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David Baulcombe
David Baulcomb's main interests are related to viruses. He pioneered genetic engineering of virus resistance in plants and has characterised genes conferring resistance against virus disease. His group have characterised an RNA-based surveillance system that normally protects the cell against viruses and the genome against disruption by mobile elements of DNA. Using genetic and molecular approaches his laboratory has identified proteins and RNA species that play a role in this RNA silencing system. The Baulcombe group have also shown that viruses encode counter-defense proteins that suppress RNA silencing. A key discovery was the short RNAs that cause the silencing protection mechanisms to be specifically targeted against the invading virus or DNA. 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.
This page last modified on February 19, 2006 |
David Baulcombe received his BSc in Botany from Leeds University in 1973 and a Ph.D from the University of Edinburgh in 1977. He was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University, Montreal and the University of Georgia and established his first group at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge. In 1988 he joined the Sainsbury Laboratory and was the Head of Laboratory from 1990-1993 and 1999-2003. The mission of the Sainsbury Laboratory is to investigate fundamental aspects of plant pathology.