George Dobson

George is working on a collaborative project between Professor Antony Dodd’s group and Professor Steve Penfield’s group.

George’s current work focuses on establishing a unique new experimental platform at the JIC. This platform will allow near-environment conditions to be simulated in smart-growth chambers while simultaneously assessing plant physiology and gene expression in model and crop plant species.
The new platform will represent a significant step forward in investigations into plant responses to the environment. Plant biology in the laboratory has traditionally relied on simplified growth conditions, which bear little resemblance to real-world conditions. These simplified conditions are useful for understanding the basic functions of genes and proteins, but over the last 5 years, it has become apparent that gene function in real environments can be surprisingly different to those in laboratory conditions. The new platform will allow real-time bioluminescence measurements in simulated near-environment conditions based on weather station data, removing the limitations of simplified conditions and destructive methods.

George has a background in metabolic biochemistry, particularly 13-C metabolic flux analysis in Arabidopsis and is expanding his scientific horizons while at the JIC.