Dr John Walsh, Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences, and his collaborators have been awarded £15,000 for a research project on the characterisation of Potyviruses infecting vegetable crops in Brazil. The project was funded through the FAPESP SPRINT scheme (São Paulo Researchers in International Collaboration), which aims to encourage and promote the advancement of scientific research through partnerships between researchers in São Paulo State and overseas. The University of Warwick is one of only five UK institutions that has partnered with the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) to support this scheme.

Dr Walsh’s project will be carried out in collaboration with Prof Elliot Kitajima from the University of São Paulo’s Department of Plant Pathology and Nematology in Piracicaba and Dr Marcelo Eiras from the Instituto Biologico in São Paulo. Initial activities to develop this partnership were supported by the University of Warwick’s Brazil Partnership Fund in 2014. The Brazilian operation of the commercial seed company Sakata are also involved in the research programme.

Potyviruses cause significant losses in agricultural, pastoral, horticultural and ornamental crops. This project focusses on Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), which causes diseases in the economically important brassica family of crops including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip and oilseed rape. Through determining the diversity of TuMV and investigating broad-spectrum resistance to the virus the team is expecting to identify naturally occurring resistance genes which can then be introduced into commercial crop lines. The collaboration brings together complementary expertise in plant science research which will lead to significant synergies and knowledge exchange, but also has the potential to generate substantial societal and economic benefits through collaboration with industry and the resulting exploitation of intellectual property.

Undergraduate and newly graduated students from Warwick University will be travelling to MIT, Boston, this September 24-28 to compete in a global synthetic biology competition.

The team is interdisciplinary, with students from distinct academic fields bringing different skills and expertise to the table. These departments involve Maths, Physics, Engineering and Life Sciences, with Biomedical, Biochemical and Biological Sciences represented.

The team will be supported with advice from academic and research staff, including Prof Alfonso Jaramillo and Prof John McCarthy, among others, at the School of Life Sciences.

The latest GARNish newsletter highlights plant science in Life Sciences, profiling the work of our academics.

'Plant science research at the University of Warwick is characterised by the breadth of expertise - from fundamental molecular mechanisms to projects with direct application to industry. We have world-class basic science in signalling, gene regulation, development, plant– environment (microbes, virus, soil) interactions, and evolution through to pest management, crop genetics and genomics underpinning the development of new varieties.'

Read the newsletter (pdf)

This week the School of Life Sciences welcomes the next generation of scientists from across the United Kingdom as part of a Headstart Summer School.

Taking place between the 19-23 July at the University’s Gibbet Hill campus, the Headstart Life Sciences course will provided the 17 year olds the opportunity to explore different biological disciplines taught within the School of Life Sciences and introduce them to a flavour of the academic side of undergraduate life.

A large number of our graduates and their guests attended the School of Life Sciences Graduation Reception on Friday 17 July. Our Head of School, Laura Green, welcomed everyone on behalf of the School and many staff were on hand to greet and to congratulate their tutees.

We know better than anyone how much effort is needed to get a degree and congratulate everyone on their achievements this year.

Class prizes and thesis awards 2015

The University of Warwick is a partner in an exciting new initiative, the Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) programme, designed to improve post-graduate level knowledge and understanding of the food system. Through IFSTAL, students will be equipped with the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed for them to be more effective in the workplace. This will allow them to address the systemic failings in food systems which have resulted in about one billion people being hungry, two billion lacking sufficient nutrients, and over two billion overweight or obese.

With core funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), IFSTAL will bring together expertise and experience of faculty and students from five leading higher education institutions. Post-graduate students at these institutions, with an interest in ‘food systems’, will have the opportunity to participate and become part of the IFSTAL community.

Participating institutions are the University of Oxford (lead institution), City University-London, University of Reading, University of Warwick and the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH, comprising researchers from the Royal Veterinary College, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the School of Oriental and African Studies).

On 23rd June, Dr Liz Fullam was invited to Buckingham Palace for afternoon tea as a Sir Henry Dale fellow. The event, organised by the Royal Society, enabled newly appointed fellows to meet with his Royal Highness the Duke of York. HRH kindly hosted the event, giving him the opportunity to find out more about the research of some of our best young scientists. Liz met HRH and spoke about her work on tuberculosis (TB) and the importance of finding new drugs and diagnostics for this disease.

Results from a nationwide survey on oilseed rape indicate a high incidence of Turnip Yellows Virus (TuYV) in parts of England this year. Dr John Walsh, who led the research on behalf of seed breeder Limagrain UK, presented his findings at the Cereals 2015 event held in Lincolnshire 10 -11 June 2015.

‘Levels of infection are much higher than they have been for the past few seasons, with crops in parts of Yorkshire as much as 92% infected. Generally these hotspots are where you would expect them to be due to the large areas of oilseed rape being grown locally.'

TuYV is thought to be the most damaging of all viruses transmitted in brassica crops, yet least understood. Carried by the peach-potato aphid, it results in yield losses and tipburn after storage. Dr Walsh believes that the high incidences of infection have come about as a result of the high numbers of aphids flying last year.

'Last winter was mild and there were high levels of peach-potato aphid, leading to very high levels of the virus.'

The Mesolithic-to-Neolithic transition marked a profound change in human society as a hunter-gatherer economy gave way to agriculture and the development of complex societies. In Northern Europe, this coincided with rising sea levels which cut Britain off from the continental mainland.

Professor Robin Allaby explains his new research which challenges the traditional evaluation of the development of early British man.

Research article

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has rapidly become the deadliest since the discovery of the virus. But what do we really know about this deadly disease? Ahead of his Cheltenham Science Festival lecture at the Winton Crucible on Thursday 4th June, Virologist Professor David Evans explores a little of the history and biology of Ebola.

Researchers from the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences (SLS) have been awarded over £1.36m in grants to further their work into food security.

The BBSRC Horticulture and Potato Initiative (HAPI) grants include substantial cash and in-kind contributions from industrial partners and will be used to support work into how to improve pest and disease control and post-harvest quality.

Commenting on the grants Professor Laura Green, Head of SLS, said:

“The BBSRC HAPI grants will help ensure that the University of Warwick’s School Life Sciences continues to play a leading role in improving food production globally. The Warwick HAPI-funded projects will result in substantial impacts on the horticulture industry by translating research findings into solutions that benefit several stages in the food supply chain, including farmers, processors and retailers.”

Press Release

The School of Life Sciences is pleased to welcome Prof Michael VanNieuwenhze, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University. Prof VanNieuwenhze, an expert in peptide antibiotics and bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, will spend eight weeks at Warwick as an IAS Visiting Fellow, hosted by Dr David Roper (Life Sciences) and Prof Tim Bugg (Chemistry).

During the Fellowship Prof VanNieuwenhze will spend time with researchers at Warwick, sharing his knowledge of methods and techniques and participating in a series of lectures and workshops, which will also involve academics from other institutions. His expertise will provide great synergy with members of the research community at Warwick, enabling the consolidation of existing collaborations and the initiation of new partnerships to drive forward research in the globally important area of antimicrobials.

Life Sciences researchers have been awarded £3.19m in funding to support a flagship project into antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The funding will enable multi-partner collaborations in order to tackle the growing threat of superbugs as part of a co-ordinated multi-disciplinary effort to fight their prevalence.

Awarded by a cross research council ‘war cabinet’ on AMR comprising the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the funding marks one of the largest UK public grant investments in AMR research.

Researchers Prof Chris Dowson, Dr David Roper, Dr Adrian Lloyd from the School of Life Sciences and Prof Matthew Turner of the Department of Physics, will investigate a vital link in the chain of antimicrobial resistance – the bacterial cell wall. The main component of the wall is called peptidoglycan, which is the key target of penicillin and other similar antibiotics.

Press Release

The University of Warwick is running an exciting programme of research-led events in 2015 as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
Members of the School of Life Sciences will be taking part in events in Brussels in the week beginning 8th June as part of these celebrations focusing on:

Bee health
The European honeybee is the world's most important commercially-managed pollinator. Its associated pests and pathogens are becoming increasingly worrying factors that have seen the decline of honeybee stocks, causing concern about the future availability of honeybee pollination.

Sustainable use of pesticides
The tools that are available to farmers and growers to implement sustainable use of pesticides in a way that is practical and viable economically.

Nick Dale, Professor of Neuroscience in the School of Life Sciences, has been awarded £755,273 from BBSRC for his project on ‘Amino acid sensing by hypothalamic tanycytes’.
The research will focus on specialised cells known as tanycytes, which play a crucial role in detecting the levels of important metabolites such as amino acids and glucose in the brain.
This sensing mechanism helps the brain to regulate the balance between energy storage and expenditure, leading to the gain and loss of body weight, so understanding the biological factors involved in these processes could lead to major impacts on health and wellbeing.

On the 6th & 7th May the University of Warwick held a highly successful first UK Autophagy Network Meeting entitled Autophagy in Health and Disease.

The symposium was organised by Dr Ioannis Nezis of the School of Life Sciences and Professor Sharon Tooze from The Francis Crick Institute and was generously sponsored by the Company of Biologists, British Society for Cell Biology, Science AAAS, Abcam Plc, Enzo Life Sciences and Abgent Ltd.

The delegates discussed the latest advances in Autophagy Research, from basic molecular and cellular mechanisms to pathophysiology of diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration and other ageing-related diseases, studied in several model organisms (yeast, fruit flies and mice). The programme also included two poster sessions.

A number of collaborations are planned as a result of the meeting, and plans are already in place for a second meeting, possibly in Edinburgh next year.

Around 100 delegates attended from across the UK, including two overseas speakers, Professor Tom Neufeld (University of Minnesota, USA) and Professor Terje Johansen (University of Tromso, Norway).
Other invited UK speakers were Professor David Rubinsztein (University of Cambridge), Professor Katja Simon (University of Oxford), Dr Ian Ganley (University of Dundee), Dr Oliver Florey (Babraham Institute, Cambridge), Dr Rupert Beale (University of Cambridge), Dr Stephanie Kermorgant (Queen Mary University), Dr Sovan Sarkar (University of Birmingham), Dr Michelangelo Campanella (The Royal Veterinary College, University of London), Dr Niccolo Pengo (UCL) and Dr Elaine Dunlop (Cardiff University).

John Sidda has been awarded an Early Career Fellowship from the University of Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study (IAS).
John, who recently completed a PhD under the supervision of Dr Chris Corre in the School of Life Sciences and the Department of Chemistry, will build on his previous research on the regulatory mechanisms involved in bacterial natural product biosynthesis, which led to the discovery of new natural products from Stremtomyces venezuelea.
His Fellowship project, which was co-funded by the School of Life Sciences’ Pump Priming Fund, aims to develop the methodology used for natural product discovery in other Streptomyces species.

Vincent Poon, a PhD student in Dr Chris Corre’s group in the School of Life Sciences, attended Parliament to present his research on exploiting soil bacteria to unlock the production of novel antibiotics.
Vincent presented to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges as part of a SET for Britain event.

SET for Britain aims to encourage, support and promote Britain's early-stage and early-career research scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians who are an essential part of continuing progress in and development of UK research.

Dr Christophe Corre, Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences and Department of Chemistry, has been awarded funding from BBSRC for his project on ‘Novel inducible gene expression systems based on furan inducers and the MmfR transcriptional repressor’.

The research will focus on investigating the mechanisms that control antibiotic production in Streptomyces bacteria, and how this can be exploited to generate new tools for use by the biotechnology industry. Chris was also recently awarded a three-year extension to his Royal Society University Research Fellowship to undertake a project on ‘Decrypting and exploiting new signalling systems that control antibiotic biosynthesis’.

Research by Dr John Walsh from the School of Life Sciences, funded by the Horticultural Development Company, has provided the scientific evidence required to justify an Emergency Crop Protection Authorisation enabling the use of an insecticide-based seed treatment in the UK.

John’s research demonstrated the role played by peach-potato aphid in carrying Turnip yellows virus (TuYV), the most damaging of all viruses transmitted by aphids in brassica crops, which results in yield losses and tipburn after storage. The seed treatment technique protects plants from aphid attack for up to ten weeks after planting and effectively reduces and delays TuYV infections.

The Brassica Growers Association estimated that this has saved the industry around £58M in 2015 due to the reduced requirement for additional insecticide treatments, and prevention of yield and storage losses. Current research funded by BBSRC is based on developing an integrated strategy for control of TuYV in crops.