Skip to main content Skip to navigation

School of Life Sciences

Professor Richard Napier

Professor & Deputy Head of School (Operations)

Email: Richard.Napier@warwick.ac.uk 

Phone: 024 765 75094

Office: B139

Napier webpage

Research Clusters

Plant and Agricultural SciencesLink opens in a new window

Warwick Centres and GRPs

Sustainability Spotlight

Vacancies and Opportunities

For PhD and postdoctoral opportunities, and interest in potential collaborations, please contact me by email.

Research Interests

Our primary interest is in how the plant hormone auxin works because its actions are the foundations for most of the green plant world. As biochemists, we are fascinated by how specificity is conferred for auxin. Millions of similar, but different small organic molecules cause no reaction at all, whilst the natural hormone molecule (known as indole-3-acetic acid, IAA) fits into its binding pocket perfectly.

We purify members of the auxin receptor family of proteins in the lab and use these in experiments to measure binding using advanced instruments like Biacore SPR (surface plasmon resonance). We are interested in how and why different members of the receptor family show preferences for different auxins. This is important in agriculture because synthetic auxins are vitally important selective herbicides.

The Napier group also has research interests in next generation plastics and agriculture. Principally, we are interested in nanoparticles and determining whether or not polymers with particular characteristics (size, charge etc) can pass into plants and how we may use this information to design nanoparticles to carry very specific payloads to benefit crop performance, or to design nanoparticles which are specifically excluded from plants.

A second interest is in the development of policies to promote fresh food (fruit and vegetable) production in the UK. In 2023 we published "Growing British - a strategy paper for promoting fresh produce production in the UK". We are developing a knowledge exchange hub for the edible horticulture sector and helping drive the Warwick Agri-Tech initiative. Warwick Agri-Tech will combine world class facilities at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Warwick Crop Centre (WCC) and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult to spearhead the much needed acceleration of automation and robotics into horticulture, field crops and forestry.

Research: Technical Summary

My biochemistry work on auxin receptors uses proteins expressed using recombinant baculoviruses in insect cell culture. After purification we prepare proteins for binding activity assays for which we use SPR technology. We also use other biophysical techniques as necessary.

polymer nanoparticle research is a collaboration with Prof Remzi BecerLink opens in a new window in Chemistry and Prof Miriam GiffordLink opens in a new window. We use fluorescent polymers and confocal microscopy to follow transit of particles into plants.

Policy promotes my interest in agriculture. Warwick Crop Centre specialises in research to support the edible horticulture sector and our policy work aims to create a primary point of contact and reference for fragmented grower communities. We are adopting AI technologies to help provide relevant information, working with local councils on developing a fresh food supply strategy and setting up a national policy research unit for fresh produce.

Warwick Agri-Tech brings together the engineering expertise of WMG with the Crop Centre's expertise in applied agriculture.

Professor, 2005, University of Warwick

Let us know you agree to cookies

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Please let us know if you agree to functional, advertising and performance cookies. You can update your cookie preferences at any time.

Cookie policy