The past few months have been a truly memorable time in the life and career of Dr Miguel Montez. The John Innes Centre scientist achieved double success by having his research appear in two academic papers published within a few weeks of each other.

Ruth studied at the John Innes Centre from 2009 to 2013 after completing a Biology degree at the University of Manchester and working for the Food and Environment Research Agency. We spoke with Ruth about her love of plant pathology which has taken her career from Cereal Pathologist at RAGT to Disease Control Scientific Expert at Syngenta. 

DEWAS is one of the world’s largest crop pathogen surveillance and advisory systems, protecting wheat productivity in food vulnerable areas of East Africa and South Asia.

Each year at the JIC/TSL Annual Science Meeting, our yearly conference event for all staff and students, awards are given to those who go above and beyond. Here we’re going to take a look back at last year’s outstanding award winners.

The 2025 harvest at the John Innes Centre’s field trials and experimental farm was the earliest on recent record, befitting a pattern of extreme weather variation caused by climate change.

Over the last 12 years, the John Innes Centre has welcomed 35 Year in Industry students into our laboratories. The programme provides a great opportunity for undergraduate students to gain practical scientific experience and to work in a research environment.

July 2025 saw the latest Women in Wheat event, where twenty-five early career women researchers attended a training event at the John Innes Centre, focused on addressing gender bias in the UK and internationally.

Over 600 people have engaged with our bespoke e-learning platform so far, more than 170 people have participated in face-to-face Neurodiversity training across seven BBSRC institutes, and we've catalysed network development, policy conversations, and commercial interest from universities across the UK and beyond.

John Innes Centre researchers are collaborating with a new generation of bioinformaticians in South Africa. Their urgently needed skills are proving vital in protecting major crops against diseases and in understanding the country's remarkable biodiversity