Sainsbury Laboratory
The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) is a research institute located at the Norwich Research Park (NRP) in Norwich, Norfolk, England, that carries out fundamental biological research and technology development on aspects of plant disease, plant disease resistance and microbial symbiosis in plants. It was founded in 1987.
Abbreviation | TSL |
---|---|
Formation | 1988 |
Type | Research institute |
Headquarters | Norwich, UK |
Key people | Sophien Kamoun |
Affiliations | University of East Anglia |
Website | tsl |
Research
Fundamental research
At present there are six TSL research groups concentrating on several key areas of fundamental research, each headed by a single group leader.
- Understanding how fungi are able to cause disease in plants, specifically one of the world’s most devastating diseases called rice blast - Prof. Nick Talbot
- How plants resist plant pathogens, and how pathogens suppress resistance – Prof. Jonathan Jones
- Interactions between plants and pathogens, notably the Irish potato famine organism and the rice and wheat blast fungus – Prof. Sophien Kamoun
- Understanding the genetic architecture underlying non-host resistance – Dr Matthew Moscou
- Translational research leveraging the advanced understanding of molecular host-pathogen interactions at TSL to deliver new solutions against relevant plant diseases – Dr Peter van Esse
- Receptor kinase-mediated innate immunity in plants – Prof. Cyril Zipfel
Training
TSL 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 and transformation, bioinformatics and computational biology, proteomics, and synthetic biology as well as mentoring from established scientists.
Facilities
TSL provides its researchers access to compute clusters, mass spectrometers, confocal high content screening microscopy and plant growth and transformation 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 – Dr Dan MacLean
- Proteomics – Dr Frank Menke
- Synthetic Biology – Mark Youles
- Tissue Culture and Transformation – Matthew Smoker
Notable people
A number of outstanding scientists have worked at TSL, including;
Funding
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation provide around 50% of funding for The Sainsbury Laboratory,[1] with the remainder coming from competitive BBSRC and European Research Council grants.[2]