Alex Webb Lab

My department has open positions at Level B (Lecturer) or Level C (Senior Lecturer), - one position in Genomics and two in Ecology. #PlantSciJobs

Applications close on Thursday 7 August Aussie time
careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

You are correct

I have just discovered that salt and vinegar crisps were invented when I was two years old. I had assumed that they were a staple of English life dating back to Victorian England. I am not sure how I feel about being the same vintage as salt and vinegar crisps.

it never gets old. Basi Teng can put Dr in front of his name very soon . Thanks @antdodd.bsky.social and Ray Goldstein for their hard work as examiners

Remodelling autoactive NLRs for broad-spectrum immunity in plants - Nature Cleavage by pathogen-derived proteases of an engineered chimeric protein activates its plant immune receptor component, enabling broad-spectrum resistance to pathogens in plants.

This is amazing. Engineered broad disease resistance #plantscience 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Botanicon 2025 - the 3rd annual Plants @ Cambridge conference bringing together plant scientists from across Cambridge to share their work and ideas.

@camplantsci.bsky.social @cropscicentre.bsky.social @niab-uk.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social #PlantsAtCambridge

Food for thought. Field trials are undoubtedly valuable for assessing the real-world performance of crop lines and give confidence that findings are useful? In biomedical science, a paper would rarely have full clinical trials for new mechanistic drug discoveries.

rdcu.be/enXn4

#plantscience

The answer to that is complicated. They are going forwards with respect to the punter. But as he is at the wrong end, they are going backwards.

Visiting Oxford. Wanted to see what it is like in the dark blue zone. They really do punt from the wrong end. I always thought that was a joke but here is the evidence.

Aleks from Vertical Future looking a little concerned before his parabolic flight tomorrow with our autonomous agriculture unit designed for ISS. This is an outcome of a grant from @ukspaceagency.bsky.social which I had the joy of participating with many partners in @plants4space.bsky.social

YouTube video by Plants4Space Gravity plants

Our latest video arising from UK Space Agency Bilateral Funding describing gravity effects and how plants can grow in space. @plants4space.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTwU...

Taking food beyond the final frontier - Gates Cambridge Scholar-Elect Annie Shelton's PhD will look at how to improve agriculture in extreme environments on Earth and in space.

Great article on Annie Shelton - Gates Cambridge scholar who joins Alex Webb's lab in September.

Her PhD will look at how to improve agriculture in extreme environments on Earth & in space.

tinyurl.com/2jmmuwaw

@alexwebblab.bsky.social
@gatescambridge.bsky.social
@cambridgebiosci.bsky.social

Loving this white board in the Plant Sciences library here in Cambridge. The undergrads showing very impressive knowledge and skills and cuteness all in one place. DNA analysis pipeline (?), molecules and cute cats "meow"

Forgot to tag #plants 🧪

Data-driven mathematical modelling explains altered timing of EARLY FLOWERING 3 in the wheat circadian oscillator Circadian rhythms, daily oscillations with a free-running period of approximately 24 hours, have evolved in organisms across the kingdoms of life, enabling organisms to anticipate and adapt to environ...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Really enjoyed this collaboration between my lab and James Locke lab. We show plant circadian oscillators can have a flexible architecture. Our computational models suggest that dawn-expression of ELF3 in wheat occurs due to repression of the ELF3 promoter by TOC1.

Changing your clock? Scientists are only just beginning to understand what this does to us | Ruth Ogden Our research in October showed that ‘falling back’ had a negative impact on women, especially mothers. Do we need to shift the way we think about time, asks professor of the psychology of time Ruth Og...

Survey reporting the effects of clock changes 🧪 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Department for Education confirms launch of natural history GCSE Campaigners have been calling for the qualification for years but plan stalled despite a curriculum being drawn up

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Stormzy to receive honorary Cambridge University doctorate Rapper is honoured for his philanthropic work alongside the likes of John Rutter, Angela Davis and Simon Russell Beale

This is very pleasing. He has done a lot that is good
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/m...

YouTube video by Plants4Space Growing Plants in Space

Another entertaining video output of Autonomous Agriculture our project funded by #UKRI #UKSpaceAgency with a lot of partners listed at end of video. #Plants #Plants4Space 🧪

youtu.be/xTo063Y0roY?...

YouTube video by Plants4Space Light recipes to grow plants in space

A wonderful new animation about LED plant growth as one of the outputs of our Autonomous Agriculture project funded by #UKRI #UKSpaceAgency working with #Plants4Space and host of others listed at the end of the animation
youtu.be/IoXap0_z530?...

The minimal cell-cycle control system in Marchantia as a framework for understanding plant cell proliferation The regulation of cell division is broadly conserved across eukaryotes, governed by cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) to coordinate progression through the cell cycle. Plants have evolved a ...

After a lot of work, we are finally able to share this project about the cell cycle in Marchantia from the Haseloff lab. If you want to find out how cell division is controlled, you can’t miss out this one… #PlantScience #Synbio #EvoDevo

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵 Thread on #SessilePlants:

Plant Scientists: "As sessile organisms, plants [𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 "𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨" 𝘢𝘯𝘥/𝘰𝘳 "𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴"].

David Attenborough: "👇"

A grey coloured Arabidopsis leaf epidermis, with black cell walls. Each cells has a colourful blobs - a nuclear localised fluorescent ABA sensor, with warm colours indicating high concentrations, and cooler colours indicating lower concentrations.

The Rowe lab is recruiting a #PlantScience PhD student for 2025! You'll use our new ABACUS FRET biosensors to map the leaf #AbscisicAcid accumulations at low humidity in Arabidopsis, wheat and rice to understand how ABA regulates stomatal dynamics. #PhDposition

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Chlamydomonas chloroplast genes tolerate compression of the genetic code to just 51 codons Genome scale engineering has enabled codon compression of the universal genetic code of up to three codons in E. coli, providing the means for genetic code expansion. To go much beyond this number, sm...

Very cool research by our neighbors #PlantScience #Synbio

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

48 Scientific Societies Representing Almost 100,000 Scientists Ask Congress to Protect the Future of Science 48 scientific societies representing almost 100,000 scientists signed on to a letter asking Congress to protect the future of science

Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs.

It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎

Details : Research Fellow in Plant Biochemistry : The University of Melbourne Careers at The University of Melbourne

I'm recruiting a 3-yr postdoc for an ARC-funded project on the interaction between circadian rhythms and grain quality in wheat. #plantsci #circadian
We also have a fully-funded PhD position available.
See Job Ad about Postdoc, email me about the PhD.
jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91954...

GIGANTEA Is Required for Robust Circadian Rhythms in Wheat GIGANTEA is required for circadian rhythms in Triticum turgidum cv. Kronos.

Our new publication demonstrating role of GIGANTEA in wheat circadian clock. Provide evidence that effects of GI on flowering are likely dependent on floral regulator PPD1 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
#PlantScience (no idea why Wiley have that picture associated with the paper!) 🧪

I'm so Bored with the U.S.A. - Remastered The Clash · The Clash (Remastered) · Song · 1977

open.spotify.com/track/6bbQuT.... >45 years old and still relevant

Time to label every reference to Twitter/X in the media as "US state-controlled social media platform".

Why should international organisations continue to use it? It would be a powerful gesture if democratic governments all over the world would move their entire social media content to Bluesky.