People

Current Lab members

Prof. Daniel Gibbs

Group Leader

After completing his undergraduate and master’s studies at the University of Birmingham, Daniel stayed on to complete a PhD with Juliet Coates, where he investigated the proteolytic control of key regulators of root branching in Arabidopsis. In 2009 he moved to the lab of Michael Holdsworth at the University of Nottingham, where he studied the role of the N-end rule pathway of protein degradation (now 'N-degron pathway') during plant development. In 2012 he was awarded a Nottingham Advanced Research Fellowship to develop his research independence, and in October 2013 he returned to the University of Birmingham to establish his own research group. Since then he has been funded as a BBSRC New Investigator and was awarded an ERC starter grant in 2016. In 2020 he was promoted to Professor and is currently the Plant Science and Food Security Theme Lead and Deputy Head of Research in the School of Biosciences. Research in the lab is focussed on the functional diversity of the ubiquitin-proteasome system and its targets during plant growth, development and stress responses.

Dr. Rory Osborne

ERC /BBSRC Postdoctoral Researcher

Rory completed his BSc in biochemistry at Queen Mary, University of London, before starting his PhD at Warwick University in 2015. Supervised by Patrick Schäfer, he aimed to identify the molecular basis of symbiosis between Arabidopsis and the mutualistic endophyte Serendipita indica by studying the biochemistry of its effector proteins. During his PhD, Rory briefly visited the Gibbs’ lab as a rotation student looking at the evolutionary origin of targets of the N-degron pathway. He his now a BBSRC (formally ERC) postdoctoral fellow with an interest in understand how proteolytic control of the PRC2 protein VRN2 regulates developmet and (a)biotic stress responses.

Dr. Gunjan Sharma

BBSRC Postdoctoral Researcher

Gunjan received her B.Sc. (H) in Botany and M.Sc. in Biotechnology from India. In 2010, she received a CSIR-UGC fellowship to pursue a PhD with Prof. Akhilesh K Tyagi in NIPGR, India and worked on the functional characterization of the rice Stress Associated Protein Gene Family in Arabidopsis thaliana. After finishing her PhD in 2016, she joined Prof. Mike Holdsworth’s group at the University of Nottingham as a postdoc (2016 - 2022), working on novel oxygen sensor proteins involved in hypoxia/flooding stress responses in plants. She joined the Gibbs lab as an ERC research fellow briefly (2022 - 2023) to work on the biochemical characterization of VRN2, and since April 2024 is funded as a BBSRC postdoctoral research associate, studying the interplay of antagonistic histone modifiers coordinating flooding stress tolerance and memory in plants.

Dr. Lina Zhou

BBSRC Postdoctoral Researcher

Lina completed her PhD studies at Lanzhou University in China (09/2014 - 06/2018). She aimed to explore the role of H2S in regulating plant hypoxic response. During that period, she visited RWTH aachen University in Germany (09/2016 - 09/2017) and focused on exploring the function of PCOs (Plant Cysteine Oxidases) in controlling N-degron pathway under low oxygen conditions, supervised by Prof. Joost T. van Dongen and Dr. Daan Weits. After finishing her PhD, she joined the group of Prof. Jing Cai (Northwestern Polytechnical University, China) to study the chromosome-level genomes of three key Allium crops and mechanism of bulb formation using ISH. She is now studying the role of hypoxia and the ubiquitin proteasome system in regulating crossover determination and homologous recombination during plant meiosis using genetic, molecular cytogenetic and biochemical approaches.

Dr. Akanksha Bhatnagar

Royal Society Newton International Fellow

Akanksha completed her B.Sc (H) and M.Sc in Botany from University of Delhi, India. She also received a Bachelor’s degree in Education from University of Delhi in 2012. She was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt. of India for pursuing a PhD in plant molecular biology under the supervision of Prof. Jitendra P. Khurana at the University of Delhi, South Campus where she functionally characterized bZIP transcription factors to understand their role in light-mediated development in rice (2013-2019). After completing her PhD, she was awarded a CSIR-Research associateship to work with Prof. Akhilesh K. Tyagi at the University of Delhi to further elucidate the role of transcription factors in light signaling. Currently, she is a Royal Society Newton International Fellow working with Prof. Daniel J. Gibbs to understand the subcellular dynamics and functions of stress-sensing polycomb proteins in plants.

Dr. Anatasia Kanali

BBSRC Research Associate

Anastasia received her B.Sc. in Biotechnology (2014) and M.Sc. in Systems Biology (2016) from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. In 2016, she accepted a BBSRC/MIBTP-funded studentship to pursue a PhD at the University of Warwick, supervised by Prof. Vardis Ntoukakis, where she investigated the role of truncated receptors in Arabidopsis’ immune response to the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. After completing her PhD in 2022, she joined the Gibbs lab where she is currently supporting research relating to the VRN2-PRC2 regulation of plant development in response to abiotic stresses.

Lab Alumni

Here are some of our former lab members.....

Ross Etherington

ERC PhD student

As an undergraduate Ross studied Natural Sciences at the University of Birmingham, specialising in Biosciences and Chemistry. He completed his final year research project with Juliet Coates on the ARABIDILLO-MYB93 signalling pathway and its involvement in stress tolerance. Ross has also previously received funding from the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board for a bursary project at SRUC in Edinburgh where he investigated the effectiveness of defence elicitors at reducing the impact of clubroot disease in oilseed rape crops. Ross is now completing an ERC funded PhD, where he is functionally characterising and identifying targets of Ac/N-end rule pathway E3 ligases in Arabidopsis.

Dr. Anne-Marie Labandera

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow - Associated lab member

Anne-Marie received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay where she worked on the characterization of tyrosine phosphatases from M. tuberculosis. In 2012, she started her M.Sc. in Dr. GregMoorhead’s lab at the University of Calgary, Canada and a year later directly transferred to the PhD programme in the same lab. During her PhD, Anne-Marie performed a biochemical, structural and functional characterization of a novel bacterial-like phosphatase from Arabidopsis thaliana. For this, she received the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures graduate scholarship and the University of Calgary Silver Anniversary Fellowship. Continuing her interest in plant signalling and post-translational modifications, Anne-Marie has now joined the lab as an ERC funded postdoctoral fellow to study gas regulated chromatin modification via the N-end rule pathway of proteolysis.

Tumie Akintewe

BBSRC funded Senior lab technician

After obtaining her BSc (Hons) in Microbiology in 2009, Tumie worked at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria where she supported the Aflasafe project to tackle the challenges caused by Aflatoxin production in foods. After completing her masters in Biotechnology, Bioprocessing and Business Management at University of Warwick in 2012, she was sponsored to work at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. During this period she was involved in conducting research on Brown Sheath Rot disease, studying molecular interaction between Pseudomonas fuscovaginae and various rice varieties. When Tumie returned to the UK, she worked for Sir Edwin Southern to implement the West African Cowpea Consortium (WACC) DNA fingerprinting project, which aspires to improve food security and the livelihood of rural poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia through crop improvement. Tumie is currently supporting work relating to the characterisation of the N-end rule pathway of proteolysis in plants.

Dr. Mark Bailey

BBSRC/ERC Postdoctoral researcher

Mark began his studies in plant science at the University of Birmingham as an undergraduate. In 2010 he began a PhD at the University of Warwick, later moving to Durham University with his supervisor Ari Sadanandom. During his PhD he investigated the role of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like protein modifications in plant immunity. He has now returned to Birmingham as a postdoc working on a BBSRC funded project examining the effects of N-terminal protein acetylation on protein stability and plant stress responses.

Hannah Tedds

BBSRC-MIBTP PhD student

Hannah completed her undergraduate and master’s studies at the University of Birmingham focussing on environmental biology and conservation and utilisation of plant genetic resources. She then went on to work at RBG Kew at the Millennium Seed Bank, working on the curation of seed collectionsand developing methods of seed viability testing. Following this, Hannah worked with the Threatened Flora Seed Centre in Western Australia. Hannah then returned to the UK and worked in Birmingham secondary schools as a laboratory technician and completed her teacher training. Hannah has a particular interest in crops and food security and has now returned to University of Birmingham to complete her PhD with the MIBTP, and is studying the control of polycomb group protein activity by the N-end rule pathway.

Dr. Adrienne Payne

Research technician

Adrienne completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Southampton, before starting her PhD there in 2007, focusing on on watercress breeding with particular emphasis on the anticancer benefits of watercress consumption. Following her PhD, Adrienne secured a post-doctoral position at Southampton, which involved bioenergy work on poplar. She has now joined the lab to work on the BBSRC funded project examining the effects of N-terminal protein acetylation on protein stability and plant stress responses.

Dr. Murilo S Alves

Postdoctoral visiting Fellow

Murilo was a Brazilian Visiting Fellow (Fellowship granted by the University of Birmingham) in our group, currently working at the Universidade Federal de Vicosa, Brazil. He completed his doctorate in 2013 at the Universidade Federal de Vicosa, working with the molecular characterization of transcriptions factors involved in biotic and abiotic stress responses in soybean. He has a postdoctoral fellowship funded by Instituto Tecnologico Vale, working in a project related to the elucidation of etiology of plant diseases and plant-pathogen interactions in Citrus aurantifolia. Whilst at Birmingham he is focussed on characterisation of the acetylation-dependent N-end rule pathway

Jean Costa

Undergraduate exchange project student

Jean is a biochemistry engineering student at University of São Paulo doing an exchange programme at University of Birmingham. He carried out a summer project in the lab investigating the degradation of putative new N-end rule pathway target proteins by the proteasome.

Luca Illing

BBSRC-MIBTP PhD rotation student

Luca is a MIBTP PhD student at the University of Warwick who completed his three month miniproject in the lab as part of his MIBTP training year. Luca investigated the acetylation (Ac) N-end rule pathway, looking in particular at Ac/N-end rule enzymatic components in the Arabidopsis genome, with the aim of validating them as functional equivalents of their yeast counterparts. He previously completed his B.Sc. At the University of York.

Sophie Mogg

MSci student

Sophie was a 4th year MSci student who carried out her final year project in the lab, looking at the control of novel protein substrates by the N-end rule pathway and linking their regulation to an important developmental process - flowering. Sophie has now moved to University of Manchester where she is doing her PhD in the lab of Simon Turner.

Nosheen Hussain

MRes student

Nosheen completed her MSci project in the lab, studying the regulation of polycomb group proteins by the N-end rule pathway during development. She is now a BBSRC MIBTP PhD student working in the lab of Jose Gutierrez-Marcos at the University of Warwick.

Matt Teft

BBSRC-MIBTP PhD student (mini project)

Matt is a PhD student with Miriam Gifford at the University of Warwick, who carried out his miniproject in the lab, investigating the acetylation-dependent N-end rule pathway (Ac/N-end rule) in Arabidopsis.

Lisa King

MRes student

Lisa completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Worcester, with her final year project focusing on identifying genes involved in the defence response against pathogens in the model plant organism, Arabidopsis thaliana, supported by a British Society for Plant Pathology summer studentship. Now undertaking her MRes degree here at Birmingham, she has joined the lab to investigate interactions between N-recognins of the Ac/N-end rule pathway and their potential substrates using the yeast two-hybrid system.

Colleen Sprigg

MSci Student

Colleen carried out her final year project in the lab, studying the relationship between N-terminal acetylation, small ubiquitin-like modifiers, and protein degradation. She hopes to continue her studies and go on to complete a PhD in the future.

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