Know more

David Baulcombe is a plant scientist and geneticist. His research focuses on natural resistance to viruses in plants. Around fifteen years ago he demonstrated that gene silencing plays an important role in this process, and he also unraveled the underlying mechanism. This discovery initiated a paradigm shift in the perception of the ways genes are regulated, and this insight is making possible major new genetic tools for basic research, and for improving agriculture and human health. Baulcombe's career as an independent scientist started at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge and continued at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, UK. In 2007 he was appointed Professor of Botany at Cambridge University.