The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) is a research institute located at the

Norwich Research Park Norwich Research Park (NRP) is a science park, science research park located to the southwest of Norwich in East Anglia close to the A11 road (England), A11 and the A47 road, A47 roads. Set in a area of parkland, it is one of five Biotechnolog ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, that carries out fundamental biological research and technology development on aspects of

plant disease Plant diseases are diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like or ...

, plant disease resistance and microbial symbiosis in plants. The Sainsbury Laboratory partners with the John Innes Centre on a Plant Health Institute Strategic Program (ISP) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

History

In 1987, an agreement was signed to establish The Sainsbury Laboratory. This agreement made the laboratory a joint venture between several organizations, including the Gatsby Charitable Foundation (established by David Sainsbury, the great-grandson of the founder of the

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

chain of supermarkets), the John Innes Foundation, the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

, and the Agricultural and Food Research Council (now BBSRC). Later that year, the laboratory employed its first members of staff. Then, in 1989, The Sainsbury Laboratory moved into its current building. This building was constructed alongside the John Innes Centre on the

Research

The Sainsbury Laboratory conducts research on various topics related to plant-microbe interactions. It investigates innate immune recognition in plants and the signaling and cellular changes that occur during plant-microbe interactions. Additionally, researchers at the laboratory study plant and pathogen genomics to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in plant-microbe interactions. One of the key areas of research is the identification and study of plant disease resistance genes. Another important research area is the biology of pathogen effector proteins, which play a crucial role in the interaction between plants and pathogens. With this knowledge, the laboratory employs biotechnological approaches to develop crop disease resistance. These approaches are aimed at reducing

agrochemical An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of ''agricultural chemical'', is a chemical product used in industrial agriculture. Agrichemical typically refers to biocides (pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and nematicide ...

input and the percentage of crops lost to disease.

Training

The Sainsbury Laboratory provides a training environment with the intention of preparing post-graduate students, post-doctoral scientists and early career project leaders to excel in their careers. This includes training from the expert technology groups in

plant tissue culture Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues, or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method know ...

and transformation, bioinformatics and

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and Computer simulation, computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer sci ...

proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital macromolecules of all living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replicatio ...

, and

synthetic biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary field of science that focuses on living systems and organisms. It applies engineering principles to develop new biological parts, devices, and systems or to redesign existing systems found in nat ...

as well as mentoring from established scientists. In 2021, The Sainsbury Laboratory launched a one-year taught MSc in Global Plant Health in partnership with the

Facilities

Technology development

The four core technology teams of TSL develop new technologies to enhance TSL research and provide direct expert support and guidance to the other groups of TSL. *

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

�
Dan MacLean
*

Proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital macromolecules of all living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replicatio ...

�
Frank Menke
*

Synthetic Biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary field of science that focuses on living systems and organisms. It applies engineering principles to develop new biological parts, devices, and systems or to redesign existing systems found in nat ...

�
Mark Youles
*

Tissue Culture Tissue culture is the growth of tissue (biology), tissues or cell (biology), cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-s ...

and Transformation �
Jodie Taylor

Notable people

A number of scientists have worked at TSL including; *

David Baulcombe Sir David Charles Baulcombe (born 7 April 1952) is a British plant scientist and geneticist. he was Head of Group, Gene Expression, in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and the Edward Penley Abraham Royal Socie ...

* Jonathan D. G. Jones * Martin Parniske * Sophien Kamoun * Nick Talbot

Funding

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is a core funder of The Sainsbury LaboratoryGatsby – The Sainsbury Laboratory
/ref> in addition to The University of East Anglia and a BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme Grant in Plant Health (in partnership with the John Innes Centre). The remainder of funds are sourced from competitive BBSRC and

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

grants, charitable and philanthropic donations and, for some research programmes, commercial companies.TSL.ac.uk – Funding
/ref>

References

External links

Official web site

Norwich Research Park

Gatsby Charitable Foundation

2Blades Foundation
{{authority control Biological research institutes in the United Kingdom Biotechnology in the United Kingdom Botanical research institutes Research institutes in Norfolk