Norwich, United Kingdom
July 23, 2025
John Innes Centre researchers have secured funding for an ambitious research programme that will seek to borrow immunity principles from all forms of life to protect major crops from disease.
Dr. Carella
Dr Phil Carella’s group at the John Innes Centre has been awarded funding from the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) as part of its Programmable Plants opportunity space.
The successful bid opens exciting new avenues in our understanding of how plants can be protected against pathogens, Dr Carella, group leader, explained: “We aim to address pressing challenges in crop protection through bold biology-inspired innovations. Our vision is to unlock the rich diversity of immune strategies found across nature and to re-wire plant immunity beyond the constraints of their evolutionary history.”
The Carella group investigates the core principles that underpin plant immunity across the Plant Kingdom, including non-seed-bearing plants that are reminiscent of the first plants to colonize the earth.
Increasingly, researchers in the group are expanding their scope to investigate immune strategies across other domains of life to see if they can apply this knowledge to plants, some major crops included.
In this new programme, they will explore how the immune systems of bacteria, fungi, and animals can be redesigned and incorporated into the plant immune system.
“The programme disrupts the long-standing assumptions that plants are limited to their own innate immune systems, offering new avenues to expand their immune potential,” said Dr Carella.
ARIA is a Research & Development funding agency created by the UK Government to unlock technological breakthroughs.
Created by an Act of Parliament and sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the agency funded teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is scientifically and technologically possible.
ARIA Programme Director, Angie Burnett, said: “Plants have paved the way for human thriving and hold potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges: food insecurity, climate change and environmental degradation. Programmable Plants could secure our future on earth, providing not just food, but a sustainable and thriving biosphere for future generations.”
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