	David Baulcombe David Baulcombe has wide interests in plant molecular biology. He has researched the effects of plant hormones on gene expression and pioneered the use of genetic modification to develop virus-resistant crop plants. Currently he works on RNA-silencing systems that protect against viruses and mobile elements of DNA. His group has identified many components of the RNA silencing machinery and a key discovery was the short RNAs that are the specificity determinant. David Baulcombe’s work in this area has emphasised the importance of plants as model systems for basic biology because his findings are relevant to RNA interference in animals and they have direct implications for biomedicine. His recent interests have focused on RNA silencing and its effects on growth, development and evolution in addition to roles in defense. The recent work in David’s group embraces a systems level analysis of RNA silencing and its influences – direct or indirect – on gene expression. Most of his work involves Arabidopsis but he has started to explore the role of RNA silencing in a crop plant (tomato) and in a unicellular alga (Chlamydomonas) David’s career started as an undergraduate the Botany Department at Leeds University and until August 07 he was a senior research scientist in the Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich. He then became the Professor of Botany at Cambridge University and Royal Society Research Professor. In the early part of his career he did a PhD in Edinburgh, postdoc stints in Montreal and Athens, (Georgia) and he was a project leader at the privatised (sadly) and now defunct Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign associate member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His awards include the 2008 Lasker Award and the 2006 Royal Medal of the Royal Society.

David Baulcombe

David Baulcombe has wide interests in plant molecular biology. He has researched the effects of plant hormones on gene expression and pioneered the use of genetic modification to develop virus-resistant crop plants. Currently he works on RNA-silencing systems that protect against viruses and mobile elements of DNA. His group has identified many components of the RNA silencing machinery and a key discovery was the short RNAs that are the specificity determinant. David Baulcombe’s work in this area has emphasised the importance of plants as model systems for basic biology because his findings are relevant to RNA interference in animals and they have direct implications for biomedicine. His recent interests have focused on RNA silencing and its effects on growth, development and evolution in addition to roles in defense. The recent work in David’s group embraces a systems level analysis of RNA silencing and its influences – direct or indirect – on gene expression. Most of his work involves Arabidopsis but he has started to explore the role of RNA silencing in a crop plant (tomato) and in a unicellular alga (Chlamydomonas)

David’s career started as an undergraduate the Botany Department at Leeds University and until August 07 he was a senior research scientist in the Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich. He then became the Professor of Botany at Cambridge University and Royal Society Research Professor. In the early part of his career he did a PhD in Edinburgh, postdoc stints in Montreal and Athens, (Georgia) and he was a project leader at the privatised (sadly) and now defunct Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign associate member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His awards include the 2008 Lasker Award and the 2006 Royal Medal of the Royal Society.

David Baulcombe

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