a great visit and wonderful chance to build collaborations

heartbreaking news

Bad vibes. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog looking at how discussion of Brexit and the reset is still saturated with dishonesty, and the latest episodes in the 'vibe politics' that have embedded that dishonesty in British politics: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/bad-...

Hey academic climate folks, great new chaired position at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social working w/ the folks at the Climatic Research Unit in Norwich UK: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/21... (h/t @timosbornclim.bsky.social)

As an ENT surgeon, I saw the devastating impact of smoking firsthand. This generational ban will save lives and protect future generations. Nigel Farage is wrong. #PublicHealth www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03...

it's the best read on the history of molecular biology

Proximity labeling users: check out this study by @zhixingchen2.bsky.social and Peng Zou, which establishes how much contact-dependence vs. diffusion is responsible for biotinylation — tl;dr TurboID has a much smaller effective radius! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/2

Our final talks of Day 1 focus around the Precision Breeding Act 📝 Jim Dunwell, gives us an update on UK legislation from the Advisory Committee for Releases to the Environment (ACRE) 🧬 @jonathandgjones.bsky.social takes us through using PBA-compliant methods to elevate crop disease resistance 🌾

Yesterday I talked* science with modellers, mathematicians, biochemists, cell biologists and geneticists. Sound like your kind of place? Join us! Applications for a tenure-track or tenured Group Leader ar JIC close Monday. (*I love chatting - if you come to JIC I *will* stop you in the corridor)

excellent question!

Hot off the press: our analysis of the proposed EU limits to NGT1 category of genome editing in light of recent data on genomic diversity. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

As an undergraduate who loved physical chemistry and was just starting biology, I thought the Meselson-Stahl experiment was the coolest thing ever. It was so simple in its application of physical theory and experiment to prove a biological truth that it was perfect. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...

excellent commentary from Lord Rooker www.scienceforsustainableagriculture.com/lordrooker2

Proposed EU NGT legislation in light of plant genetic variation - Schulman - Plant Biotechnology Journal - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Wonderful talk by Baptiste Castel @baptistebio.bsky.social on fern immune system here at @instmolplantsci.bsky.social Great to meet @jonathandgjones.bsky.social lab alumni in Edinburgh too!

more fool @nytimes.com

important commentary on the dangers to science of current US Gov actions and policies www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

important commentary from @alanhschulman and colleagues about NGTs and the EU's proposed new regulations. Preexisting genomic diversity dwarfs anything we can do with CrispR ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

New OA Letter: "Viral delivery of an RNA-guided genome editor for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis" rdcu.be/eiJVL ...engineered the tobacco rattle virus to express the RNA-guided TnpB enzyme ISYmu1 and guide RNA for transgene-free germline editing.

we appear to be shooting ourselves in the foot www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Mythbusting MAHA’s Claims About Food and Farming www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/mythbustin...

!!New Preprint!! On the activation of RRS1-R/RPS4 paired NLRs!! Thanks to @jonathandgjones.bsky.social for this opportunity to work on this project, and thanks to all the coauthors for their effort and support! Thread (1/) @thesainsburylab.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social t.co/aHNCKj4KUn

very cool. "roads not taken" www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/s...

a prescient commentary www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Proud to present the first data paper from the lab, published today in @pnas.org. We describe a new mechanism for CLE peptides as local symbiosis-amplifying signals, promoting plant interactions with beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Congratulations @sagarbashyal.bsky.social et al.!

@jonathandgjones.bsky.social spoke to Louise Hulland on BBC Radio Norfolk today about developing crops that resist plant diseases and being a co-recipient of the Wolf Prize for Agriculture. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... The clip started forty minutes in at 14:40

See, it's funny cuz it's true. 🤣 (also: #sad) 😞

🚨 New #Breakthrough research article "A new level of RNA-based plant protection: dsRNAs designed from functionally characterized siRNAs highly effective against Cucumber mosaic virus" #RNA 👉 Read here: doi.org/10.1093/nar/... Pictured: Selma Gago-Zachert, Torsten Gursinsky and Sven-Erik Behrens

important work www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

European Union takes giant leap forward toward embracing technologically-enhanced agriculture, advances de-regulation of gene edited crops geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/03/17/e...

Very happy to see my colleague Julia Vorholt being recognized with the Novonesis Biotechnology Prize for her groundbreaking work on the plant leaf microbiome. novonordiskfonden.dk/en/news/pion... #plantscience

Fascinating talk to the Linnean society by Paula Bonfante on plant domestication and varietal acquisition revealed in Italian art www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKwA...

America can't be great without great science. Marcia McNutt interview www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/03...

Our Darwin Review is now online at @jxbotany.bsky.social! You can have a read of 'New crops on the block' at doi.org/10.1093/jxb/....

We're looking for a postdoc to join the lab to work on cell-to-cell communication via the apoplast. Candidate must be brave, as they will have to lead us (me) away from the plasmodesmata-lands we've inhabited for so long! www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

"Gene-edited non-browning banana could cut food waste, scientists say" by Hannah Devlin for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/science/2025... #PlantScience #PlantGMOs #Banana

Great thanks to all my talented #phd students esp. @himanshuchhillar.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social & the support from my mentor @jonathandgjones.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social Thanks to all peer reviewers’ constructive feedback & community reviews via @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social

a great thrill and a great honor- thanks to all the great people who've passed through my lab over the last >30 years, and for the friendship and "mutual potentiation" of my co-honorees Jeff Dangl and Brian Staskawicz!

Meanwhile in Iowa...

Flying over Bristol and the Severn Estuary on Sunday. Given we are now allowed to re-name bodies of water, I am proposing this is now called 'The Gulf of Gary' in honour of @profgdfoster.bsky.social

interesting story www.cell.com/the-innovati...