Norfolk scientsts win funding to fight global wheat disease

Scientists in Norfolk will be heading a £4m annual global crop research initiative to fight a devastating

wheat disease, it was announced last night.

A new aggressive strain of wheat disease, which has been identified in Africa, will be the first target for a new team of scientists at the Sainsbury Laboratory at Colney on the Norwich Research Park.

Investment in the long-term project, which could amount to about £17.5m over the next five years, could also attract additional outside funding, said laboratory manager Simon Foster.

This major investment into one of the world's leading plant science laboratories at the John Innes Centre involves a collaborative approach with the Two Blades Foundation, which is US-based charitable body.

Prof Sophien Kamoun, who heads the Sainsbury Laboratory, and senior colleagues including group leader Prof Jonathan Jones, heard the formal announcement at yesterday's International Congress of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions in Quebec, Canada.

An initial six-strong team of top scientists will be recruited ready to start the research effort this autumn, said Dr Foster.

“We are really excited because this is a dramatic increase.

“It has been a long time in the planning and we've been talking about this for about a year,” he added.

The Sainsbury Laboratory, which is about 75pc funded by the Gatsby Foundation, has an annual income of about £19m and employs about 65 staff including 50 researchers. Former science minister, Lord Sainsbury set up the Gatsby Foundation, which also funds Two Blades.

As the pace of the research work in Norwich accelerates, it will take about 20pc of the laboratory's annual income but could also attract further investment by outside bodies, said Dr Foster.

“Our target is important crop diseases worldwide and we are not focusing solely on UK issues. One of the immediate targets is an extremely damaging wheat disease, stem rust.

“A particularly aggressive strain of the disease, UG99 (identified in Uganda) is spreading and giving cause for concern for wheat growers worldwide.

“Scientists will be using the latest genomic techniques to identify resistance to stem rust and then aim to transfer resistance into comm-ercially useful crops,” he added.

Prof Kamoun said: “We are looking forward to attacking major crop disease problems together.”

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