New plant sciences facilities open at Imperial

State-of-the-art plant growth rooms unveiled<em> - News</em>

By Danielle Reeves
Thursday 26 June 2008

Research into increasing the yield of crops and assessing how plants respond to climate change received a boost last night when £2.7 million plant science labs were officially opened at Imperial College London.

The launch event was attended by guest speakers Professor Alison Smith, Head of the Department of Metabolic Biology at the John Innes Centre, a world renowned plant science and microbiology research institute, and Professor Ian Crute, Director of Rothamsted Research, the largest agricultural research centre in the UK.

The audience at the launch event, made up of Imperial staff and students, toured the new facilities and viewed posters detailing some of the plant science research projects underway at the College.

The new suite of plant growth rooms can be used to simulate different environments and climates

The newly refurbished laboratories are located in the College's RCS1 and Sir Alexander Fleming buildings on the South Kensington campus. They include controlled environment plant growth rooms, as well as imaging labs and mass spectrometry facilities.

Researchers from the College's Division of Biology will use these new facilities to conduct in depth analysis of plant biology. Their work will include looking at how plants respond to biological stress, such as attack by pests and pathogens, and environmental stresses, including drought and lack of nutrients. The plant growth rooms can be used to simulate a wide variety of environments, with different levels of humidity, temperature and light.

The new facilities have been installed to coincide with the relocation of six plant sciences research groups from the College's Wye campus in Kent to South Kensington, and will support other staff already located on the campus.

Professor John Mansfield from the Division of Biology, said: "Understanding plant biology holds the key to solving some of the biggest challenges faced by the world today – from providing enough food for the planet's population, to developing new green energy sources.

"These new facilities provide our researchers with the tools they need to understand how we can protect plants from environmental change, and use them to benefit society, working from gene to farm."

Professor Martin Buck, Head of the Divison of Biology, added: "The College's investment in these new labs and growth rooms means that our colleagues joining us from Wye will have a state-of-the-art environment in which to continue their research.

"These facilities, combined with new opportunities for collaboration with scientists from other fields at Imperial, such as biofuels specialists and synthetic biologists, bioinformaticians and structural biologists, mean plant sciences at the College will continue to go from strength to strength."

There will be additional new crop science facilities at Imperial, with a glasshouse scheduled to be built next year on the roof of the Roderic Hill building On the South Kensington campus.

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