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The John Innes Centre is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the BBSRC. The institutes deliver innovative, world class bioscience research and training, leading to wealth and job creation, generating high returns for the UK economy. They have strong links with business, industry and the wider community, and support policy development.

The institutes' research underpins key sectors of the UK economy such as agriculture, bioenergy, biotechnology, food and drink and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the institutes maintain unique research facilities of national importance.

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'Human genome
and beyond'
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Economic Impact

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Food Security - What Next?

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JIC forms part of the
Norwich Research Park

Welcome to the John Innes Centre, an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology. Our mission is to generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research, to train scientists for the future, to apply our knowledge to benefit agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and engage with policy makers and the public.

The John Innes Centre contributes over £170M annually to the UK economy, demonstrating the impact and relevance of the excellent scientific research we undertake, and validating the investment of public funding to support this (2008 data from an independent report by DTZ). An economic impact brochure highlights the key achievements of the institute during the 100 years of its existence, the impact of its science and how it has been of benefit to society.

News from JIC

	Generating whitefly-resistant plants May 2012 The John Innes Centre (JIC) announced that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr Saskia Hogenhout, in collaboration with the Dr. Eduardo Bejarano from the University of Malaga (Spain) and Dr Ian Bedford of the JIC Insectary, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project titled “Generating Whitefly-Resistant Plants” to help develop new ways of protecting important crop plants from insects and associated plant diseases.
	Plans for China-UK Centre of Excellence for plant and microbial research May 2012 A new centre of excellence for plant and microbial research is planned in China following a joint symposium in Shanghai between researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the John Innes Centre. The symposium highlighted shared scientific goals that will drive the step change in agriculture needed to produce food sustainably in the future.
	Barley takes a leaf out of reindeer’s book in the land of the midnight sun May 2012 Barley grown in Scandinavian countries is adapted in a similar way to reindeer to cope with the extremes of day length at high latitudes. Researchers have found a genetic mutation in some Scandinavian barley varieties that disrupts the circadian clock. Just as reindeer have dropped the clock in adapting to extremely long days, so has Scandinavian barley to grow successfully in that region’s short growing season. This new knowledge may be useful in efforts to adapt crops for regions where the growing season is short.
	Fine mapping wheat genes April 2012 The use of new genomic techniques and increased sequencing power promise to help breeding crops, but for wheat the pipeline from the laboratory to the field is held up by wheat’s complex genome and the lack of the kind of detailed genome sequence available for simpler plants. A new study has applied next generation sequencing techniques to wheat and shows how they can aid in fine mapping genes to the level needed by the plant breeding community.
	The first UK PlantSci Conference helps realise the potential of basic plant science April 2012 Academic research and large scientific businesses are sometimes seen as opposites, but together they are key to ensuring the economy gets maximum benefit from Government-funded research. On 18th-19th April the first UK PlantSci conference, held at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, helped to cross the gulf between pure research and the commercial world.
	Plant research reveals new role for gene silencing protein March 2012 A DICER protein, known to produce tiny RNAs in cells, also helps complete an important step in gene expression, according to research on Arabidopsis thaliana. The expression of a gene, when an organism’s DNA is transcribed into a useable product, requires activation via a promoter or an external trigger. Plant research to be published in Science helps to show that later stages of transcription are just as important. This is likely to apply to other organisms, including humans.
	JIC researcher named Innovator of the Year March 2012 Professor George Lomonossoff has won “Most Promising Innovator” and the overall “Innovator of the Year” prize at this year’s national BBSRC Innovator of the Year Awards, for his work with Dr Frank Sainsbury on the development of a system for the rapid production of vaccines and pharmaceutical proteins in plants.
	Why spring is blooming marvellous (and climate change makes it earlier) March 2012 With buds bursting early, only for a mild winter to turn Arctic and wipe them out, we are witnessing how warm weather can trigger flowering, even out of season, and how important it is for plants to blossom at the right time of year. John Innes Centre scientists have unpicked why temperature has such a powerful affect on how plants flower. Research published in the journal Nature identifies the switch that accelerates flowering time in response to temperature.
	New research could make it easier to grow health-promoting blood oranges March 2012 For the red pigmentation to develop, blood oranges normally require a period of cold as they ripen. The only place to reliably grow them on a commercial scale is in the Sicilian area of Italy around Mount Etna. Scientists have identified the gene responsible for blood orange pigmentation and have discovered how it is controlled, opening up solutions to growing blood oranges reliably through genetic engineering.
	John Innes Centre researcher wins Bronze for Biology display in Parliament March 2012 JIC researcher Dr Christopher Burt has won Bronze at a competition in the House of Commons, for the excellence of his biology research. Christopher presented a poster on research into eyespot, a fungal disease of wheat, which was judged against dozens of other scientists research in SET for Britain, the only national competition of its kind.
	Biochemical Society award for JIC Microbiologist March 2012 Professor Mervyn Bibb of the John Innes Centre has been awarded the Heatley Medal and Prize by the Biochemical Society, for his contribution to the development of novel antibiotics.
	First model of how buds grow into leaves March 2012 Leaves come in all shapes and sizes. Scientists have discovered simple rules that control leaf shape during growth. Using this 'recipe', they have developed the first computer model able to accurately emulate leaf growth from a bud.
	First plants caused ice ages February 2012 Research rooted in Norwich science has revealed how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. Scientists set out to identify the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago. During this period the climate gradually cooled, leading to a series of ‘ice ages’. This global cooling was caused by a dramatic reduction in atmospheric carbon which this research suggests was triggered by the arrival of plants.