding MYB93 protein function in Arabidopsis and tomato (China Scholarship Council PhD project with Dr Xulyu Cao; working with MRes student Bethany Hutton and MSci student Nancy McMulkin).
4. Understanding MYB93 protein function in Arabidopsis and cereals (BBSRC-funded PhD project with Dr Clare Clayton; working with MRes and MIBTP rotation student Helen Wilkinson and MIBTP rotation student Lisa King).
5. Ulva growth, development and applications (Islamic Development Bank-funded PhD project with Dr Fatemeh Ghaderiardakani).

Research

Juliet was until 2016 a BBSRC Research Committee panel C core member, and formerly part of the UK Genomic Arabidopsis Resource Network (GARNet) committee (http://www.garnetcommunity.org.uk/advisers/juliet-coates)

Juliet was a Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow in 2013-14 (https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/leverhulme-trust-senior-research/juliet-coates/)

Equality and Diversity

Juliet was until 2017 the School’s Equality and Diversity Champion for staff and students. She is a member of the University's Athena SWAN self-assessment team and was a member of the University of Birmingham Advancing Equality in Employment (AEiE) steering group in 2013-14. She chaired the School of Biosciences Athena SWAN working group, which recently renewed a Bronze award.

Outreach and Public Engagement

Juliet has produced scientific images as art and has won competitions (e.g. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/outreach/sciencesnaps/ and https://bscb.org/competitions-awardsgrants/image-competition/)

Juliet wrote a chapter for  “The New Optimists” – a popular science book, and gave an interview, “Adaptable Algae and Magic Moss”, which can be viewed at at http://newoptimists.com/2010/08/09/the-history-of-moss-and-future-of-algae/#more-1326

Juliet collaborated on Kelp Road exhibition with artist Anne Parouty and gave a radio interview about seaweed on BBCWM.

Juliet enjoys sharing her science with schools and the wider public and was a STEM ambassador for Birmingham and Solihull until 2017

Outside work, Juliet looks after her son, and when she has any energy left, gardens, swims and does yoga.