Professor Claire Domoney

As an Emeritus Fellow, Claire is actively engaged in a number of projects which are aligned with industrial application. She interacts closely with Dr Janneke Balk, Dr Sanu Arora and Dr Jonathan Clark, contributes to project meetings such as ‘PeaProtein’ and’PEAS’, and provides ad hoc support to Janneke in the management of the Defra-funded Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network, which Claire led until 2024.

Claire’s research on pea (Pisum sativum) has led to the generation of seeds which have very different profiles of protein and starch, compared with standard cultivated lines. Her work has shown that many proteins which are stored in the seed can be removed through natural and induced variation to enhance quality traits, such as protein digestibility, amino acid bioavailability, and aspects of taste and flavour, and are dispensable to seed development and viability. Removing the capacity of the seed to make the major vicilin proteins leads to a significant re-balancing of the seed proteome.

Claire remains actively engaged with research on seed size and colour in pea. She collaborates with Dr Burkhard Steuernagel and Dr Max Jones on analysis of genome assemblies and genomic research in pea, and with scientists at Quadram Instutute (Professor Nathalie Juge, Dr Fred Warren and Dr Cathrina Edwards) on human nutrition.