Anne Osbourn

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Anne Osbourn
FRS
Professor Anne Osbourne FRS OBE.jpg
Osbourn in 2015
Born
Anne Elisabeth Osbourn
Education Bingley Grammar School
Alma mater Durham University
University of Birmingham
Scientific career
Fields Natural products
Institutions John Innes Centre
University of East Anglia
Sainsbury Laboratory
New Phytologist
Thesis Host adaptation and variation in septoria nodorum  (1985)
Website www.jic.ac.uk/people/anne-osbourn

Anne Elisabeth Osbourn is a professor of biology and group leader at the John Innes Centre, [1] where she investigates plant natural product biosynthesis. She discovered that in the plant genome, the genes involved with biosynthesis organise in clusters. She is also a popular science communicator, poet and is the founder of the Science, Art and Writing (SAW) Initiative. [2] She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Osbourn grew up in West Yorkshire. [4] Her parents both studied and lectured English literature [4] and her father served in the army during World War II. [4] She became interested in plants as a child and she attended Bingley Grammar School graduating in 1979. She earned a bachelor's degree in botany at Durham University in 1982. [5] At this time, researchers worked out how to transform the Rhizobium nitrogen fixation genes into the bacterium Escherichia coli . [4] Osbourn moved to the University of Birmingham for her doctoral studies on host adaptation in Septoria nodorum , supervised by Chris Caten. [4] She has described the Salem State University educationalist Louise Swiniarksi as her 'anchor throughout my adult life'. [4]

Research and career

Osbourn moved to Norwich in 1985 to work as a post-doctoral researcher at the John Innes Centre . In 1987 she joined The Sainsbury Laboratory as a Research Fellow, and she became a group leader in 1999. In 2005 she re-joined the John Innes Centre as a group leader, and was appointed head of the Department for Metabolic Biology in 2006.

Her early work looked at saponins and their role in plant defence. [6] [7] Osbourn studies how natural products interact with natural organisms. [8] In particular, she has worked on the biosynthesis of triterpene. She identified that metabolic pathways organise in operon-like clusters, which allowed her to develop a novel opportunity to discover natural product pathways through genome mining. The natural products include terpenes, which can be used in the pharmaceutical industry as well as food and manufacturing. [9] [10]

Her research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). [11]

In 2006, Osbourn became an Honorary Professor [12] at the University of East Anglia. Since 2014 she has been the director of the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre, [13] a BBSRC and EPSRC-funded Synthetic Biology Research Centre led jointly by the John Innes Centre and the University of Cambridge. The Cambridge-based Director is Professor Jim Haseloff and the formal lead is Professor Sir David Baulcombe.

She was the Director of the Norwich Research Park Industrial Biotechnology Alliance from 2013 to 2019.

As a group leader at the John Innes Centre she leads a research group working on plant natural products, their biosynthesis, function, mechanisms of metabolic diversification and metabolic engineering.

Public engagement

In 2004, Osbourn was appointed to the UEA Creative Writing Course as a Nesta dreamtime fellow. Here she wrote poetry about her life as a plant scientist. [14] [15] Since then Osbourn has become a popular science writer, and inspired by her own creative practice she founded the Science, Art and Writing (SAW) Trust in 2005. [4] [16] [2] [17] The SAW Trust is an international charity that promotes innovation in science communication, and works with young people from elementary schools in initiatives which bring together scientists, writers and artists to explore creative science communication initiatives. [4] The SAW Trust, working with educational bureaus and schools in China, has built an extensive educational programme for schools. [18] Over 1,000 children have now taken part in SAW projects in schools in China.

In 2016 Osbourn took part in an international exchange with the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. [19]

Honours and Editorial positions

Osbourn was elected to AcademiaNet in 2014. [20] She is an editor of the New Phytologist [14] and is on the editorial board of Molecular Plant .

She has won various awards and honours, including the medal of the University of Helsinki in 2003. In 2018 she was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 2019 Osbourn was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). [21] [22] She is the thirtieth research who has been elected Fellow from the John Innes Centre. [21]

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to plant science. [23]

Patents

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge</span>

The Department of Plant Sciences is a department of the University of Cambridge that conducts research and teaching in plant sciences. It was established in 1904, although the university has had a professor of botany since 1724.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Innes Centre</span> Independent centre for research in plant and microbial science

The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the European Research Council (ERC) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is a member of the Norwich Research Park. In 2017, the John Innes Centre was awarded a gold Athena SWAN Charter award.

Saponins are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites, being organic chemicals, that have a foamy quality when agitated in water and a high molecular weight. They are present in a wide range of plant species throughout the bark, leaves, stems, roots and flowers but found particularly in soapwort, a flowering plant, the soapbark tree, common corn-cockle, baby's breath and soybeans. They are used in soaps, medicines, fire extinguishers, as dietary supplements, for synthesis of steroids, and in carbonated beverages. Saponins are both water and fat soluble, which gives them their useful soap properties. Some examples of these chemicals are glycyrrhizin and quillaia, a bark extract used in beverages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QS-21</span> Plant extract

QS-21 is a purified plant extract used as a vaccine adjuvant. It is derived from the soap bark tree, which is native to the countries of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. The crude drug is imported from Peru and Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Baulcombe</span> British plant scientist and geneticist

Sir David Charles Baulcombe is a British plant scientist and geneticist. As of October 2024 he was Head of Group, Gene Expression, in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and the Edward Penley Abraham Royal Society Research Professor and Regius Professor of Botany Emeritus at Cambridge. He held the Regius botany chair in that department from 2007 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sainsbury Laboratory</span> Plant research laboratory in Norwich, Norfolk, England

The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) is a research institute located at the Norwich Research Park 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. The Sainsbury Laboratory partners with the John Innes Centre on a Plant Health Institute Strategic Program (ISP) funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Dean</span> British botanist

Dame Caroline Dean is a British plant scientist working at the John Innes Centre. She is focused on understanding the molecular controls used by plants to seasonally judge when to flower. She is specifically interested in vernalisation — the acceleration of flowering in plants by exposure to periods of prolonged cold. She has also been on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize from 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwich Research Park</span> Research orientated business community in Norwich, England

Norwich Research Park (NRP) is a business community located to the southwest of Norwich in East Anglia close to the A11 and the A47 roads. Set in a 568-acre (230-hectare) area of parkland, it is one of five Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded campuses. It is the only site with three BBSRC funded research institutes and the focus of the community is on creating and supporting new companies and jobs based on bioscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathie Martin</span> British botanist

Catherine Rosemary Martin is a Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and project leader at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, co-ordinating research into the relationship between diet and health and how crops can be fortified to improve diets and address escalating chronic disease globally.

Michael Webster Bevan is a professor at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Mary Smith</span> British biologist (born 1954)

Alison Mary Smith is a British biologist. She is Strategic Programme Leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich and an Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Ferguson-Smith</span> Mammalian developmental geneticist (born 1961)

Anne Carla Ferguson-Smith is a mammalian developmental geneticist. She is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and International Partnerships at the University of Cambridge. Formerly head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, she is a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge and serves as President of the Genetics Society.

Susan RosserFRSB FLSW is a professor of Synthetic Biology at the University of Edinburgh.

Sarah E. O'Connor is an American molecular biologist working to understand the molecular machinery involved in assembling important plant natural products – vinblastine, morphine, iridoids, secologanin – and how changing the enzymes involved in this pathway lead to diverse analogs. She was a Project Leader at the John Innes Centre in the UK between 2011 and 2019. O'Connor was appointed by the Max Planck Society in 2018 to head the Department of Natural Product Biosynthesis at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, taking up her role during 2019.

Elizabeth S. Sattely is an American scientist and biotechnology engineer. She is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, an HHMI investigator, and a ChEM-H Faculty Fellow at Stanford University.

Nicola Stanley-Wall FRSE FRSB is a Professor of Microbiology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee who works on the molecular mechanism of biofilm formation. Her laboratory investigates how bacteria come together to form social communities called biofilms. More specifically, her research analyses the way the molecules in the biofilm matrix provide support and protection to biofilms formed by the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis.

Jane Osbourn, OBE, is a scientist and former chair of the UK BioIndustry Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eriko Takano</span> Japanese-British biologist

Eriko Takano is a professor of synthetic biology and a director of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM) at the University of Manchester. She develops antibiotics and other high-value chemicals using microbial synthetic biology tools.

Frank Sargent is Professor of Microbial Biotechnology at Newcastle University, UK. He has specialised in bacterial bioenergetics, particularly protein transport and enzymes containing nickel and molybdenum, including biotechnology applications.

Diane Gail Owen Saunders is a British biologist and group leader at the John Innes Centre and an Honorary Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia. Her research investigates plant pathogens that pose a threat to agriculture. She was awarded the Rosalind Franklin Award by the Royal Society in 2022.

References

  1. ↑ Anne Osbourn publications from Europe PubMed Central
  2. 1 2 Osbourn A (2008). "SAW: breaking down barriers between art and science". PLOS Biology. 6 (8): e211. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060211 . PMC   2525686 . PMID   18752351.
  3. ↑ "2022 NAS Election".
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Professor Anne Osbourn". John Innes Centre. 21 November 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  5. ↑ "Gazette, XXVII (ns) including supplement". Durham University. p. 45. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  6. ↑ Bouarab K, Melton R, Peart J, Baulcombe D, Osbourn A (2002). "A saponin-detoxifying enzyme mediates suppression of plant defences". Nature. 418 (6900): 889–92. Bibcode:2002Natur.418..889B. doi:10.1038/nature00950. PMID   12192413. S2CID   4348886. Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  7. ↑ "Anne Osbourn at the 2014 DOE JGI Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting". Youtube.com. DOE Joint Genome Institute. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  8. ↑ Boutanaev AM, Moses T, Zi J, Nelson DR, Mugford ST, Peters RJ, Osbourn A (2015). "Investigation of terpene diversification across multiple sequenced plant genomes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112 (1): E81-8. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112E..81B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1419547112 . PMC   4291660 . PMID   25502595.
  9. ↑ Anon (2005). "Multiple Campylobacter Genomes Sequenced". PLOS Biology . 3 (1): e40. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030040 . ISSN   1545-7885. PMC   539341 . Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  10. ↑ "Portfolio Analyser". gow.bbsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  11. ↑ "Professor Anne Osbourne on the UEA website". University of East Anglia (www.uea.ac.uk). Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  12. ↑ "Open Plant Management". OpenPlant.
  13. 1 2 Osbourn A (October 2015). "Anne Osbourn". The New Phytologist. 208 (1): 23–5. doi: 10.1111/nph.13616 . PMID   26311283.
  14. ↑ Osbourn A (January 2006). "The poetry of science". Nature Reviews. Microbiology. 4 (1): 77–80. doi:10.1038/nrmicro1321. PMID   16357863. S2CID   27186317. Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  15. ↑ "SAW antibiotics book launch, October 2017 » The SAW Trust". Sawtrust.org. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  16. ↑ Osbourn, Anne (2009). "A meeting place: The Science, Art and Writing initiative". Current Science. 97 (11): 1547–1554. ISSN   0011-3891. JSTOR   24107294.
  17. ↑ "SAW Trust Worldwide". www.sawtrust.org. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  18. ↑ "Professor Anne Osbourn | Royal Society". Royalsociety.org. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  19. ↑ "Prof. Anne Osbourn - AcademiaNet". Academia-net.org. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  20. 1 2 Hill, Chris (2019). "Scientists honoured during 'golden age of discovery' at Norwich Research Park". Edp24.co.uk. Eastern Daily Press . Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  21. ↑ "Professor Anne Osbourn elected as Fellow of the Royal Society". John Innes Centre. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  22. ↑ "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N14.
  23. ↑ "06.414 - Root-Specific Promoters | PBL Technology". Pbltechnology.com. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  24. ↑ "Enzymes involved in triterpene synthesis - Patent US8614369 - PubChem". Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
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