Hello! I’m Luke Simpson, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham. I am the new Early Career Representative for Biosciences, and I would like to share some insights into current and past work in the field of developmental biology.

My academic career started under the supervision of Professor Andrew Johnson. My PhD focused on deeply conserved principles of development and involved investigating the roles of proteins needed for development in distantly related animals. Specifically, I was interested in which proteins were needed for cells to become pluripotent. Pluripotency is the remarkable ability of early embryonic cells to transform into any cell type in the body in response to specific signals. The uniqueness of any animal depends on the ability to form specialised cell types, the number of these cell types within the embryo and adult can vary significantly between species. For example, a sponge may have only 3 cell types whilst a human has over 200!  By studying both axolotl embryos and mammalian stem cell models, I explored how pluripotency might be a driving force for evolutionary changes.

I am now in my third year of a postdoc at UoN working under Professor Ramiro Alberio. I have traded salamander embryos for pig, cow and sheep stem cells and embryos to delve into the conserved principles of development. Our research group is focused on how early mammalian cells decide their fates. The use of pig embryos is particularly intriguing due to their close resemblance to human embryos, making them an invaluable model for studying human developmental processes and diseases. Due to the similarities pigs are also being explored for their potential for organ transplants in humans.

To investigate this vital period of development, we often treat cells or embryos with a variety of biological agents and observe how this influences their decision-making processes using specialised techniques. For instance, through immunofluorescence, we apply fluorescently labelled antibodies to proteins of interest, which can then be detected by specialised microscopy. Additionally, we can isolate individual cells and, by employing reverse transcription and sequencing, infer the actions of thousands of cells simultaneously. Recently, our lab has developed advanced methods to mimic an embryo using only cell aggregates and a specialised treatment regime. This approach allows us to study gastrulation—a critical phase of early development—with an unprecedented level of detail. As the lab grows, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with many colleagues who specialise in advanced cell culture, microscopy, and even mathematical modelling.

We hope to feature more postdoc stories on this page in the coming months so check back again soon!

The post Introduction to Luke Simpson and his work in developmental biology appeared first on Biosciences.

I am Mohamed Abdulla originally from Libya. I have been studying at The University of Nottingham since 2015. BSc, MSc and a PhD here at the School of Plant Sciences.

I would like to express my great appreciation to UON Researcher Academy for their CTTF Award and the Lamming Travel Award (School of Biosciences) which helped enable me to participate in the 19^th World Petunia Days in Helsinki, Finland, where I gave a great presentation.

The conference

~ Mohamed

This year, the conference was face to face after it was only online for the last two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As per its name, the World Petunia Day’s only focus is on the beautiful flowering plant Petunia.

Petunia is one of the most popular cultivated garden bedding flowering plants worldwide. It has large colourful flowers with clear organ morphology. You can see Petunias with colourful flowers hanging in baskets outside houses and shops. The genus Petunia was established by Jussieuin in 1803, and it originates from the eastern side of South America including Brazil and Uruguay. It belongs to the Solanaceae family. Petunia hybrida named because of the commercial Petunia cultivars as well as the laboratory lines are known to have a hybrid origin. It is a consensus that P. hybrida has arisen from hybridization in early 19th century between the self-incompatible species P. integrifolia (purple bee-pollinated) and the self-compatible species P. axillaris (white hawkmoth-pollinated).

“It was an excellent opportunity to meet other Petunia researchers from all over Europe, The UK, USA and Egypt. We all gathered after 2 years of just online meetings because of the pandemic. The experience was just so great.”

~ A scene from the conference venue

The World Petunia Days conference this year was a 3 days event with a wide variety of topics under discussion all applying their research on Petunia. It was held at the fabulous hotel Rantapuito which was has it is own beach and pier with great nature views. The program was well organised by Petunia colleagues and researchers at the University of Helsinki. The schedule was also organised with plenty of breaks which gave a great opportunity for chats and discussions. It also included breakfast and lunchtimes! I am glad that I attended together with my supervisor which was a really great experience. There were about 40 presentations ranging from genetics to flower colours and productions. It was an excellent opportunity to meet other Petunia researchers from all over Europe, the UK, USA and Egypt after 2 years of only having online meetings because of the pandemic. The experience was just so great. There were casual visits to the city of Helsinki, with a great dinner on the first day together. We also took a  cruise to the beautiful islands near the capital, and later I visited the capital library in Helsinki. I really liked the idea that this library is publicly funded and offers free services to the public so that knowledge grows. The conference also had a great social program, and the fantastic farewell two course dinner was held in the impressive lobby of the hotel.

The next World Petunia Days conference will take place in Italy July 2023 and I hope to attend again to present the next stage of my PhD project and meet the great researchers and Petunia’s friends again.

My research

~ Conference delegates

Petunia hybrida and its wild relatives are in focus as a suitable model to investigate the fascinating phenomenon known as Self-Incompatibility (SI). SI provides the pistil of a flower with the ability to distinguish between self and non-self-pollen and results either in the inhibition of germination of self-pollen on the stigmatic surface or in the inhibition of growth of self-pollen tubes in the style. Self-incompatibility (SI) in flowering plants is identified as a genetic mechanism by which self-fertilisation is prevented, thereby a high degree of heterozygosity is maintained. This phenomenon allows the plant to be able to recognise its own pollen and reject it by arresting pollen tube growth through the style and consequently preventing inbreeding. Inbreeding can reduce the fitness of a progeny. SI is one of reproductive strategies which are adopted by such hermaphroditic plants in order to promote outcrosses. SI has a significant role in shaping both the spatial and temporal distribution of genetic diversity among flowering plants as it maintains the genetic polymorphism within a population. Non-self-fertilisation can also promote the selection of favourable phenotypes within the species.

~ Presenting my research

My PhD research is looking at this phenomenon. How can the female part of the Petunia flower (The Pistil) know if the male part (The Pollen) is self or non-self so to accept or reject it?. That is a really powerful aspect of the flower. the specificity determinants of self/non-self recognition of SI is controlled by two classes of polymorphic genes at the S-locus. These determinants are a single S-RNase gene and multiple SLFs genes which controls the specificity of pistil and pollen, respectively. The rejection of self-pollen occurs during the pollen tube growth and S-RNase activity in the style leads to pollen RNA degradation by its cytotoxic enzyme activity in self-pollen tubes. The SLF proteins function as a component of E3 ubiquitin ligase complex and they are involved in the specific degradation of non-self S-RNases.

In previous studies, a number of self-incompatible P. hybrida lines were studied and it was revealed that in some cases P. hybrida became self-compatible (SC). This typically resulted in intermediate seed numbers and was called Pseudo Self-Compatibility (PSC). We have tested the genetic basis of a breakdown of SI resulting from crosses between Petunia inflata and Petunia hybrida. Genotypic and phenotypic analysis was done on plants which carry the S-alleles: PhS3 and PiSd. We show that, our novel PiSd allele is related to the breakdown of SI. Petunia plants that inherited the novel PiSd allele became SC. Based on reciprocal crosses it was shown that the breakdown of SI associated with the Sd allele is due to the pollen part.  Further investigation will require the identification of SLF genes for the Sd allele.

Mohamed.Abdulla@nottingham.ac.uk
Plant and Crop Science Division, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, UK.
Bani Walid University, Libya.

The post ‘Petunia’s friends’ – a wonderful renunion for plant researchers appeared first on Biosciences.

Hot Poets is an Arts Council funded project about powerfully communicating climate science and action through spoken word poetry. It is supported by National Poetry Day, the Met Office, the RSPB, the London School of Economics and many big name partners.  Gail Webb was inspired to write this poem by the valuable plant research of our own Dr Alexandra Burgess.  Gail intends that her poem also provides hope amongst all the challenging but important climate change messages.

The poets involved in this project are working independently with our support to reach out to scientists, climate change organisations, educators and experts. They are seeking advice and information to inform their creative research and help them write scientifically rigorous poetry.  

Harvesting The Light by Gail Webb 
Inspired by Dr Alexandra Burgess’s work on plant architecture, intercropping and agroforestry.

Plants. I know about these.
They grow in my garden,
in planters on city streets,
sneak into verges,
never discreet. They thrust and sow
through cracks in pavements, or
around the front door,
wherever we go, they grow.

Remember school? We plant seeds,
one each in a paper cup,
press in with a finger, into damp earth where nature
lingers. Watch it reach for the bright
touch of sun’s honey – drips.
Some water, some time,
shoots peek out, thirsty for light.

We cultivate tomatoes, herbs,
on a windowsill. We try
to connect to food sources,
see magic before our eyes.
Nature’s forces form leaves, buds glow,

flourish into the next Spring;
we wait for a taste of summer,
crops sing as they grow, they grow.

In patterns plants reveal mysteries,
capillaries pump in life,
sinews stretch towards sun;
blackberries ripen on vines,
ducking heads in broad–leafed shade;
apple trees live side by side
with wheat crops nodding in fields
ready to feed us. The future is made.

We dash from work to home,
want new growth, new ways,
aware of struggles to feed families.
Earth still warms up by degrees
heats farms, factories. Food in forests
is what we need. Almonds, apricots,
cherries , let’s get them on our plates.
Farmers, governments unite with scientists.

Plants. They turn to us now.
Will we allow them room
to spread, to photosynthesise,
to arch upwards,
to rise like a cathedral roof
towards skies? Is there a plan
mapped out in their veins,
to reverse effects of climate change?

Something clever, seasonal, waterproof.
Plants are their own design, formed
in wind, by wavelengths red, blue, green,
into curly, upright, varied shapes
between canopies which absorb pollution.
They coexist with trees, multiply fruit,
cereals, vegetables, all we need.
At last, a peaceful revolution.

If you would like to see a recording of the poem it is available here

The post Hot Poets and Scientists appeared first on Biosciences.

Sarah Cook was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Aquatic Science in November 2020. Here she tells us a bit about herself and how she came to Nottingham.

The beginning – Peat  in Malaysia

My interest in aquatic sciences began when I studied for a PhD in geography at Leicester. I was looking at tropical peat in Borneo in Malaysia – the effects of converting peat swamp forests into oil palm plantations from an aquatic perspective. The peat has to be drained and the peat disappears altogether so basically you lose the land. My role was to look at the amount of carbon that was lost in the waters that were drained. I spent a lot of time in drainage ditches collecting data in the form of water samples. The locals assumed that I was fishing!

Pollution in India

My first post-doctoral researcher post was in engineering at Warwick, looking at pollutant transport in rivers in India. I spent about six weeks doing field work in Mumbai tracing pollution in urban drainage channels. We used dye as a tracer to follow potential pollution downstream. This enabled us to see how the concentration changed and how quickly it got from source to the river. The idea was to look at options for pollution management. Back at Warwick I carried out experiments in flumes which are like a massive fish tank which circulates water around for experiments in flow. This was where I first started to work and developed my interest in micro-plastics. I was also looking at how solute pollution interacts with microorganisms in the sediment bed.

Citizen Science

I started becoming involved in Citizen Science at Warwick. Water quality is one of the major challenges in the world – even in the UK. People don’t realise our individual impact on river – there is a phrase catchment detachment. Basically when we turn on our taps at home we don’t realise where the water comes from, where it goes and the effects that what we put down our drains has on it. I started to develop a tool kit for communities to monitor local environment in India and London. India and the UK have similar water quality challenges. The intention was to provide easily accessible protocols which would create a learning alliance between India and UK. Unfortunately, because of Covid this was not able to continue.  I am still passionate about this subject and hope to resurrect something in the future.

Collecting water samples

Nottingham University 

I am currently working on a project that is being led by a collaborator in Sweden looking at greenhouse gas emissions from small artificial bodies of water. I have previously done a bit of work on this but this will be a global study collecting water samples from things like drainage ditches, garden ponds etc. We are collecting samples looking at nutrients in the water as well as greenhouse gas emissions such as methane to understand links to water nutrient and carbon storage. These figures are important as they have not yet been included in human emissions figures.

The Future
I am looking forward to working with my PhD student with whom we will be continuing the work on river pollution but this time looking at micro-plastics present in salt marshes in London. The plan is to continue my work looking at garden ponds – maybe expanding into larger bodies of water such as industrial gravel pits. I would also like to link my work in water quality to soil health. There is also a bid for a project with Sacha Mooney for which I am awaiting the outcome. All in all,  I am very excited to be working at Nottingham and advancing my studies in these important areas!

Learn more about post graduate research studies in Biosciences here 

The post Introducing Sarah Cook Assistant Professor Aquatic Science appeared first on Biosciences.

Diriba Kumssa is a Research Fellow in the School of Biosciences. He started his career studying in the country of his birth, Ethiopia, coming to Nottingham in 2013  via studies in South Africa and on the European Erasmus Mundus programme. Events in Ethiopia led him to apply for asylum in the UK. He has recently won a prestigious 3-year Leverhulme fellowship which will help him to carry on important work in Ethiopia. Here Diriba tells us about his experiences in Biosciences in Nottingham.

PhD studies – The Role of Underutilised crops to alleviate hidden hunger

I applied for the Crops for the Future Scholarship in 2013. The intention was to complete a joint PhD with Malaysia. Unfortunately  the Malaysian immigration requirements for refugees meant that this was impossible. The University of Nottingham (UoN) gave me an opportunity to change my thesis research topic, allowing me to study wholly in the UK. My thesis research required me to collect some samples for which I was able to travel to Kenya. I had a colleague in Ethiopia who was able to get samples for me from there.

Harvesting Italian Ryegrass in Aberystwyth

Post Doctoral Career

In 2017 I started working with Martin Broadley on the Magnesium Network (MAG-NET): Integrating Soil-Crop-Animal Pathways to Improve Ruminant Health Project. I joined a year into the project looking at livestock magnesium nutrition which is completely different to what I was doing for my PhD. In 2019 I joined the GeoNutrition project which has just had a number of papers published.

Leverhulme Project – Wild edible fruits (WEF) for food and environmental security in Ethiopia

I discussed my career options with Martin and Simon Langley-Evans (Head of School) at the end of 2020. They advised me that progression would be helped if I could prove that I can obtain independent funding for research. With their encouragement I applied for the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in February 2021 and was awarded the fellowship in May 2021.

Ripe fruits on Carissa spinarum shrub, one of the wild edible fruits that I have consumed during my childhood in western Ethiopia

The project will start in January 2022 and benefits from my cross disciplinary and international experience in forestry, food systems and geographic information science. Ethiopia has been facing perennial food and environmental security challenges. In 2020, 21.5 million people were undernourished [1], while those affected by mineral and vitamin deficiencies (MVDs) can reach up to threefold [2]. It loses 73,000 ha of its forest and woodland cover every year [3]. An estimated 80% of the population practice smallholder agriculture, with underdeveloped food storage and transportation infrastructures. This leads to a diet lacking diversity which in turn has led to widespread MVDs in the population.

Non-wood forest products, such as woody plant edible fruits are not particularly valued in that country but can play important role to alleviate MVDs. I hope to identify woody plant species bearing edible fruits that provide good nutrition which are adapted to marginal environments. This could encourage the preservation of the forests and reduce deforestation and forest degradation. I also hope to encourage cultivation of potentially nutritious woody plants as live fences or in other agroforestry systems.

The future

I am very grateful that I  was able to resume professional life after becoming a refugee in the UK, because of the PhD opportunity offered to me by the UoN through the Crops for the Future Scholarship in 2013. My aim is to reciprocate the favour by continuing to work at/with the UoN and creating research and academic opportunities that would help me and the UoN grow.
My thanks go to  Martin Broadley, Peter Noy, Levi Yant and David Salt for their invaluable comments and support during the proposal development process. I also want to thank the Research team for their support with project costing. I am grateful to the School of Biosciences and the Future Food Beacon for agreeing to host me and contributing to the costs of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship.

References
1. FAO, I., UNICEF, WFP and WHO,. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020; FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO: Rome, Italy, 2020.
2. Kumssa, D.B.; et al. Sci Rep 2015, doi:10.1038/srep10974.
3. FAO. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Report, Ethiopia; 2020.

The post Diriba Kumssa talks about his Leverhulme Fellowship and work in Ethiopia appeared first on Biosciences.

What are you studying?
I am studying for a degree in Microbiology. I have completed the first two years.  My third year is being spent on placement with Pfizer, working as an undergraduate clinical scientist.

What does that entail?
I am working on a clinical trial for the COVID 19 vaccination program.  The trial is a phase 1/2/3 Placebo-Controlled, randomised, observer-blind study. This means that neither the participant nor the team at Pfizer is aware of whether the participant has had the vaccine or a placebo. Each participant is asked to complete a daily e-diary after vaccination, advising of events such as a fever. My role is to collate the e-diary data, noting things like compliance or reported events. The findings are then forwarded to the appropriate member of the study team.

I also have the responsibility of coordinating activities for the DMC (Data Monitoring Committee), which is an independent panel of experts who review participant safety and treatment efficacy data while a clinical trial is ongoing. The DMC has access to the unblinded data and knows whether the participant received a vaccine or placebo. My role is to schedule meetings for the DMC, provide information regarding serious adverse events, and preparing minutes from discussions during the meeting.

The vaccine is being rolled out now. Is your work finished?

No, we are still following up with the participants from the original trial. Clinical Trials are also now being undertaken in different populations such as pregnant women and children. My role in these studies includes data analysis of the clinical data, reviewing protocol deviations, and monitoring compliance of participants in the study. This has been a great experience for me as I have gained insight into the start-up activities for clinical trials.

How has your placement helped you?

I have learned a lot. At the beginning of my placement, I was not fully aware of the Clinical Scientist role – I was attending meetings where I did not understand all the terminology and it felt a little overwhelming. I now feel much more confident and able to communicate with study team members.
I have always been motivated and organised but working in the industry has pushed my organisational skills to another level. This will help me in my final year of study and beyond, I hope. I have also gained valuable insight into the recruitment process and interview skills when I assisted in recruiting the next candidate for the Vaccine undergraduate placement.

So would you recommend a placement experience to your fellow students?

Absolutely. I was fortunate to gain an invaluable placement with Pfizer – they have been very supportive and provided me with amazing opportunities. The placement was so enjoyable that I know now that a career as a clinical scientist is what I want to pursue in the future – hopefully with Pfizer!
I would also like to thank Judith Wayte in the university’s placements team. She was very supportive throughout the application process, so I would recommend speaking to Judith if you are interested in applying for a year in the industry.

Any final words?

If you are offered the COVID-19 vaccine – take it!

Visit the University of Nottingham Coronavirus pages here 

The post Student Michael Rousell talks about his COVID-19 vaccination research placement appeared first on Biosciences.

PhD students Kerensa Hawkey and Lucy Ross tell us about their experiences presenting at this year’s conference 

Kerensa and Lucy are both final year PhD students. Lucy is studying whole-farm feed efficiency in UK dairy systems whilst Kerensa is looking at using insects for animal feed.

Both became members of the British Society of Animal Science (BSAS), as it is good value and there are lots of opportunities for webinars and workshops. Lucy has recently become the Chair of the Early Career Council.

The BSAS put on a conference annually, which is attended by a mixture of academics, students and industry representatives. 3 of our students, including Kerensa and Lucy were considered for the industry prize in 2020 – but the event was cancelled due to Covid-19. This year it went ahead as a four day virtual conference which focussed on Developing Talent. There were many presentations from young researchers including a number from Nottingham. Prizes were offered to the winners of different categories – Kerensa won the Industry prize, Lucy the Developing Talent.

Challenges of presenting at a virtual conference

Kerensa Hawkey won the Industry prize for her paper “Lower feed quality does not impact on the nutritional composition of Tenebrio molitor”

Kerensa gave both a recorded and a live presentation. The live presentation consisted of five minutes speaking followed by 5 minutes of questions mainly from the judges. The difficulties was speaking to a screen rather than live people. The inability to see the audience means that there is no clue of how the talk is going and it is of course impossible to make eye contact with anyone.

Lucy was fortunate that her talk was pre-recorded only – both said that they found that easier but agreed that watching themselves back was not pleasant! Lucy also pointed out that she rerecorded hers a few times – feeling obliged to redo the whole thing if she made a mistake rather than just carrying on.

One benefit of the virtual format was that there was a bit of pre-warning for the questions.  It was really helpful that the questions were typed and could be seen first rather than having to answer a face to face question immediately.

Lucy Ross who won with her paper “Effect of age at first calving
on longevity and lifetime
performance in HolsteinFriesian dairy heifers”

Overall Experience
Both found the conference very enjoyable and useful. Everyone was very friendly and helpful appreciating that this was something new for the presenters. Surprisingly even the virtual conference was an opportunity to network. The conference organisers used a platform called Whova which made connecting easier. Lucy and Kerensa both found it less daunting to approach people virtually rather than going up to them in person.

The future

In the summer (Covid allowing) Kerensa will be presenting and Lucy attending the 72nd Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science in Davos, Switzerland.

Want to learn more?

All the abstracts for the Conference presentations are available here

Undergraduate students are particularly encouraged to join BSAS. Membership costs £15 per year. Look on the website or contact Lucy Ross

Find more information about post graduate research degrees in Biosciences  here 

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Alexandra Burgess is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Nottingham. Alex has recently won a Gatsby Foundation Grant to Exceptional Researchers.

What is your background?

I completed a Biology degree at Oxford from 2013 – 2016. Whilst I was there, I got the opportunity to attend a summer school programme with the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. This was really helpful. I met lots of similarly minded people from all over the country with whom I stayed in touch. It took place in York and we attended a variety of lectures and practical sessions about different aspects of plants.
My first contact with Nottingham came when I applied for an internship during the summer following the first year of my degree. I worked with Tim Robbins and Erik Murchie, which led me to apply for a PhD at Nottingham. The PhD, Variable Light Environment in Complex 3D canopies, relates to how the canopy light environment determines photosynthesis in crops. This eventually led me on to a Fellowship in the same subject and introduced me to my current collaborators in the School of Computer science.

Leverhulme Fellowship

I held two post doc positions, first in London in a biophysics and biochemistry lab. Then a post back in Nottingham on the effect of wind movement through crop canopies before applying for a Leverhulme Fellowship. I started in September and my topic is how architectural traits of crop plants influence light and photosynthesis. There is also a social component looking at whether farmers have an architectural preference ie do they like their crops to be tall or green for example and does this coincide with scientific evidence for how productive the canopies are. We will also be looking to the future – how will the light change for instance with climate change we are expecting the crops to move further north and this may have implications for the crops that are most suitable.

Gatsby Grant to Exceptional Researchers

I knew about the grant from my previous connection with the Gatsby Foundation. In order to apply you have to be a fellow so the first time I applied was in September of last year; that time I was unsuccessful but was invited to apply again, which I did in December. I developed the proposal with the help of Erik Murchie and the research support office for the costings. Funding was granted for a 9.5 month project, working with a post doc in Computer science who will develop a new tool which will model light in the canopy. It will be the first tool that looks at spectral quality of the light, so falls under the category of developing community resources.

What would you say to someone who wanted to apply for an Gatsby Grant?

I would say go for it, but I would talk to Roxaana Clayton first who gives great advice and would be able to tell you whether your project is likely to qualify. And for undergraduates out there I would definitely recommend the summer school!

If you want to learn more about the Gatsby Foundation see here

If you are interested in applying for a grant please contact Sb-Research

Alex has her own website and will be guest editing a special edition of a journal later this year. 

The post Meet Alex Burgess Our “Exceptional Researcher” appeared first on Biosciences.

Vision and Background 

The basic idea was to set up a food production animal enterprise on Campus that students could access either on an informal basis or embedded in formal learning opportunities. The project secured a Cascade grant, an alumni funded scheme for projects which improve the student experience. Recently the team, Cormac O’Shea, Associate Professor of Non-Ruminant Science, Gavin White, Assistant Professor in Animal Nutrition, Judith Wayte, Assistant Professor in Professional Skills Education and Neil Doherty, Teaching Associate, were awarded the highly prestigious Lord Dearing award that recognises excellence in teaching and learning.

The facility has proved to be more valuable than we imagined, not just allowing students to learn about the animals, but food production, microbiology, business models, food quality and composition. We introduced the first-year students to the hens, appropriately, directly after their lecture covering eggs and egg, products. We also found that word spread quickly amongst staff, notably within the division of food sciences, who quickly became involved – visiting in their lunchtimes and becoming very hands on.

The facility is used during induction week and university open days It is a great showcase for the University and the education we can provide. We have also had work experience students spend a day here and we hope to continue on by building links with local schools.

NottingHEN Competition

Modern laying hens produce lots of eggs, and we wanted a way to engage the students more fully. We were aware that there were areas that they would not necessarily experience as part of their degree. With the help of a Faculty of Science small teaching and learning grant, we came up with the NottingHEN Competition. Students were encouraged to form teams, be creative and pitch ideas to grow the business and market the eggs.

Eggs Factor

A panel of SB alumni working in the poultry industry were invited to judge the competition. The students received invaluable feedback from the panel, in particular relating to the commercial viability of their projects. The feedback from both students and alumni was that it was a positive experience all round.

The winning team were 2nd year students called Eggs factor. It was a very close thing and students demonstrated some great ideas not just commercially but  environmentally too. However, the most important outcome was the enthusiasm and positive feedback that came from all concerned.

The future

Currently the scheme is on hold. We are busy planning so when things get back to normal so we can offer the community access to the hens once more.
The hens have their own Instagram page uoni_hen and we plan to build on this to improve virtual accessibility. Students will be able to observe the hens in real time and learn about the hens’ behaviour.

The main aim though is to increase the flock and to build a small scale model of a real business.

The scheme should eventually be self-funding and we do have some funds remaining. We intend to retain our humane principals, rehoming the hens at the end of their laying potential. Environmental considerations are also paramount.

If you are interested to find out more please contact Cormac O’Shea.

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Hello! My name is Ellen, and I joined Biosciences last year as a microbiologist.

I have an undergraduate degree in microbiology from UCL (2000). After my PhD (Cambridge, 2004), I took a series of post-docs, followed by a faculty position at the University of South Australia in Adelaide (2008). I loved living in Adelaide – it is surrounded by beaches, wineries and cricket. I went through the tenure process and was promoted to Senior Lecturer. But I also managed to acquire an English boyfriend, who lived in in London. After two years of commuting back and forth, I sadly resigned the job and happily married the boyfriend.

I was awarded a Wellcome Trust grant, and they very kindly allowed me to use my grant to hire myself instead of a post-doc, so we moved to Cambridge.

Collecting samples

The grant became infinitely long, with multiple maternity leaves and part-time working. During this time, I became a fellow at Downing College, and did a lot of teaching and tutorial work. Plenty of meetings were attended with a small child (or two) in tow, and my children’s favourite place for going out was eating sausages in the College’s dining hall at High Table, a place traditionally filled with aged male professors in gowns. As my position wasn’t a permanent one, I was delighted to be offered a position as Assistant Professor of Microbiology at Nottingham. I started on 1 April, 2020, during Lockdown 1. I didn’t even set foot on campus until August!

Malaria and Coral reefs

I have two main research interests: malaria and the algae that live in coral reefs. Very surprisingly, they are related. The ancestor of the malaria parasite was photosynthetic, and contained a chloroplast. The parasites now retain a non-photosynthetic chloroplast called an apicoplast. I’ve been looking at how the apicoplast genome is transcribed, and which proteins are involved. 

Not surprisingly, it is very similar to what happens in plant chloroplasts. Recently, I’ve been working with related animal diseases, such as Theileria parva which infect African cattle, trying to figure out how we could transfer our malaria-knowledge to these important livestock pathogens in collaboration with researchers in Nairobi. 

Genetically modified dinoflagellate algae

The closest still-photosynthetic organisms to the malaria parasites are dinoflagellate algae, single-celled eukaryotes which can live in symbiosis with coral. The algae use photosynthesis to feed to the coral. If the algae are stressed, due to sea temperature rises, they leave the coral. This is called coral bleaching, and is a looming ecological disaster. Last year, we published the first protocol for the genetic modification of dinoflagellate algae. They’re really tough beasts, and the only way to get DNA in is through firing golden bullets at them (biolistics). We’re now using this technique to figure out what stresses the alga, and to see if we can do anything about it. This work is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Between visits to rural Africa and snorkelling on Australian coral reefs, I can highly recommend life as an eukaryotic microbiologist!

Learn more about research in the School of Biosciences here 

If you are interested in working or studying with Ellen,  please contact Ellen.Nisbet@nottingham.ac.uk

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