It is well understood that the progression of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or prion disease involves the conformational change of the prion protein from its normal confirmation PrPC to an ‘abnormal’ conformation PrPSc, that can itself autocatalyse the transformation. The end point is the massive destruction of brain tissue giving the characteristic spongiform structure in which the brains of infected mammals are substantially shot through with holes. What is less clear is how the conformational conversion can possibly cause the latter effects. I had followed before some of the interesting work of Neena Singh and colleagues on this, showing the intimate involvement of iron metabolism, so I was very pleased to hear her seminar on this exciting topic.

The next major event was a meeting of the Board of the UK Collaborative for Development Sciences, (UK-CDS) of which we are a founding member. Part of this meeting involved a review of the activities and effectiveness of the first 5 years of the Collaborative. The UK-CDS provides a very useful forum for the exchange of ideas and the co-funding of activities in this important space.
Continue reading: Prions, development, accreditation, sci foo and climate change

The report of the Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures (GFFF) Group was released in January 2011, and I attended a One Year On meeting of its ‘High Level Stakeholder Group’ that looked  at the already considerable impacts it has had on both thinking and action (not least that of BBSRC). One of these is the appointment of a Food Security Champion, Professor Tim Benton, with whom I also had a useful catch-up on the very many activities that are going on in the Food Security space.

Food and agriculture, as well as Industrial Biotechnology, also figured largely in a meeting I had with Mary Creagh, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. Brazil is, of course, an agricultural superpower, and we had a very useful meeting with Professors Glaucius Oliva (Head of the CNPq funding agency) and João Carlos Teatini (Head of the CAPES agency, that mainly looks after graduate education). We already have many excellent links with Brazil, including a LabEx (laboratory exchange) scheme with the Agricultural Research agency Embrapa (and whose Head I also saw at the GFFF meeting); we now anticipate strengthening these further.
Continue reading: Food, agriculture, text mining, Brazil and manufacturing

As well as a variety of internal meetings, I attended a couple of receptions, the first of which was at BIS – largely for industrialists and partner organisations. This was very useful, and I met a number of folk who would not normally see themselves as close to our interests. The second was an annual event (though a first for me) where ‘scientists meet the media’ at the Royal Society. Again I made a number of potentially important contacts that will help get the BBSRC message out.

The main visit of the week was to Harper Adams University College. Harper Adams is a major provider of agricultural education, training and knowledge transfer, as well as (largely applied) research. This was thus an exceptionally interesting visit. Without seeking to pick out specific areas, I note that Harper Adams runs the only UK degree courses in Agricultural Engineering, and I saw some very interesting work at the interface of engineering and agriculture, especially in the areas of using modern technology to plant, sense, weed, and harvest agricultural crops. The whole area of ‘precision agriculture’ is going to provide an important contribution to increasing the productivity of food and non-food crops, and we can expect it to expand significantly.
Continue reading: Genomics data, the media and Harper Adams

Welcome back to all from the winter break, to the first blog of 2012!

As last year, I attended part of the Oxford Farming Conference, where I enjoyed many excellent talks, such as one from USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber highlighting the economic benefits to be had from investment in agricultural R&D and another from the newly knighted Defra Chief Scientist Sir Bob Watson. In informal conversation I also discovered the existence (from a young OFC Scholar) of the Miscanthus Growers Group. There is no doubt that improved and sustainable agricultural productivity is very much back on the scientific and agricultural agenda.
Continue reading: Oxford Farming, synthetic biology and our hi-tech future

Apart from a considerable amount of shortlisting and interviewing for various posts, my first main visit of the week was to Rothamsted Research, which bills itself as “the largest agricultural research centre in the United Kingdom and almost certainly the oldest agricultural research station in the world”, starting from its time as the Rothamsted Experimental Station. I was shown a great many exciting areas of science, from food and non-food crop improvements including novel means for water, carbon and nutrient sequestration in plant roots, through metagenomics and farm platform technology. Rothamsted is anticipated to be a major player in our delivery of improved crops for global food security.

We also had a very useful meeting with the Office for Life Sciences, concentrating in particular on our strategies for industrial biotechnology and bioenergy as part of the Knowledge-Based BioEconomy.
Continue reading: Rothamsted Research, the Office for Life Sciences and the Campaign for Science and Engineering