Our Approach
Mimicking Nature in the Lab
While lab environments can never fully replicate nature, mimicking natural light environments in the lab is now possible thanks to advances in LED technologies. Studying how plants respond to changing environments in the lab also offers opportunities for closer monitoring of plant physiology, and for implementing more complex experimental designs while isolating the effects of individual variables.
An example of a controlled growth chamber mimicking natural light
Plant growth can now be monitored at scale using computer vision techniques
Experimental Systems Biology
For decades biologists have been studying the roles of individual genes using laborious and time-consuming methods, and often with relatively small experimental designs. A focus on individual genes and their contribution to individual biological processes has led us to underestimate, and even overlook, the more complex interdependencies that characterize life, even at the molecular scale.
Instead, by using new methods to monitor the behaviour of thousands of genes and proteins across hundreds to thousands of experimental samples, we can now arrive at a systems-level understanding of biological networks and how they respond and adapt to new environments.
Only by understanding the dynamics of biological systems at this resolution can we hope to engineer complex traits predictably.
Our research approach emphasizes using innovative experimental designs, the latest technologies in biomolecular analysis, and advanced data analysis methods to generate data, infer hypotheses and, answer new questions.
(Image inspired by the Institute for Systems Biology)
New Biotechnology
The invention of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology (and its many derivatives) has revolutionized how we do science. It also has the potential to revolutionize agricultural biotechnology. We aim to use genome editing as both a powerful research tool and, potentially, as a means to produce new plant varieties for industrial applications. The scientific consensus on the safety of genome editing (and other New Genomics Techniques) in agriculture is clear, and so is the interest of breeders and farmers to use these methods to develop sustainable alternatives to current food production systems. It is now up to us to build public support and understanding and empower lawmakers to enable innovation by permitting these methods.
Read about a recent European Commission study into NGTs and their recommendations here.