Thomas B. Irving: Plant Physiology First Author

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Thomas B. Irving, co-first author of “An LCO-responsive homolog of NODULE INCEPTION positively regulates lateral root formation in Populus sp” 

Current Position: Post-Doctoral Researcher (University of Cambridge, Crop Science Centre)

Education: BA Natural Sciences (University of Cambridge), PhD Mechanistic Biology (University of York)

Non-scientific Interests: tabletop games, bellringing & walking

Brief bio: My primary research interests lie in understanding and then engineering plant-microbe symbioses for improved crop performance – from studies of plant hormones during my undergraduate, I performed a forward genetic screen for genes required for interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Medicago truncatula during my PhD (M.Schultze), then studied plant-fungal communication while attempting to engineer the root nodule symbiosis into poplar (NitFix project with JM.Ané). Currently, I work as part of the ENSA project (U.Paszkowski), developing a suite of biosensors for the KAI2-ligand and other molecules that underlie the mycorrhizal-permissive state.