Lab News
- Our lab’s latest biofortification paper has been featured on the March 2022 cover of The Plant Journal. Well done Jesse Beasley and all co-authors who were involved!
- Jesse Beasley helped co-author an article for The Conversation on March 20, 2020 entitled Frozen, canned or fermented: when you can’t shop often for fresh vegetables, what are the best alternatives? Very topical in the age of COVID-19!
- We are happy to have helped AAP FactCheck determine that “Biofortified is not the new word for GMO foods” (October 29, 2019).
- The lab’s biofortification exhibit “Improving Half the World’s Diet” was well received by a sellout crowd of 2,400 people at the TEDxMelbourne event on June 5, 2019. See more at the TEDxMelbourne 2019 wrap video.
- On April 17, 2019, we were granted a five year license from the OGTR to field trial iron-enriched GM wheat in Australia. The first such license for the University of Melbourne! Read more here.
- Two of the lab’s biofortification exhibits – “The Empty Bowl” and “Improving Half the World’s Diet” – featured prominently at the TEDxMelbourne, Made Possible by Melbourne event on August 13, 2018. See more at the TEDxMelbourne 2018 wrap video.
- Jesse Beasley has been awarded a $1500 Science Abroad Travelling Scholarship to help fund a research visit to Ray Glahn and Elad Tako’s lab in the Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health at Cornell University from July to September 2018. During his visit Jesse will measure iron bioavailability in a range of biofortified cereal foods.
- Alex Johnson has received the 2017-18 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech. Alex completed his MSc and PhD at Virginia Tech and the award recognizes his work to develop iron biofortified cereal crops over the past decade.
- Ronan Broad and Jesse Beasley have both been awarded 2017 John S Turner Postgraduate Scholarships from the University of Melbourne Botany Foundation. Great work guys!
- Jesse Beasley has won the 2017 RN Robertson Travelling Fellowship from the Australian Society of Plant Scientists. The fellowship will allow Jesse to travel to Cornell University and learn new ways of determining iron bioavailability in food products.
- The Made Possible by Melbourne exhibition is on public display at the Dulux Gallery, Melbourne School of Design, from 4 January to 17 February 2017. Come check out our lab’s Improving Half the World’s Diet as well as the other exhibits!
- The whole lab pitched in to help run “The Empty Bowl” at University of Melbourne’s 2016 Open Day on August 21, 2016. This interactive exhibit gave away rice pudding to teach people about hidden hunger. See more at The Empty Bowl Open Day 2016 wrap video.
- Marianne Weisser has been awarded best conference poster at the 2016 International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plants for her poster entitled “Elevated carbon dioxide concentration decreases iron uptake and increases iron remobilisation to leaves in wheat during grain filling”. Congrats Marianne!
- Alex Johnson has won the 2016 University of Melbourne Excellence Award for Research Engagement.
- Ronan Broad has won a 2016 Postgraduate Internship Award from the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility to work with Plant Accelerator staff on his project entitled “Phenomic Characterization of Vitamin C Enriched Rice”.
- Ronan Broad is co-recipient of the 2016 Megan Klemm Postgraduate Research Award.
- Ronan Broad has been selected as one of three University of Melbourne students to attend the McDonnell International Scholars Program Symposium on Addressing Global Changes in September 2016.
Johnson Lab | Alex Johnson 