I am a plant scientist and bioinformatician with a record of gene discovery in wheat and other grass crops aimed at developing improved varieties. Some of these discoveries have led me to a broad interest in evolution of grasses. I now work as a consultant contributing to research proposals where I am funded if proposal is successful.

universal_grass_peps

universal_grass_peps is a new database I developed containing grass genes identified as likely common function in all grasses (universal) and categorised as likely of monocot- or commelinid- or grass-specific function

13,312 groups of universal grass genes

395 monocot specific
1,412 commelinid specific
2,805 grass specific

download database

go to code (github)

publication

Example projects aimed at new crop varieties arising from my gene discovery. [Click on pictures for more detail]

low viscosity wheat

Novel wheat designed to have low extract viscosity for improved alcohol production. Photo shows plots of this low viscosity wheat and control lines growing in UK , courtesy of Limagrain UK.

novel sugar cane

Sugar cane with suppression of a single gene to improve digestibility of residue for biofuel. Photo shows sugarcane BAHD01 RNAi lines and controls growing in Brasilia, Brazil, courtesy of EMBRAPA-AgroEnergy.