BORRILL LAB - Key Persons

Arunkumar Ramesh

Job Titles:

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Postdoctoral Researcher

I am a postdoctoral researcher studying the inheritance of homoeolog expression patterns in polyploid wheat. Homoeolog expression patterns have been selected during the 10,000 years of wheat domestication and it is now known that one or more homoeologs in 30% of triads are over- or under-expressed compared to the remaining gene copies [DOI: 10.1126/science.aar6089]. I am interested in investigating if homoeolog expression can be inherited and uncovering the genetic and epigenetic factors that control the inheritance of homoeolog expression. I have previously worked on the genetic basis of a floral polymorphism known as heterostyly and host-parasitoid interactions.

Catherine Evans

Job Titles:

Student ( MIBTP CASE )
Student MIBTP Case ( 2019 - 2023 )

Catherine is a PhD student in the Borrill Lab interested in wheat senescence and grain protein content. Wheat fields turning golden are a familiar sight in summer: this is a sign of senescence. Her research focuses on how senescence is regulated, and how this relates to wheat grain protein content and yield. During the PhD she is investigating the effect of specific transcription factor genes on the timing of senescence. Catherine started her PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2019 and moved to the John Innes Centre in 2021. She holds a CASE studentship with Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) and RAGT Seeds Ltd. Before this, she achieved a BA in Biology (First) at the University of Oxford.

Chen Ji

Job Titles:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr Philippa Borrill

Job Titles:

Group Leader / Department of Crop Genetics / John Innes Centre / Norwich Research

Emilie Knight

em..@jic.ac.uk

Job Titles:

Research Assistant

I am a research assistant for the Borrill group. My role is to ensure the smooth running of the lab, whilst also carrying out my own project(s). I am currently involved in two separate projects: one investigating compensatory mechanisms of gene expression in wheat; and the second studying the effect of knocking-out (by gene editing) a transcription factor involved in senescence. Prior to joining the Borrill group, I worked on various projects and plant species over seventeen years at the John Innes Centre. Notably, in Prof. Graham Moore's group, I carried out projects on the PH1 locus and the KR1 crossability locus in wheat, and on the Gametocidal genes from the wild relative Aegilops sharonensis.

Eve Briscoe

Hi, my name is Eve Briscoe and I am currently a final year undergraduate student on BSc Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham. My final year project is ‘Genes to improve nutrient content in wheat' which includes being part of an experiment to observe the effects of over-expressing a wheat NAC transcription factor on nutrient remobilisation from vegetative organs to grains. I will also be analysing some RNA-seq data to observe expression of the wheat genome in different stages of development, in order to identify genes of importance.