Nationality British | Name Giles Oldroyd | |
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Institutions John Innes CentreStanford University Institution | ||
Giles oldroyd engineering nitrogen fixing symbiotic associations in cereals
Professor Giles E. D. Oldroyd is a Plant scientist at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, working on beneficial Legume symbiosis in Medicago truncatula. He has been a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award winner and the Society of Biology (SEB) President's Medal winner. In 2014 Giles was in the top 1% of highly cited scientists across the world.
Contents
- Giles oldroyd engineering nitrogen fixing symbiotic associations in cereals
- Giles oldroyd signalling pathways that establish symbiotic associations in plants
- Education
- Research
- Awards and Notability
- References
Giles oldroyd signalling pathways that establish symbiotic associations in plants
Education
Giles attended Huntington School, York before studying for his Honours degree in Biology at the University of East Anglia from 1990 to 1994. He completed his PhD in 1998 at the University of California, Berkeley, studying plant/pathogen interactions and then moved to Stanford University to work as a post doctoral scientist studying legume/rhizobial interactions in the laboratory of Sharon R. Long. In 2002, Giles moved to the John Innes Centre to start his own research group.
Research
Giles Oldroyd's work focuses on understanding the signalling mechanisms that allow the associations with these beneficial micro-organisms and the use of this information to transfer the nitrogen-fixing capability from legumes to cereal crops. His website says "Our work has implications for global agriculture, but we are most interested in the application of our work to benefit small-holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa".
In 2012 Giles Oldroyd was awarded a $10M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to begin the Engineering Nitrogen Symbiosis for Africa (ENSA) Project in collaboration with other symbiosis research groups. The aim of the research is to engineer cereal crops such as Maize to undergo the beneficial Root Nodule symbiosis in order to obtain the nutrient Nitrogen without the application of agricultural fertilisers.