Modified World

Florence Jessica Annan is a PhD student at the University Of Nottingham and works as part of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre. Her PhD involves trying to trick bacteria into making as much jet fuel and ethanol as possible out of some greenhouse gases and feeding them as little as she can. She does this by messing around with their genetics, and changing their diet, which changes what useful stuff they make.

My PhD and my research focuses on wheat – the most widely distributed crop plant grown on Earth and why it’s yields are stagnating. More importantly, I am researching what we can do about that problem; with an ever growing global population and a food crisis looming, averting the crisis is the ultimate goal!

I am an Associate Professor at the School of Biosciences, Univ. of Nottingham. My research group investigates how cell fate decisions are made during embryo development. This knowledge can help model cell differentiation in the laboratory using stem cells. These novel approaches are useful for understanding the origins of certain degenerative diseases and cancer, and offer therapeutic alternatives for the future of medicine. In this session we will discuss the recent developments using pigs for the generation of human organs and the potential benefits for regenerative medicine.