Tom Lawrenson

Tom leads the Crop Transformation  platform.

Our Crop Transformation team harnesses the natural ability of the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, to introduce our genes of interest into crop and model plant species to enable research aimed at improving crop performance in a changing global climate.

Frequently this work involves genome editing using components such as Cas9 and Cas12a, derived from naturally occurring bacteria.

The team works with multiple scientists to help them obtain answers to their research questions. We are also active in driving forward development in transformation and genome editing technologies which underpin the John Innes Centre’s capabilities.