2000 – Dr Caroline Dean’s team identified and isolated a plant gene (FRIGIDA) that controls whether or not a plant needs a winter period before it will flower

2001 – Professor David Baulcombe of The Sainsbury Laboratory elected FRS for his outstanding contribution to the inter-related areas of plant virology, gene silencing and disease resistance

Professor E Coen elected member of USA’s National Academy of Science; only 18 scientists worldwide and from all branches of science are elected as Foreign Associates each year

2002 – Professor Sir D Hopwood’s group together with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge,  publish the complete genome sequence of Streptomyces coelicolor,  a member of the group of soil-inhabiting microbes that are the source of over half of the antibiotics in current use and many other drugs. Their achievement features on the cover of the international science journal Nature

Major departmental restructuring implemented including the creation of two new research departments in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Microbiology. This brought JIC’s departments to six, the other departments being Crop Genetics, Cell and Developmental Biology, Metabolic Biology, and Disease and Stress Biology

Genome Centre established – housing the John Innes Centre Genome Laboratory and the Norwich Bio-Incubator

2003 – Professor Sir D Hopwood was awarded the first Ernst Chain Prize. The prize is for a career scientist who has made an original and substantive contribution in any field of science which has furthered, or is likely to further, understanding or management of human disease

2004 – Professor C Dean elected FRS (and awarded OBE) for her outstanding contributions in the study of developmental timing in plants. Her work revealing the mechanism by which plants remember they have experienced winter demonstrated novel RNA processing mechanisms controlling flowering. Dean’s pivotal role in the development of Arabidopsis as a model for plant genetics was also recognized

2005 - Merger of appropriate administration and support services of JIC with those of the neighbouring Institute of Food Research announced

2006 – Dr G Moore’s group at JIC sequenced a gene complex that controls how chromosomes pair (Ph1). A major advance in wheat genetics, this knowledge could allow breeders to cross commercially grown varieties with wild varieties to give increased tolerance to drought and other desirable characteristics

Professor Phil Dale (plant genetics) and Dr Alison Smith (plant biochemistry) were both awarded OBEs

2007 – Professor K Roberts awarded OBE in recognition of services to cell biology and to science communication

Computational and Systems Biology Department founded

2008 – Professor Cathie Martin’s group expressed genes from snapdragon in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes high in health-protecting anthocyanins. Sue Bunnewell and Andrew Davis’s image of the tomatoes was selected by Nature as one of the ‘Images of the Year’

Fifth edition of The Molecular Biology of the Cell (co-editor Professor K Roberts) published. This book has now been read by over 1 million people

Bioimaging team moves into purpose-built facility with a new Transmission Electron Microscope

Professor Chris Lamb elected FRS for his major contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of plant defence

Professor C Dean, OBE, FRS elected member of USA’s National Academy of Science

2009 – Mike Bevan appointed acting Director following the unexpected death of Professor Chris Lamb