News from the NRP Strategic Alliances and NRP research partners

Royal Society Funding for Research into Global Nitrogen and Carbon Cycling

March 26, 2018 3:45: pm | by Sarah Clarke

Congratulations to our new Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow, Laura Lehtovirta-Morley who has just secured funding from the Royal Society for funding of two projects entitled “Crosstalk between global biogeochemical cycles and its impact on climate change” and “Resolving a missing biochemical link in the global nitrogen cycle”. These exciting new projects will involve use of [Continue reading»]

Novel allele advantage in guppies

March 6, 2018 9:59: am | by Sarah Clarke

How do the vertebrate immune genes of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) maintain such extraordinary levels of genetic polymorphisms? This question dates back from the 1970s, and one of the earliest hypotheses suggested a mechanism called “novel allele advantage”. Novel alleles of hosts from distant populations are thought to be better at recognising parasites because [Continue reading»]

Harmful Algal Blooms on the Norfolk Broads

February 6, 2018 11:18: am | by Sarah Clarke

The third annual Stakeholders meeting centred round a Norwich Research Park (NRP) led project to investigate the biology and ecology of the golden alga Prymnesium parvum was held at the John Innes Centre in January 2018. This meeting brought together scientists from across the NRP and stakeholders with interests in the problems of harmful algal [Continue reading»]

Seminar Success for ELSA PhD students

February 1, 2018 3:04: pm | by Sarah Clarke

ELSA PhD students scoop up three of the four prizes on offer for the best talks at the Annual Molecular Microbial Ecology Group (MMEG) meeting held at the University of Warwick in December 2017. The MMEG is an annual meeting of early career researchers in microbial ecology run over two days and provides the opportunity [Continue reading»]

Fish provide insight into the evolution of the immune system

November 7, 2017 11:17: am | by Matthew Hills

New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK, and Dalhousie University, Canada, reveals how immune systems can evolve resistance to parasites.
A study, published today in Nature Communications, solves the enigma of how species can adapt and change their immune system to cope with new parasitic threats – whilst at the same time [Continue reading»]

NRP biotech spin-out Iceni Diagnostics wins Business Award

November 7, 2017 11:08: am | by Matthew Hills

NRP based biotech company, Iceni Diagnostics, which is a spin-out from John Innes Centre and University of East Anglia has won a prestigious award that celebrates the best businesses in the region.
The long standing EDP Business Awards recognised the achievements of the Norwich Research Park based company with the Knowledge Catalyst award.
It was one [Continue reading»]

Landmark discovery turns marathon of evolution into a sprint

November 1, 2017 2:38: pm | by Matthew Hills

A research collaboration has discovered a new way of rapidly generating a swathe of medically significant natural products after discovering a ground-breaking technique that turns the marathon of evolution into a sprint.
The surprise discovery came when the research team inadvertently replicated a process that bacteria use to evolve their machinery for making natural products.
[Continue reading»]

Anglers’ delight as algal blooms breakthrough highlights innovative science

September 1, 2017 1:32: pm | by Matthew Hills

Millions of fish-deaths caused by toxic Prymnesium algal blooms could be prevented with the application of a household chemical best known for bleaching hair, breakthrough research has revealed.
Trials carried out in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads National Park have shown that at controlled concentrations hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is deadly to Prymnesium parvum, the golden [Continue reading»]

ELSA welcomes a new Independent Research Fellow Dr Laura Lehtovirta-Morley

August 21, 2017 12:47: pm | by Matthew Hills

Dr Laura Lehtovirta-Morley who has been recently awarded a Dorothy Hodgkin Royal Society Fellowship joins us from the University of Aberdeen and brings new expertise on Archaea to the Norwich Research Park. She is based in the School of Biological Sciences at UEA and now shares the ELSA lab with Colin Murrell, Jenny Pratscher and [Continue reading»]

Multi-disciplined science approach improves diet and health

August 15, 2017 2:25: pm | by Matthew Hills

The cutting edge study of epigenetics to unravel how nutrition can regulate the genome and impact on health and wellbeing throughout life; the important insights from epidemiological research about diet-disease relationships; the discovery of new food components such as phytochemicals and their potential role in disease prevention, are just a few of the areas discussed [Continue reading»]