Global food security: The maker's solution to the biologist's problem
Global food security: The maker's solution to the biologist's problem
Parasitic nematode worms post a huge threat to global food security, causing billions of pounds of crop losses each year. To tackle this understudied problem, scientists from Cambridge’s new Crop Science Centre have come up with an innovative solution, combining AI technology with maker skills learnt from their hobbies to conduct the largest plant parasitic nematode infection trial in history. Find out from experts from the Plant - Parasite interactions lab how their work is contributing to global food security.
Speakers
Dr Sebastian Eves-van den Akker (Fellow of King's)
Sebastian is a geneticist with an interest in inter-kingdom communication. He investigates the genes that control a dialogue between kingdoms of life: the two-way molecular communication between plants and their parasites. The outcome of this communication dictates plant organ development, animal sex determination, and ultimately human food security.
Sebastian received his B. Sc. in Biology (2007-2010) from the University of Leeds, and his Ph. D. in Plant-Pathology (2010-2014) from the University of Leeds and the James Hutton Institute. In late 2014, Sebastian was awarded an Anniversary Future Leaders Fellowship from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to pursue independent research at the University of Dundee and the John Innes Centre (2015-2018). In 2018, he was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship and established the Plant-Parasite Interactions group at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.
Booking information
In-person lectures at the Sidgwick Site as part of Alumni Festival cost £15 per person.
Booking for this event is now closed.
