John Innes Centre researchers selected for bioscience innovation prize final
March 4 2010
Two research groups from the John Innes Centre have been shortlisted for the finals of a £20,000 national bioscience innovation prize. The finals of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) Innovator of the Year Award are on 18 March.
Professor Ian Bancroft’s group have developed a set of genetic tools designed to harness the wealth of information coming from modern DNA sequencing projects to accelerate crop breeding. The tools have been developed as a result of many years of ground breaking research into the genome organisation of crop plants, especially in oilseed rape. This crop has been used to study how different crop plants have evolved complex genomes, often with duplicated genomes (polyploidy). For example, wheat, which the group is also studying, is also a polyploid and has three sets of chromosomes.
This genomic complexity has held back advances in using the genetic information from sequencing programmes to accelerate crop breeding, which is the driving force behind these innovations. The JIC team are now making this technology available to crop breeders through a working partnership with a bioinformatics service company, so that the technology can deliver its potential for producing improved crop varieties.
“The development of efficient tools to underpin breeding is a high priority for world agriculture in general, and UK breeders in particular,” said Prof Mike Bevan, Acting Director of the John Innes Centre.
Dr Michael McArthur has developed novel technologies to combat drug resistant bacterial infections, such as MRSA. He has shown that using stretches of DNA sequence as ‘decoys’ can disrupt the essential genes of bacteria, allowing antibiotics to kill off the bacteria. A spin-out company from the JIC, Procarta Biosystems, is now taking this technology through to the marketplace.
“Over the last decade all the major pharmaceutical companies have been bringing fewer antibiotics to the market, some have even departed the field altogether, a trend that is likely to be exacerbated by resistance issues. Procarta’s novel solution not only tackles antibiotic resistance but also is a solution which should be far less susceptible to resistance.” said Michael
“We are currently developing a therapy for MRSA and other difficult to treat superbugs, for which there are few therapeutic options. If we can bring this to the clinic it will represent an entirely novel type of antibiotic that will be effective against resistant strains and will help prevent the spread of resistance in the future.”
Procarta is the first mover in the field of using DNA-based drugs in this way, and hopes to use revenue generated from bringing its first product to market in the next year to develop a pipeline of further potential applications of the DNA decoy technology.
Seven finalists have been selected from 36 nominations by an independent judging panel to compete for a £5000 prize in each of three categories:
•Commercial Innovator
•Social Innovator
•Most Promising Innovator
One of the three category winners will be selected as the overall Innovator of the Year 2010, receiving a further £5000.All seven national finalists will present to the judging panel on 18 March 2010. The winners will be announced later that evening during an awards ceremony and gala dinner at East Wintergardens, Canary Wharf, London.
The Innovator of the Year Award is an annual competition designed to recognise and reward scientists who are ensuring that the UK’s excellent bioscience research is translated into outcomes that positively affect quality of life for everyone. The award, now in its second year, was established with view to encouraging researchers to consider the potential of their research and take the necessary steps to maximise the social and economic impact of the excellent work they do.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director of Innovation and Skills said: “We would like to congratulate the finalists who have all done extremely well to get this far in the competition. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to acknowledge these researchers for their commitment to using their science to contribute to the wider community.
“The UK bioscience community is producing world class research to take on issues of global importance and these seven researchers are great examples. The products, technologies, tools, methods and advice generated through entrepreneurial activity by scientists will have a social impact and generate revenue for UK Plc.”
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CONTACT
JIC Press Office
Zoe Dunford, Tel: 01603 255111, email: zoe.dunford@jic.ac.uk
Andrew Chapple, Tel: 01603 251490, email: andrew.chapple@jic.ac.uk
BBSRC External Relations
Nancy Mendoza, Tel: 01793 413355, email: nancy.mendoza@jic.ac.uk
Matt Goode, Tel: 01793 413299, email: matt.goode@jic.ac.uk
Tracey Jewitt, Tel: 01793 414694, email: tracey.jewitt@jic.ac.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
BBSRC is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £450 million in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life in the UK and beyond and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders, including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
BBSRC provides institute strategic research grants to the following:
The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Studies (Aberystwyth University), Institute of Food Research, John Innes Centre, The Genome Analysis Centre, The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) and Rothamsted Research. The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments and other end-users of their research.
For more information see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
About the John Innes Centre
The John Innes Centre, www.jic.ac.uk, is an independent, world-leading research centre in plant and microbial sciences with over 500 staff. JIC is based on Norwich Research Park and carries out high quality fundamental, strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular, cellular and genetic levels. The JIC also trains scientists and students, collaborates with many other research laboratories and communicates its science to end-users and the general public. The JIC is a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Institute.
The complete list of finalists:
- Professor Shankar Balasubramanian, University of Cambridge - The creation of Solexa sequencing®: Technology for sequencing genomes
- Professor Ian Bancroft, Dr Martin Trick, Fiona Fraser and Dr Rachel Wells, John Innes Centre - Sequence-based tools to accelerate crop breeding
- Professor David Becker, UCL - Nexagon: A novel drug for healing chronic wounds
- Professor Benjamin Davis, University of Oxford - Synthetic biology in the creation of bioconjugate technologies
- Professor Dave Goulson, University of Stirling - Bumblebees for everyone
- Professor Christopher Lowe, University of Cambridge - "Smart" holograms
- Dr Michael McArthur, John Innes Centre - Potent novel antibacterials to combat drug resistant bacterial infections
