Site Specifics

Carving Up the PBI, Stitching Together the IPSR

Tristan Dyer

S ince Wednesday, 30th September 1987, the Plant Breeding In- stitute (PBI), as such, ceased to exist. The building, fields, and employees are still more or less where they were, but the site

and the services of approximately half the employees have been sold off (for s M!) to Unilever. The new Unilever company, which still has to be given a name, also encompasses the former National Seed Development Organization, which marketed PBI and other seeds developed under the auspices of the Agricultural and Food Re- search Council. PBI staff from the cereal, potato and field bean breeding programmes are in the company, as well as most of those who were breeding new varieties of oilseed rape. In addition, all of those who were in the Chemistry Department, many of those from the Pathology Department, and some of those from the Physiology Department are now Unilever employees. A few top executives from elsewhere in the Unilever conglomerate have been drafted in to oversee the operations of the new company.

Well, what has happened to the molecular biologists, cytog- eneticists and physiologists who were not privatized? They are be- ing incorporated into the newly established 'super' Institute of Plant Science Research (IPSR). This Institute is an amalgam of scientists from the John Innes Institute (JII) in Norwich, the ex-PBI employees and those from the Agricultural and Food Research Council Unit of Nitrogen Fixation in Brighton, Sussex. While, however, the scien- tists in Sussex will remain where they are, those in Cambridge wil have to move to Norwich, where a new laboratory at the JII is being built for their use. It is hoped that they will move by March, 1990. Until that time the Unilever and IPSR scientists will reside togeth- er on the Cambridge site although their activities are now strictly separated. About the only facilities which they now share are the

The PBI and the IPSR 7

Dick Flavell N a m e d Director of John Innes Institute

In the course of incorporat- ing tile r e o r g a n i z e d Plant B reed ing Inst i tute into the John Innes Institute, Richard B. Flavel l has been named the new Director of the John Innes Inst i tute in Norwich , U .K . , s u c c e e d i n g H a r o l d W o o l h o u s e . F lave l l was also named the head o f the Div i s ion of M o l e c u l a r and Cellular Biology.

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canteen and library! After the IPSR move to Norwich, the Unilever employees wdl spread and expand their activities into tile labora- tories vacated.

According to Professor Harold Woolhouse, the Director of the IPSR, the fundamental phi losophy of the Institute will be "to pursue dynamic and penetrating basic research into the cellular and molecular biology of plants, their pathogens and certain bacteria and into interactions between them in a way whtch links with, and underpins its more applied projects, which are relevant to the agri- cultural and biotechnology base industries".

The new institute has three divisions: Molecular and Cellu- lar Biology, Crop Genetics and Plant Breeding Research and Nitro- gen Fixation. Professor R.B. (Dick) Flavell has just been appointed head of Molecular and Cellular Biology and his Division incorpo- rates personnel now in the Department of Molecular Genetics in Cam- bridge and in the Departments of Genetics, Cell Biology and of Vtrus Research at the JII. From the beginning of 1988 Dick will also be the Director of the JII, a job which he takes over from Harold Wool- house. Dr. Colin Law, formerly head of Cytogenetics at the PBI, is

8 Site Specifics

now in charge of Crop Genetics and Plant Breeding Research and, un- til the move to Norwich, he is site manager of the IPSR Cambridge Laboratory as well. His Division includes people from the cytoge- netics, physiology and pathology departments of the PBI and the Department of Applied Genetics of the JII. Dr. Barry Smith succ- ceeds Professor John Postgate as the person in charge of research into nitrogen fixation in Sussex. Harold Woolhouse, Dick Flavell and

a c e n t r e for p l a n t s c i ence r e s e a r c h is b e i n g e s t a b l i s h e d in

N o r w i c h . . . w i t h f e w r iva l s fo r s ize a n y w h e r e

Colin Law will retain their own research groups. An additional la- boratory, funded by the Gatsby Foundation, is also being set up at the Norwich site with three senior scientists to run it. Research in this laboratory will be concentrated on the study of plant diseases.

Thus a centre for plant science research is being established in Norwich, which will be by far the largest of its kind in the U.K. and with few rivals for size anywhere else. It will no doubt carry on many of the traditions of the PBI and JII, but also acquire a character of its own. Ironically, though, it seems that both the privatized and public-funded segments of the PBI will seek to replace to varying ex- tents what they have lost. Whether either will ever recapture what for some was special about the PBI (that is, a stimulating mix of fundamental and applied research), only time will tell.

Tristan Dyer IPSR (Cambridge Laboratory)

Maris Lane, Trumpington Cambridge CB 2LQ

England